Castrol Highlight: Ashley Force became the first woman driver to win a heads–up race with her father, 14–time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force, when she drove her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang through the quarter mile timers in 4.779 seconds in the first round of the 27th annual Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.
It was an historic event for Team Castrol whose female member, 24–year–old Ashley Force, became just the second woman in Funny Car history to reach the semifinal round of an NHRA event. The only other woman to do so was Della Woods, who lost in the semifinals of the 1985 Keystone Nationals at Reading, Pa.
Ashley, who made history when she beat her dad in an all–Castrol GTX first round, moved into eighth place in POWERade points with the best performance of her pro career.
After qualifying fifth in the second quickest field in Funny Car history and after beating her dad, she stopped Tony Pedregon and the Q Chevrolet in round two. In the semifinals, with a chance to race her brother–in–law for the championship, the graduate of California State University–Fullerton was victimized by a loss of traction in the less favored left lane.
"Being the first woman to beat dad? I think it's the funniest thing I've ever heard," she said. "He's got all these daughters and he's been racing all these years and no woman has ever beaten him before.
"It was a good weekend for our Castrol GTX team. My crew chief, Dean Antonelli, gave me a great race car. It just went right down the lane (but) I knew one of these times we were going to have some tire smoke and that's what happened in the semifinals against Mike Ashley. It lost traction and I tried pedaling it (feathering the throttle), but it got sideways and I had to shut it off."
