Shakeup at JFR, KB Turns Pro.
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011By: Drew Hierwarter
Drew Hierwarter photo
The announcement from John Force Racing on Tuesday that Ashley Force-Hood and her husband Dan are expecting their first child started the dominoes falling and bringing about wholesale changes in the organization.
Obviously Ashley will not be driving her funny car in any races in 2011 so former driver turned crew chief Mike Neff will return to the controls and handle those duties for her. Neff and Dan Hood will also share the tuning duties on the car. Ashley’s crew chief Dean “Guido” Antonelli and Ron Douglas will move over to John’s Castrol Ford
But Ashley won’t be just sitting around during her pregnancy. She will be the new president of “John Force Entertainment”. This will be a full service media company that will be tasked with developing and expanding the “JFR” brand. . (Ashley has a degree in radio and TV from Cal-State Fullerton.)
“I will be taking off this season,” Ashley told reporters, “but I will still represent Castrol, Ford, Auto Club, BrandSource and Mac Tools; will still be involved in media, commercials, and interviews; and will definitely still be rooting on my teammates to go after that 2011 championship.”
She also will be tutoring her sister Courtney who is being groomed to be the next Force daughter to move into the professional Funny car ranks.
NHRA photo
In other drag racing news; Kurt Busch has announced that he will try his hand at NHRA’s Pro Stock division when that circuit makes its annual central Florida stop at Gainesville Dragway in March. You’ll remember that Busch had his own 1970 Dodge Challenger that he entered in the Sportsman ranks at last year’s event.
He will be driving a Dodge Avenger prepared by Pro Stock veteran Alan Johnson and backed by Dodge and Shell Oil. Busch earned for his NHRA Pro Stock license by running a competitive 6.576, 210.43 in Bradenton, Florida.
The current NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule leaves precious few weekends available for Busch to exercise his drag racing muscles. If he manages to qualify for the 16 car field at Gainesville he will have his work cut out for him. It will be very tough for the former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion to beat the guys who do this type of racing week in and week out.
We made it! The long dark winter off-season is just about over. This weekend we will once again hear the glorious sound of race engines being driven in anger. The action starts Friday night with the preliminary events for the Toyota All-Star Shootout in Irwindale California, and continues on Saturday night with the feature races. Also beginning on Saturday is the 49thrunning of the Rolex 24 Hour from Daytona International Speedway. Both of these great events will be carried live on Speed so, as they say, check your local listings!