Brittany Force broke the track record at Bandimere Speedway outside Denver, CO over the weekend after the 35-year old posted the quickest ET in Top Fuel history at the legendary track. Force nailed a run with a 3.717-second pass at 326.00 mph to score her third Number One qualifier of the year and her 23rd overall at the Dodge/SRT Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Thunder on the Mountain. Force had just set Low ET at the previous NHRA event with a 3.696-second elapsed time at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, OH. It was the second final round of the 2021 season and 25th of Force’s career at Summit Motorsports Park.
Second Woman to Win Top Fuel World Title
Born in Yorba Linda, California, Brittany is the daughter of Funny Car legend John Force and the sister of retired NHRA racers Courtney Force Rahal and Ashley Force Hood. Brittany Force and her Flav-R-Pac Top Fuel dragster team is hoping to repeat Force’s 2017 season when she became the NHRA Drag Racing Series World Champion in Top Fuel. Force became the second woman in history to win a Top Fuel Championship (after Shirley Muldowney) and clinched the 2017 title in the quarterfinals of the final race of the season. She went on to win her fourth of season, including three in the Countdown to the Championship.
Force Owns Career Top Speed at 338.17 MPH
As a member of John Force Racing, Brittany only competed in two races during the Covid-19 pandemic and was the Number One qualifier in February at the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona CA and the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler AZ. Billy Torrence improved a tenth of a second from a 3.762 ET in his opening run to a 3.662 that broke Tony Schumacher’s 3.673-second world record before being ousted by Force, shifting Billy down one spot to the Number Two qualifier at Bandimere. Force has 10 career wins, 24 career final rounds, a career-best ET of 3.623 seconds, and a career-top speed of 338.17 mph.
Matt Hagan topped the Funny Car field, and Matt Smith was the fastest in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Defending series champion Hagan ran a 3.966 at 319.22 on Friday in a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to claim Number One qualifier. Smith had a 7.113 at 189.47 on an EBR to also break the existing track speed record at Bandimere.
Photo courtesy of iStock
NEXT UP:
NHRA Sonoma Nationals
The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series is headed to California wine country on July 23-25 for the second stop on the famed Western Swing. A huge contrast in altitude awaits the teams with Sonoma Raceway just 15 feet above sea level.
