Ashley Force Englishtown preview

ASHLEY FORCE AIMS FOR POINTS LEAD IN RETURN TO K&N SUPERNATIONALS
Castrol Driver Seeks Third National Event Victory of 2006

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – Ashley Force will have to slow down to catch up this week when the NHRA Lucas Sportsman Series moves to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park for the 37th annual K&N Filters SuperNationals.

On Monday, the daughter of 13-time NHRA champion John Force drove one of her father's Castrol Ford Funny Cars to a speed of more than 310 miles per hour in testing at Joliet, Ill., another step in an orientation program designed to prepare her to move up in classification in either 2007 or 2008.

Starting Friday, she'll have to be content with speeds of "only" 270 mph, those at which the Castrol dragster in which she is seeking the Lucas Top Alcohol Dragster championship operates most efficiently.

Ms. Force, the Raceway Park track record holder at 5.262 seconds, is seeking her third victory of the 2006 season in a car owned and maintained by California veterans Jerry Darien and Ken Meadows, for whom she has driven the last three years.

Fourth in national points, the second generation driver is hoping to leapfrog over the three drivers immediately ahead of her (Steve Torrence, Aaron Olivarez and Bill Reichert) on a track on which she already has enjoyed considerable success.

In addition to qualifying No. 1 and earning runner-up honors at last year's K&N
SuperNationals, Ashley has won Raceway Park's Lucas Series race each of the last two seasons.

That history, coupled with a strong performance last week at Joliet (where she
recorded a career best quarter mile time of 5.229 seconds), brings the 23-year-old
phenom into Raceway Park feeling very good about her championship bid.

"The car has been running better than it has all season," she said, "and knowing
how well we've run at Englishtown in the past, it gives you confidence, but you still have
to do your job.

"I know we have the car and I know I can drive it, so we just have to get everything together. I think we've got a few more wins ahead of us. It's a really exciting time right now."

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Winner of five NHRA national events in her first three full-time seasons, Ashley is aware of the special implications this weekend.

"It'd be awesome to win on Father's Day," she said. "If I was writing the script, we would win Top Alcohol, dad would beat either Robert (Hight, driver of the Team Castrol/Auto Club Ford Mustang) or Eric (Medlen, driver of the Castrol SYNTEC Ford) in the Funny Car final and Ashley and Brittany would race each other (for the championship) in Super Comp."

Ashley and her dad have shared the podium before but it's been 18 months since they won their respective categories at the season-ending 2004 Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif.

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Notable:
Ashley Force and her younger sisters, Brittany, 19, and Courtney, 17, are featured in a new print ad for Oakley sunglasses and apparel that appears, among other places, in this month's issue of Drag Racing Action magazine. The three also star in DRIVING FORCE, a new real-life TV series that debuts July 17th at 9 p.m., Eastern, on A&E Network.

Notable:
In Monday testing at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., Ashley made three quarter mile runs in one of her dad's Castrol Ford Funny Cars. On the first run, instructed to go only to half track, she was clocked in 5.38 seconds at 180 mph. On the second, a planned 1,000 foot run, she improved to 5.19 at 227 mph. On the final attempt, she ran 4.97 at 311 mph. "I had been out of the car for awhile, but things fell right back in place," she said. "Everything's becoming more routine. I am not having to think as much. I'm just reacting and I'm more confident every time I get in the car." Ashley earned her Funny Car license two months ago at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where she was clocked in 4.936 seconds at 315.86 mph.

-www.johnforceracing.com-
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