John Force powered his Realtree Peak anti-freeze Chevrolet to a final round victory in Denver on Sunday. He out-dragged his daughter and teammate, Courtney Force, for his first win in the 2016 Mello Yellow Drag Racing Series. John, 67, raced in his 244th career final round appearance of his career. It was John Force’s seventh victory in Denver, and 144th win of his career. The future Hall-of-Famer hadn’t sat atop a podium for a race since June of 2015.
“I am not dead yet, and when I am, my kids and Robert Hight will take it over,” Force said from the winner’s podium. “The team needed this real bad, and I told Courtney, you’re my baby, I love you. I know you wanted to do this for Traxxas, but I’m giving this everything I got. We had a little anxiety attack … but it’s a great day to come here on God’s mountain and look like we know what we’re doing.”
In the duel between two Chevy Camaros, John Force finished in 3.965 seconds at 319.45 miles per hour in his Realtree Peak Antifreeze Camaro to his daughter’s run of 3.963 seconds at 314.75 miles per hour in her Traxxas Camaro. The trio of John Force Racing’s Funny Cars advanced to the semifinals. The 16-time funny car world champion beat Del Worsham before Courtney Force ousted her brother-in-law and fellow John Force Racing’s driver Robert Hight.
Tony Schumacher, an eight-time world champion, won for the third time in the Mile High Nationals. It was Schumacher’s first in Denver since 2008. The savvy veteran did it out of the ninth qualifying position. He knocked out second place points sitter Doug Kalitta, and defending winner Steve Torrence in the first two rounds.
Steve Torrence made the quickest passes in every qualifying round and looked to be the hot-rod to beat on the afternoon. Torrence just might have completed the sweep but blew his engine in the final round. The unforeseen mishap couldn’t have came at a better time for Tony Schumacher. Schumacher smoked his tires of the starting line and would’ve been blew by had the runner-up not failed to run.
“We spun the tires and he caught me off-guard,” Schumacher said. “When that win light came on, I was probably as excited as I was after the final round. Thank God we figured it out. You start to lose a little faith when you make big changes to a car and you don’t see those wins. It’s a very difficult thing. But to win a championship, you don’t try to bring out an equal car with everyone else. You have very smart people design very smart cars. They try to do things that other cars can’t do. It’s what we’re great at — adaptability.
In Pro Stock Division there was a winner besides speedster Jason Line and teammate Greg Anderson. Allen Johnson continued his dominance at Bandimere Speedway as he won the event for a record seventh time. This was Johnson’s 10th consecutive final round appearance at the Mile High Nationals.
The experienced dragster powered his Marathon Petroleum Dodge Dart to a 6.982 second pass at 197.34 miles per hour. Johnson held off the Mountain View Tire Chevy Camaro of Vincent Nobile, which trailed with a 7.037 second pass at 196.82 seconds. The victory was unexpected due to the poor qualifying performances leading up to the final day of competition.
“We stunk the place up all weekend during qualifying,” said Johnson, who raced past Drew Skillman, defending world champ Erica Enders, and Summit Racing stalwart Greg Anderson to return to the final. “I wouldn’t have given us a 1 percent chance to win all weekend. The magic up here is just on our side for some reason. We’ve done it for Mopar all those years, and now we get to do it for Marathon and Mopar.”
Mello Yellow Drag Racing Series Points standings:
Top Fuel:
1 Antron Brown 1145 0 DSR
2 Doug Kalitta 1088 -57 Kalitta
3 Steve Torrence 982 -163 MLR
4 Brittany Force 953 -192 Force
5 Tony Schumacher 916 -229 DSR
6 Shawn Langdon 800 -345 DSR
7 J.R. Todd 799 -346 Kalitta
8 Clay Millican 681 -464 Hadman
9 Richie Crampton 660 -485 MLR
10 Leah Pritchett 553 -592 DSR
11 Terry Mc Millen 522 -623 DSR
12 Scott Palmer 302 -843 McKinney
13 Chris Karamesines 237 -908 DSR
14 Troy Buff 220 -925 Bill Miller
15 Terry Haddock 218 -927 Dragster
Funny Car:
Position Driver Points PB Make
1 Ron Capps 1120 0
2 Courtney Force 998 -122
3 Jack Beckman 976 -144
4 Matt Hagan 881 -239
5 Robert Hight 877 -243
5 Del Worsham 877 -243
7 Tommy Johnson 855 -265
8 John Force 821 -299
9 Tim Wilkerson 793 -327
10 Alexis De Joria 733 -387
11 Chad Head 562 -558
12 Cruz Pedregon 545 -575
13 John Hale 457 -663
14 Jeffrey Diehl 365 -755
15 James Campbell 264 -856
Pro Stock:
Position Driver Points PB Make
1 Jason Line 1548 0
2 Greg Anderson 1466 -82
3 Bo Butner 955 -593
4 Allen Johnson 885 -663
5 Vincent Nobile 758 -790
6 Drew Skillman 753 -795
7 Chris McGaha 661 -887
8 Shane Gray 658 -890
9 Jeg Coughlin 613 -935
10 Alex Laughlin 595 -953
11 Erica Enders 586 -962
12 V Gaines 374 -1174
13 Kenny Delco 323 -1225
14 Deric Kramer 244 -1304
15 John Gaydosh 238 -1310
