It’s been a week for 75-year-old drag racer John Force. The 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion survived an engine explosion over the weekend that sent him into a concrete barrier at more than 300 miles per hour, and he was immediately admitted to a trauma intensive care unit near Virginia Motorsports Park outside Richmond. Now, John Force Racing announces that the team owner and driver has been moved to a neuro intensive care unit for an unspecified head injury.
JFR added in its statement: “The move was a welcome positive for his family members, who have maintained a daily presence at the hospital all week.” Force is noted as “improving,” but he’s far from a racing return at present. The “faces long road ahead” portion of his team’s announcement is more than a little ominous. His daughter Brittany Force will sit out this weekend’s NHRA event in Norwalk, Ohio, where she was slated to drive her Chevrolet Top Fuel Dragster. Force’s teammate Austin Prock, currently first in NHRA Funny Car championship points, will compete.
Force’s crash has been replayed time and time again since it happened, and the impact was positively brutal. He had just completed a 4.100-second pass at 302.62 mph when his car’s supercharged Hemi grenaded, putting him into the wall. NHRA’s Safety Safari personnel made it onto the track quickly and assessed his condition before Force was admitted to a nearby medical facility.
Force won two of the NHRA Funny Car season’s first eight events, and he was second behind Prock in points. It seems like a record 17th title isn’t in the cards this season, but honestly, that doesn’t matter. The Hall of Famer is alive and that’s what’s important.
Turns out, this guy is one tough bird. Here’s hoping he’s on his feet and feeling better again soon.
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