DRIVING FORCE : Award Proves His Flair for Self-Promotion Has Helped Take Drag Racing to Next Level

Don Garlits would have been a strong candidate for driver of the year in 1975, when he won 10 major drag racing events, set world records for speed and elapsed time and won both the National Hot Rod Assn. and International Hot Rod Assn. championships.

Or in 1985, when he won six events and another world championship at 53.

So would have Shirley Muldowney in 1977, when she became the first woman to win a professional motor racing championship driving a top-fuel car. Or Don Prudhomme in 1976, when he won all but one funny car race and became the first funny car driver to top 290 mph. Or Kenny Bernstein,

when he became the first drag racer to better 300 in 1992.

Or Joe Amato for any one of his five top-fuel championships. Or Eddie Hill, Gary Beck, Raymond Beadle or Bob Glidden, all drag racers worthy of high honors.

Why did none of them get voted driver of the year? Because they were drag racers. For years, drag racing was the stepchild of motor racing. Then TV allowed it to squeeze its foot in the door of the big time.

And now, John Force stands as the first drag racer to have been picked as driver of the year.

Force, as much P.T. Barnum as Garlits, came along at the right time. Drag racing was primed and Force, with his record 13 victories and a sixth NHRA funny car championship in 1996, and with his flamboyant and headline-grabbing personality, was a willing representative when the driver-of-the-year board selected him.

“After 30 years, John Force’s stature brought credibility to our sport in 1996,” said NHRA spokesman Denny Darnell. “Shirley and [Garlits] were the foundation of our sport, then along came Prudhomme and Bernstein, and now Force has taken it to a new level.”

Force, acknowledging that he found it hard to be humble, admitted that “I don’t know why I won. I was just at the right place at the right time, but I didn’t do it by myself.

“What it showed was that the NHRA has made our mark on the

world. I look at that list of greats [on the driver of

the year trophy], and I see guys I dreamed about when I was a kid. Imagine little old Johnny Force’s name up there with Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Dale Earnhardt, my gosh, everybody on the list.

“I closed my eyes and you know what I saw? I saw Garlits, and Shirley, and Snake [Prudhomme], and K.B. [Bernstein] and Eddie [Hill] on there. I think we all share in it. Any of us could have won at any time. I was the lucky guy, you know what I’m saying?”

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Now it’s 1997.

Walker Force, John’s older brother who recently retired after 33 years with the L.A. Sheriff’s Department to become manager of the Force enterprises in Yorba Linda, says John is “polyphasic,” which means he can juggle many tasks in any given day.

Such as:

--Preparing for the NHRA season and a seventh funny car championship.

--Building a top-fuel car to challenge his old pals Prudhomme, Bernstein and Amato.

--Planning a drag racing museum, complete with Elvis Presley music and Marilyn Monroe-JFK-James Dean posters.

--Opening a mom-and-pop restaurant next to his garage called Johnny’s 300 MPH Diner.

--Starting his own TV talk show, “Early Morning with Johnny,” in the style of the late Neil Bonnett from a studio inside his own oval office.

--Opening a chain of quick-lube and car-wash shops under his name.

--Maybe getting back on the Jay Leno show again--or, better yet, having Leno on “Early Morning with Johnny.”

A look at how he’s juggling them all:

--On the coming season: “I have great crew chiefs, Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderley, and John Medlen, who runs our second team; and a great teammate, Tony Pedregon.

“You know, a lot of people think I’m teaching Tony, but I think Tony is teaching me. At 47, even though I talk a good story, I’ve lost some of the heart I had as a kid because I get so overloaded.

“Then I look in the kid’s eyes and see just how much he loves just driving a race car. He doesn’t care about money. I forgot how much it means to me, you know what I’m saying?”

--On running a top-fuel car: “We’ve ordered a chassis--it ought to be ready by April. I believe we can compete, but it’s tough. Look at Bernstein, it took him seven years to win his first top-fuel championship. But there’s really not that much difference.

“Honest . . . my funny car thinks it’s a dragster. It qualified fast enough to make a lot of [top-fuel] shows last year. We run the same drive train, the motors both run on nitro. The biggest difference is the weight. With our Pontiac fiberglass body, we’re heavier. I’d have to lose another 10 pounds myself to be competitive [in top fuel]. That’s a lot of hamburgers. That’s my happy hour. It’d be tough.”

Says Muldowney, now busy with match racing: “If John gets in a top fueler, it’ll be a trump card for dragsters. I’d love to race him. John Force is a lot of hype and all that attracts attention, but when you get right down to it, what separates him from the rest is that he is a great driver. He is absolutely the best there is out there in a funny car.”

--And Force on the museum: “We’re gone from here [almost] 10 months in the year, from when we leave Pomona in February until we get back to Pomona in October. We’ve got 34,000 square feet in this place [a former car dealership], and I want it to be busy while I’m out racing. When we lived in a trailer court in Bell Gardens, where I grew up, we didn’t have any room for anything extra. Now that I’ve got the money and the room, I’ve got an obsession for objects. If I’ve got ‘em, I might as well show them off, you know what I’m saying?”

Already as a start, his showroom has a baby grand player piano; a jukebox, playing Elvis, of course; a five-stool Coca-Cola bar, complete with collector’s item cocktail napkins; a Harley-Davidson motorcycle he bought because “Prudhomme said the one I rode was so small it made me look like a sissy,” and one of the Pontiac funny cars that brought him fame, glory and driver-of-the-year honors last season.

--On the restaurant: “When I was in high school, my mother worked in a Denny’s until midnight. I used to hang out there, sitting in the car every night, waiting for her. I worked as a fry cook when I got older. I’m going to do it again when I open Johnny’s 300 MPH Diner, and I’ll have my mother over and serve her some good old fried food. It’ll be a ‘50s concept.

“When I was little, I was called Johnny. Then I got older and I hated it, I told people to call me John. I guess I must be getting into my second childhood because I feel like Johnny again. That’s why all my deals are called Johnny this and that.”

--On having his own TV show: “I was on Neil Bonnett’s show and I liked the idea, only he went around to different places to interview drivers. I’ll have them all come here to Yorba Linda, and we’ll have grandstands set up in the lobby so folks can watch while I interview them. Maybe I can get some of those drivers of the year to come around.

“We want to keep this place hopping so it’ll be as big an attraction as Nixon’s library--that’s just a couple of miles down the road.”

--On the quick-lube car washes: “The first one is going up right outside the front door here. Castrol [motor oil] says they’ll use the John Force name on them, so it’s only right that the first one will be right here. While folks are visiting the museum or watching my TV show, they can get their car serviced and washed. I might even get out on the line and drain a little oil, myself.”

John Howell, Castrol’s director of racing, says, “We’re not John’s sponsor, we’re his partner. We started out 11 years ago with him by putting a decal on the side of his car for $5,000. He didn’t win a thing for three or four years, but we stuck with him because we liked his attitude. Now look at us.”

--On “The Tonight Show:” “Can you believe I was actually sitting there with Jay Leno? When I went to the bathroom, I saw a shower. I asked Jay who’d used that and when he said, ‘Well, Brooke Shields used it once,’ I started taking my clothes off. I told him I wanted to be able to tell my grandchildren that I showered in the same place as Brooke. He thought I was crazy, but then, most people do.

“We did a burnout [spinning the rear wheels at high RPM in water, creating huge clouds of dust and steam] in the NBC parking lot. It scared the hell out of a lot of people, but what got on the air educated people on what drag racing is about. That was my main idea, getting people who watch Leno to take a look at drag racing when we’re on TV.

“When Leno got in the car, he looked like a natural. He blipped the throttle and that scared everybody in sight--especially his insurance guy. I was very impressed with him. He’s got a feel for racing.”

With that, the world’s winningest funny car driver halted his 300-mph dialogue, smiled that crooked grin fans so love, took a deep breath and allowed as how:

“I’m lucky, lucky, lucky--write it down a hundred times--lucky, lucky.

“I’ve been faking it my whole life. Nothing’s changed. I’m still Johnny Force, the truck driver. That’s what I’m always going to be. You know what I’m saying?”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Drivers of the Year

The award is given annually to the top motor racing driver as voted by a panel of 12 sports writers and broadcasters: *--*

1996 John Force 1995 Jeff Gordon 1994 Dale Earnhardt 1993 Nigel Mansell 1992 Bobby Rahal 1991 Michael Andretti 1990 Al Unser Jr 1989 Emerson Fittipaldi 1988 Bill Elliott 1987 Dale Earnhardt 1986 Bobby Rahal 1985 Bill Elliott 1984 Mario Andretti 1983 Bobby Allison 1982 Darrell Waltrip 1981 Darrell Waltrip 1980 Johnny Rutherford 1979 Darrell Waltrip 1978 Mario Andretti 1977 Cale Yarborough 1976 David Pearson 1975 A.J. Foyt 1974 Bobby Unser 1973 David Pearson 1972 Bobby Allison 1971 Richard Petty 1970 Al Unser 1969 Lee Roy Yarbrough 1968 Mark Donohue 1967 Mario Andretti

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