John Force Racing has confirmed it will return to NHRA Championship Drag Racing competition for the 2021 racing season.
The fan-favorite NHRA team will enter three full-time cars for team owner and founder John Force, along with Robert Hight and Brittany Force. John Force’s PEAK/BlueDEF Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team will be lead by his son-in-law, Danny Hood. Robert Hight’s Auto Club of Southern California-backed Camaro SS, meanwhile, will be lead by his tandem crew chiefs Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham, with David Grubnic and Mac Savage tuning Brittany Force’s Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pack-sponsored hot rod.
“Thank you to all of our sponsors and fans for sticking by us. I really realized how much I love this sport and I appreciate the chance to get back into my PEAK / BlueDEF Chevrolet,” John Force said in a prepared statement. “We’re excited to be back racing and to have all of our sponsors with us. I’m looking forward to working with Camping World and can’t wait to see where the sport goes with them on board.”
John Force Racing will also return with its portfolio of sponsors for 2021, which includes Chevrolet, Weld Racing, Simpson Race Products and Goodyear, among others.
The team decided to park its Camaro SS Funny Car lineup last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement issued at the beginning of the season, Force, now 71, said he couldn’t fulfill his obligations to his sponsors if fans weren’t at the track – so he decided to skip the 2020 season and turn his attention to 2021, when more fans will be able to attend NHRA events.
“In our contracts with sponsors we have guarantees,” Force said at the time. “They get social media, certain number of races, certain number of race days, activation at races and other commitments. No matter how I looked at it I couldn’t deliver on those commitments. It just wasn’t fair to them. The impact of not being able to deliver on these commitments makes sitting out the rest of the 2020 season the right thing to do. No matter how I looked at it, no matter how much I personally invested, I couldn’t make it.”
Now, though, the team is back and ready to race. Its first on-track appearance since 2019 will be at the upcoming 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season opener on March 5th through to the 7th at Gainesville Raceway in Florida, where John Force, Hight and Brittany Force will surely be looking for immediate results to make up for lost time.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM motorsports and racing news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
The Run for 17th can’t wait 2C U John. Welcome Back
Definitely missed Force and teams last year. Just wasn’t the same. Welcome back wild man!