Ashley Force Pomona Preview

Team Castrol Pre-Race Package/Ashley

For Immediate Release
courtesy Mandie Yorio/ John Force Racing
DESPITE SEASON STRUGGLES, ASHLEY
ENCOURAGED AT AUTO CLUB FINALS
Castrol/Hot Wheels Driver Defends Top Alcohol Title

POMONA, Calif. Rarely is a qualifying failure cause for encouragement, but, after
not making the starting field for last week's Lucas Sportsman Series race at Las Vegas,
Nev., Ashley Force feels much better about her chances in this week's 41st annual
Automobile Club of Southern California Finals.

Ms. Force, who last year made history at Pomona Raceway when she shared the
Auto Club Finals winners' circle with her father, 119-time NHRA tour winner John Force,
will try to repeat as Top Alcohol Dragster champion in a Castrol/Hot Wheels entry that
this year has displayed a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality.

In her second season at the wheel of the car owned by Jerry Darien and Ken
Meadows, for whom she will drive at least one more season, Ashley has failed to make
the starting field at three different events including a couple of races in the NHRA
POWERade series.

Nevertheless, on a final, failed qualifying attempt last week at Las Vegas, her car
posted its quickest 60-foot time this season. Unfortunately, the engine failed shortley
thereafter when the crankshaft broke into two pieces, leaving the team outside a tough
eight-car field.

"It finally left the starting line like Jerry has wanted," Ashley said, "so maybe we've
got our race car back. We'll just have to see."

Although she is on pace to again finish in the Top 10 in Lucas Series points, this
season has borne little resemblance to a sensational rookie season during which she
won three national events and three Lucas Series events en route to the Division 4
championship.

This season, the 22-year-old graduate of Cal State-Fullerton has balanced
qualifying failures with final round appearances in the Mac Tools Gatornationals at
Gainesville, Fla., and the K&N Filters SuperNationals at Englishtown, N.J. She also
earned her only 2005 victory in a return to Englishtown for a Lucas Series event.

Still, she believes that the current season has done more to prepare her for an
eventual pro career than anything that occurred a year ago.

-more-
Ashley/Auto Club Finals
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"This year has taught me a lot more," she said. "Last year, it seemed like the car
just went A to B without any problem every race.

"This season, I've been sideways, I've had to drive in tire shake, its smoked the tires
and, last week, it blew a motor. So it's been a good learning experience even if it hasn't
been as much fun at times (as it was a year ago).

"Now I know that winning (races) isn't that easy."

The aforementioned problems (i.e., tire shake, blown motors, loss of traction) are
"standard issue" in the category to which she aspires, the one in which her father has
won 13 championships in 15 seasons at the wheel of series of Castrol GTX entries.

In fact, she has taken several turns this season at the wheel of her father's national
record-holding Castrol GTX Start Up Ford Mustang in Monday test sessions
following NHRA national events.

It's given her a new appreciation for her father's accomplishments.

"Those cars are a handful," she said, "but I've got great teachers and a great team
to learn from. Dad said there's no time table. I learn a little bit more every time (I'm in
the car) but, right now, I enjoy driving the dragster and that's my focus for this
weekend."

* * * *
Did You Know? While attending Esperanza High School in Yorba Linda, Calif., Ashley
took, as electives, courses in auto shop and welding.....Ashley's younger sisters,
Brittany, 19, and Courtney, 17, also have begun driving competitively in the Super
Comp division in which mom, Laurie, also is licensed....Ashley has gone to the final
round seven times in 26 NHRA national events; six times in 16 races in the Lucas
Sportsman Series....last year, Ashley was named Driver of the Year and Rookie of the
Year after winning the NHRA's South Central Division championship ....the Darien and
Meadows team is bidding for its fourth straight season-ending victory. Before winning
last year with Ashley, Darien and Meadows won in 2002 and 2003 with Morgan Lucas
as driver....overall, crew chief Jerry Darien has won NHRA national events with seven
different drivers including current Top Fuel stars Brandon Bernstein, Lucas and Melanie
Troxel. Darien even won a national event himself, driving to the Winternationals
championship at Pomona Raceway in 1981....last year at the Auto Club Finals, Ashley
qualified third before beating Steve Federlin, Chris Demke, Lucas and series champion
Mitch Myers.

-www.johnforceracing.com-