PR-RUSK- Ashley Force preview

Contact:

Dave Densmore
Denswood Sports
817-636-2060
denswood@aol.com

Mandie Yorio
John Force Racing, Inc.
714-921-8123
mandie@johnforceracing.com

Lori Anne Gola
BP Lubricants/Castrol Racing
973-633-2393
lorianne.gola@bp.com


Team Castrol Pre-Race Package/Ashley

For Immediate Release
ASHLEY FORCE TRIES TO REGAIN FORM
IN RETURN TO SITE OF FIRST VICTORY
22-Year-Old Defends Top Alcohol Dragster Title at Rusk

RUSK, Texas – Everything old is new again for Ashley Force – and that could
change the dynamic of this week's Lucas Series points race at Cherokee County Motorsports Park, the fifth of seven events in the NHRA's South Central Division.

In order to give his 22-year-old driver a reasonable opportunity to repeat as the event's Top Alcohol Dragster champion as well as the division champion, car owner and crew chief Jerry Darien spent the first part of the week replacing every part and piece in the ignition and fuel systems of the Castrol/Hot Wheels dragster.

It was the latest effort by Darien to eliminate an engine misfire problem that, over the last month, has transformed the car from contender to pretender.

"There's a glitch in the car, obviously," acknowledged Bernie Fedderly, the co-crew chief on the Castrol GTX Start Up Ford Funny Car driven by Ashley's father, John Force.

"It won't leave the starting line properly," Fedderly said. "We still think it's ignition, but it might be fuel system related but, when you replace enough stuff, you're finally going to get it (fixed).

"(This week, Darien) was doing everything he hadn't done before. The car will be
better. It will cycle around."

Ms. Force, who remains the national points leader even though she lost the South Central Division lead last week to Gene Snow, has been patiently waiting for everything to "cycle around."

"The car is sluggish off the starting line," she explained, "and (then) it's as though
I am getting on and off the throttle the entire way down the racetrack."

-more-

Ashley/Lucas Series at Rusk
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According to the former high school cheerleader, one cylinder will misfire, then
another and another. Then they'll re-fire further down track. The result has been
woeful inconsistency.

"We make one pretty good run and then the next one is awful," she said. "I feel
really bad for Jerry and the crew. It's making them all crazy."

The graduate of California State University-Fullerton hopes that things are better this week on a track on which she earned the very first victory of her brief career.

After qualifying No. 1 in the eight-car field, she beat Glenn Woosley, Karl Brounkowski and James Copeland Jr., setting in motion her drive to the divisional
championship and a fourth place finish in national points.

In addition to regional wins last year at CCMP, Englishtown, N.J., and Belle Rose, La., Ashley won three events on the NHRA national tour including the season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California Finals at Pomona, a race in which she shared the winners' circle with her dad, who won the Funny Car championship to cap his 13th series title.

* * * *

Did You Know? Following last month's O'Reilly Auto Parts Nationals at Topeka, Kan., Ashley climbed into her dad's race-winning Castrol GTX Start Up Ford Mustang in a
Monday test session. She twice warmed up the 8,000 horsepower Funny Car, then executed a burnout and a 60-foot launch in the first of several planned "orientation" sessions designed to prepared the former high school cheerleader for an eventual professional career....while attending Esperanza High School in Yorba Linda, Calif., Ashley took, as electives, auto shop and welding classes ....by an on-line vote of the readers of Hot Rod Magazine, Ashley recently was named the favorite "Real Woman
of Hot Rodding," the result of a special issue of the magazine devoted to 10 women in motor racing, most of them drivers including Indy 500 phenom Danica Patrick....Ashley and John aren't the only drivers in the Force family. Ashley's sisters, Brittany and Courtney, both are licensed in Super Comp as is their mother, Laurie Force....there's a question and answer feature with Laurie Force in the latest issue of Drag Racer Magazine as well as an on-line feature by Susan Wade at www.competitionplus.com.

-www.johnforceracing.com-

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