From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ashley Force Hood
Ashley Force
Born	Ashley Force November 29, 1982 (1982-11-29) (age 27) Yorba Linda, California, United States
Official website

Ashley Force in August 2007

Ashley Force Hood (born November 29, 1982) is a funny car drag racer. She is the daughter of 14-time NHRA Funny Car national champion John Force and his wife Laurie Force. She is married to Daniel Hood, who works for John Force Racing.

Force was also selected as the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series' Rookie–of–the–Year (Funny Car division) in November 2007. On April 27, 2008, Force earned her first ever NHRA professional win, defeating her father in the final round, and becoming the first woman to earn a win in the Funny Car class at the NHRA Summit Southern Nationals held at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia.^[1]

Drag racing career

As a Top Alcohol division rookie, she won three of the season’s final five races including the 50th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, and the season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California at Pomona, where she shared the winners’ circle with her father - the NHRA’s first ever father-daughter winners. Ashley finished 2004 fourth in national driver points.

2007

In 2007, Ashley Force moved into the professional ranks, driving a Castrol-sponsored Mustang Funny Car for her father's team, John Force Racing.^[2]

Ashley Force and her father made NHRA history in Atlanta in April when they became the first father and daughter to race against each other.^[3] Ashley won the round with an elapsed time of 4.779 seconds, and a terminal speed of 317.05 miles per hour.^[3] She advanced to the semifinals, which tied her for the best ever Funny Car event finish for a female.^[3]

In October 2007, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, she became the first female to compete in a national series Funny Car final round, but was defeated on a holeshot by Tony Pedregon.

2008

Early in the 2008 racing season, she worked her way to the final round of eliminations in three consecutive meetings: Houston, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. She made her first final round appearance of the year on March 30 at Houston, but lost to Del Worsham. At Las Vegas, she was defeated in the final by Tim Wilkerson, yet became the first female racer ever to lead the NHRA Funny Car point standings. On April 27, 2008, at Atlanta, her opponent in the final was her dad, 14-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force, who was seeking to score the 1000th round win of his career. Ashley claimed her first-ever NHRA Funny Car win on that day, the first ever for a woman, as she roared to victory with a 4.837-second elapsed time, the second quickest of the weekend in the Funny Car class.

2009

Force garnered the second win of her career on March 29, 2009 at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals; in the finals she beat her former instructor Jack Beckman.^[4]

Jack beat Ashley in the first round of eliminations at the next race at Las Vegas. She then gathered her fourth career #1 qualifier at the southern nationals, in which Jack Beckman got payback by beating Force-Hood in the final. Ashley compiled her fifth career #1 qualifier at the Thunder Valley Nationals [1]

At the Mac Tools US Nationals in Indianapolis, Ashley won over teammate Robert Hight to earn her the distinction of not only being the first female Funny Car driver to win at Indianapolis, but the first female driver to win in two different classes. She finished the 2009 season 2nd in points becoming the highest women finisher in funny car history.^[5]

Television

Ashley Force was featured with her family on A&E's reality show Driving Force.

Personal life

She has two sisters, Courtney and Brittany, and an older half-sister, Adria. On December 13, 2008, Ashley married the parts manager of the Castrol GTX Funny Car team, Daniel Hood, in Lake Tahoe and now goes by Ashley Force Hood.

Force attended Esperanza High School in Anaheim, CA, where she was a cheerleader. In 2003, Force graduated from California State University-Fullerton with a B.A. in communications with an emphasis in television and video. In 2007 she was voted as the Hottest Athlete by an AOL Sports Poll, beating out favorites Tom Brady and Danica Patrick. [2]

References

External links

• John Force Racing (The team for both John and Ashley Force)
• Interview with Ashley Force
• Driving Force A&E reality show
• Driving Force Ashley's Profile
• Ashley Force's "Official Myspace" page