BILL STEPHENS “IN THE GROOVE” 4/19/10

Three wins out of six races, 129 career victories and the current Full Throttle Funny Car points lead by six rounds. That’s what anyone would call a very strong start to the 2010 season.

John’s resurgence has been the talk of the sport and all you have to do is look at his won/lost record from the past few seasons to see that the John Force of old has experienced a major turnaround.

The fact that John raced both Robert (in Round 1) and Ashley (in the semi-finals) was a touch of the unlikely with all three JFR Mustangs running into each other on the eliminations ladder. Tony Pedregon, John’s former teammate of course, was his final round opponent which made race day a scrapbook of JFR drivers past and present.

John was quick to give enormous credit to Mike Neff for the performance his Castrol Mustang enjoyed for most of the weekend. John qualified in the bottom half of the ladder but on Sunday, his car was rock solid. John said after the race, “I dedicated the trophy at this race to Mike Neff because, as Austin said, two old dogs were on the couch and couldn’t get it right, and this puppy came in here and ran around crazy and gave us a fresh start of energy. Coil and Bernie, they’re the best, but they needed something to get change.”

The size of the crowds gathered outside the JFR pits at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the weekend was even larger and more enthusiastic than normal. When John is winning, it seems to translate in the level of excitement and devotion his fans generate towards him. And of course, John’s energy level with his devoted followers gets ratcheted up a notch or two when he is crushing the competition and leading the points. Let’s face it: it’s been a while since the ol’ man has had this kind of a start to a campaign and why wouldn’t he take advantage of his hot streak to the hilt?

Oh, and it was a pleasure to get through an entire race weekend without any rain!

From the glam and bling of Las Vegas to the sensible, sedate, Midwestern virtues of Madison, Illinois in two weeks for the next event on this year’s schedule. Gateway International Raceway will host the AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals and with a late April scheduling, the ferociously hot and humid conditions we used to see there when the event was held in the heart of the summer shouldn’t be a factor. GIR can be a very fast track when all the necessary ingredients are in place.

Maybe John will pick up win No. 130!