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Thursday, August 13, 2009
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Force Hood hopes to regain top spot at BIR
Sports Writer Success has come early for Ashley Force Hood, including at Brainerd International Raceway, but the 26-year-old is on the hunt for more.
She's wrestled away the "women" and "daughter of a legend" image to stake her claim as one of the top Funny Car drivers on the circuit.
A win March 29 in the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston and six other finals appearances this season, including a stretch of three straight, has Hood locked into the Countdown to the Championship.
A rough Western Swing, starting with a second-round loss to Tony Pedregon at Seattle and a first-round defeat at Sonoma, had the Castrol GTX team thankful for last week's vacation.
"The swing is tough on everyone," said Hood. "You're going from one event after the other and it wears on the guys because they're not having a break. They're driving to the next spot, setting up and working on the car. Having that week off allows everyone to get organized, get back home and have a little breather. By the time racing starts we'll be back and ready to go and hopefully get back on a roll."
After her win in Houston, Force had a stretch of runner-up finishes. She was second in the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals in Atlanta April 19. Then she rattled off a streak of three straight runner-up finishes, starting at the O'Reilly Summer Nationals in Topeka, Kan., followed by seconds in Joliett, Ill., at the United Association Route 66 Nationals and again at the United Association SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J.
She picked up another second in Denver July 12.
The success has Hood third in the point standings, 47 behind leader Pedregon.
"In 2007 when we moved to Funny Car, we had a new team, a new group of guys and a new driver," said Hood. "We really started from scratch. We knew it was going to be a learning curve, but we were also going to be able to teach people from scratch. They weren't coming over from other teams with bad habits.
"We just continued learning and fixing things and in our third year we have almost the exact same team we started with. Not many teams can say that. In fact, we only have two new people on our team. That's rare in this sport to have almost the exact same team. That's really why we have done so well so far.
Ashley Force Hood
Category: Funny Car
Hometown: Yorba Linda, Calif.
Age: 26
Sponsor/Car: Castrol GTX Ford Mustang
Crew chief: Dean Antonelli/Ron Douglas
Career wins: 7
2009 wins/final rounds: 1/6
Current points standing: Third
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"We haven't had to spend the season re-teaching people. We've been able to progress. Plus, we all stress fine-tuning the little details and double-checking everything. That's often the difference between a round win or a round loss."
Despite being locked into the Countdown with 1,054 points, Hood and her team hope to regain their early success and regain their consistency at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at BIR.
Last year she earned the No. 1 qualifying spot at BIR, but lost to Ron Capps in the first round. She holds the BIR track record at the 1,000-foot distance with a time of 4.110 seconds.
"We're still doing the same thing we always do," said Hood. "The more consistent we can be heading into the Countdown the better. The reason why we've already clinched is because we're doing something right and we hope to continue to do well.
"We would like to get back to that No. 1 spot. Every race we're going for the finals. Because in the semifinals and finals you're getting seven or eight races. If you lose out in the first round you're only getting four or five. All those laps give us that much more information on the car and gives me that much more experience."
JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5856.
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