The younger Force girls get ready for race season

Jim Whiteley leads Courtney Force down the track last year.  (James Drew file photo)

Courtney Force capped her most successful racing season last year by reaching the finals round at the Auto Club Finals at Auto Club Raceway making a run at her second Lucas Oil event win. She came up just short but that just gave the 21 year-old Cal State-Fullerton student more motivation for the 2010 season.

Heading into the 50th annual Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals Force will be eager to get behind the wheel of her BrandSource/Ford Drive One A Fuel Dragster. Her first qualifying lap on Thursday, Feb. 11, will get the season underway for John Force Racing. Once again Courtney will be sharing the Top Alcohol Dragster category with her older sister Brittany, who drives the BrandSource A Fuel Dragster.

“I am still learning and it is great to have my sister Brittany also in an A Fueler. We talk a lot about what is going on in the dragsters and we learn from each other. The key for me this year will be to just continue to be consistent and keep learning. I am hoping to make it to more winner’s circles this year too.”

Drag racers inducted into Kentucky Motorsports Hall of Fame

Darrell Alderman (DRO file photo)

The 2010 Kentucky Motorsports Hall of Fame Inductees have been announced and several drag racers were among those honored. 

Darrell Alderman of Morehead, Ky., was a three-time NHRA Pro Stock World Champ. Austin Myers of Valley Station, Ky., was the last Top Gas NHRA World Champion.  Morris Smith of Bowling Green, Ky., was the former track manager of Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green from the 1960s to the ‘80s. Billy Campbell of Columbia, Ky., was the former driver of the “Goldigger” Top Fueler, which won IHRA national events in the 1970s and other big events; and Bill Stebbins of Louisville, Ky., a champion dragster and sprint car builder. 

Other inductees are Andy Hampton of Louisville, Ky, an ARCA Daytona Champion and many time Kentucky Track Champion; Milt Hartlauf of Jeffersonville, Ind., the former Fairgrounds Motor Speedway Promoter in Louisville, Ky. Milt was also a racer and raced stock cars on the beach in Daytona; Billy Howell of Hodgenville, Ky., a many-time track champion in Stock cars; The Owensboro Boys, the creators of Indoor Tractor Pulling and Monster Truck Pulling, and the Founders of TNT Motorsports; Danny Sullivan of Louisville, Ky., who won the Indy 500 25 years ago in the famous Spin and Win 500; and Harry Hyde of Brownsville, Ky., who won over 50 NASCAR cup racers as a crew chief. 

The inductions will take place on August 15 at the Swope Museum in Elizabethtown, Ky. Check out www.kentuckymotorsportshalloffame.com for more info.  [2/9/2010]