: Speaking of rumors, there was one at one time that had Schumacher trying to hire you away from John Force.
AC: Oh, nothing ever serious took place. In the beginning when he decided he was going to go racing again, he asked me if I was happy where I was and I told him I was and he said that if I ever needed a job to give him a call. A lot of people have said that and I'm unfortunately or fortunately stuck in a rut.
: Okay. Then let's talk about how you and John Force got together.
AC: Well, it's really simple. Right at the time that (Frank) Hawley told me he was quitting racing to pursue other venues and we had failed to get a major sponsor for the Chi-Town Hustler because the major sponsor we were working on wanted a positive commitment from Hawley as well as from us. We knew that that we would have to break in a new driver and were losing the sponsor we had (Rislone) because the guy that controlled our deal at Rislone had passed away and no one else in the company was interested in pursuing that deal. At that time Force called me and made me a really good offer to come and work for him.
: What year was that?
AC: That was in November of 1984 when we started talking.
: Can you tell us what he offered you to work as a crew chief in 1984?
AC: Yeah, he offered a $10,000 signing bonus that he would pay in front and we agreed upon a $1,000 per week salary. I told him I had never thought about working for anyone else, I need a couple weeks to think this over. He said, that's okay, take a couple weeks to think it over. Then he called me every four hours until I said yes. Of course, I envisioned that Force had buckets of money and all kinds of things. I came to find out that he had to borrow the $10,000 that he gave me as a retainer. It was a struggle for the first few years, but we made it through.
: When did Bernie Fedderly come into the picture?
AC: He joined us just before the race in Atlanta in 1992.
So you and John had about eight years basically by yourselves?
AC: We had seven and a half years when we raced without Bernie. Won a couple of championships, then Bernie joined us and we lost that year.
Should we take anything from that?
AC: Just the facts, but we've done pretty good since then I think.
: Have you guys ever had the desire to seriously field a Top Fuel car? John has mentioned the possibility more than once. Did you guys ever seriously
consider having a Top Fuel car? And would you ever want to tune a Top Fuel car?
AC: My opinion on that issue was never seriously requested. Jimmy Prock is our Top Fuel expert and there were many times that I think Force has bought a Top Fuel car chassis and stacked up some stuff to race one and then… Nope, not going to do that and sells it. Of course it's all sponsor related. You need to do whatever you need to do to keep the money coming in. Would I run a Top Fuel car? I think it would be kind of fun. However, if I was forced into doing it I wouldn't rely as heavily on bonuses for winning as I do now because I certainly don't think I know what I'm doing with a Top Fuel car . . .but I do think it would be fun to learn.
