By Darr Hawthorne , Photos by James Drew and Darr Hawthorne

Wednesday at the Pomona Winternationals brought out all the competitors for a last look over from the NHRA Technical Department and, just like all the other Pros, John Force’s newly unveiled Castrol Edge-sponsored Mustang (below) waited in line to be scrutinized. 

After a long line of nitro funnies the Force flopper rolled into the template for precise measurement by Don Taylor, senior director, NHRA National Technical Operations and his meticulous crew. 

While all of the Force teammates previously had body measurements approved with the official NHRA tech stamp, John’s racecar set off a rulebook inquiry about a beautifully formed, 45 degree carbon fiber “wickerbill” that is used on funny car bodies to divert air around the protruding injector scoop.   The Force Racing idea was to encircle the John Medlin-designed injector up to the base of the windshield, and while it was a cool engineered piece, it did not meet the strict NHRA 2009 Rulebook.  Crewmembers jumped on their cell phones to tell other team car crews to get the approved funny car bodies out of the transporters in order to repair the issue NHRA had now found.