Start your engines! Driving Force, the new high-speed real-life series from A&E Network®, starring racing legend John Force and his three drag racing daughters, premieres on Monday, July 17, 2006 at 9PM EST and PST / 8PM CST.

Driving Force Homepage

Like golf’s Tiger Woods and basketball’s Michael Jordan, John Force is easily the most accomplished and dominant figure in his sport – drag racing. With 119 career victories, an unprecedented 14 team championships in 16 years, membership on ten straight Auto Racing All-American teams, and the world record for consecutive Funny Car championships, Force has shattered every major record on the drag strip and then some. In addition to his legendary racing feats, Force has exhibited extraordinary skill as a team owner and businessman, raising himself up from poverty to become the head of his own multi-million dollar company that currently employs over 60 race team members and office staff. Force is also one of the most outrageous personalities in the history of American sports, combining the dangerous charisma and charm of Gary Busey and Elvis with the down-home likeability of Andy Griffith.

But here’s the real hook of the show: John is also the father of four beautiful daughters: 36-year-old Adria (from a previous marriage); 23-year-old Ashley; 19-year-old Brittany; and 17-year-old Courtney. While Adria (Force) Hight has managed the finances for John Force Racing corporate headquarters since she was 20 years old, the other three Force girls are now following in their father’s tracks, competing in the male-dominated field of high-speed drag racing. Ashley has already proven herself to be an accomplished driver, having been named Rookie of the Year in her car class. She’s also one of the only professional athletes to have her own Barbie Doll and Hot Wheels die cast car.

Despite being a championship drag racing team on the track, the Forces have plenty of issues on the home front. John’s career kept him on the road for most of the girls’ childhoods, leaving parental responsibilities mainly in the hands of his wife Laurie. Although at the outset she was directly involved in her husband’s career, writing contracts, mixing fuel and even packing the parachutes that slowed the car from its breakneck speeds, Laurie believed it was important to provide the couple’s children with a more traditional upbringing. So, once they started a family, she and the girls stayed home, went to cheerleading tryouts, took dancing lessons, interacted with pet dogs and cats, went to the gym and shopped. When John was home, it was difficult for him to make the transition to doing the usual things that families do. When he finally looked up, the kids were almost grown. He had missed all the recitals, the picnics, the tryouts, the ball games and the proms. But now, John hopes that by bringing the girls into his profession, he can bring the family closer together and become the kind of father that he always wanted to be. Racing is the backdrop for this true-life comedy as each half-hour episode takes a look at dad trying to bring the family together, while also preparing for the next championship run. It’s 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter meets the bone-rattling thrills of the drag strip. Gentleman and ladies...start your engines.

Name: John Force

Age: 57

Occupation: Professional race car driver

Education: Bell Gardens H.S. (Bell Gardens, Ca.), briefly attended Cerritos Junior college to play football

Hobbies: Going to the movies, collecting memorabilia

Racing background:The most prolific winner in drag racing history with 119 NHRA tour victories and 13 series championships, all in a series of Castrol GTX-sponsored hybrids called “Funny Cars” that are capable of zero to 330 mile-an-hour acceleration in 4.6 seconds. Is the current NHRA national record holder for quarter-mile performance at 4.665 seconds, 333.58 mph. John has an unbelievable winning streak, having earned at least one tour victory in each of the last 20 seasons. John entered the 2006 season having qualified for a record 369 consecutive races dating back to the start of the 1988 season.

Notable: Was named Driver of the Year for all of American motor racing in 1996; is a 13-time member of the Auto Racing All-America Team selected by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association; last December, in London, accepted the John Bolster Award for lifetime achievement from the editors of AutoSport Magazine, the acknowledged “bible” of Formula 1 racing.

John Force is the most prolific winner and, arguably, the most recognizable name in professional drag racing history. Having earned more than 100 tour victories, the only driver in NHRA history with triple digit wins, the one-time truck driver has won almost as many fans with his mouth as with his motor. The king of the quarter mile, he also is the king of the quip. “I just traded one trailer park for another,” he has said, comparing his upbringing in a small trailer park in Bell Gardens, Ca., to his current status as a road warrior whose three Funny Car teams virtually live their competitive lives out of eight
18-wheel transporters and a luxury bus bigger than his parents’ trailer house. The consummate blue collar hero, Force spent his first 10 seasons living hand-to-mouth from one race to the next. He was seven times a runner-up before winning for the first time in 1987. He’s been winning ever since.

Name: Ashley Force

Age: 23

Occupation: Race car driver

Education: Esperanza High School (Yorba Linda, Ca.), California State University-Fullerton, College of Communications, B.A., Radio TV Film

Hobbies: Movies, video production, shopping, kickboxing, and spending time with family and friends

Racing background:Ashley earned an NHRA competition drivers license after graduation from Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School; after two years in Super Comp, moved up in 2004 to the Top Alcohol Dragster division where she is in her third season at the controls of a 275-mile-an-hour dragster sponsored by Castrol Motor Oil. Ashley obtained her Funny Car license during a test session in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 11, 2006.

Notable: Ashley was a Top 10 finisher in national points in each of her first two seasons in the Top Alcohol division with three NHRA national victories including one in the season-ending 2004 World Finals at Pomona, Ca. The result of that victory was that she shared the winners’ circle with her dad, winner of the Funny Car class. Ashley looks forward to moving into the Funny Car class in 2007 or 2008 to race against her father.

Ashley was the 2004 Division 4 Top Alcohol Dragster champion and “Rookie of the Year.” Who knew? Despite the fact that, as electives, she took high school courses in auto shop and welding, Ashley Force’s interest in the “family business” came as a complete shock to her father. Nevertheless, two years after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University-Fullerton, the former high school cheerleader is being hailed as a future star of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series and a possible successor to her father, 13-time Funny Car Champion John Force. Although her focus is on moving up to the Funny Car division as soon as 2007, it’s not an obsession. In fact, she could as easily carve out a career in television and film, her emphasis in college and her hobby ever since. Among her “productions” is a takeoff on Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” featuring her father as Scrooge, and titled “The Bi-Polar Express.”

Name: Brittany Force

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

Education: Esperanza High School (Yorba Linda, Ca.), Santiago Canyon College (Orange, Ca.), second year of studies

Hobbies: Shopping, hanging out with friends, going to the races

Racing background:
Brittany earned her NHRA competition drivers license in 2003 after graduating from Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School; entering her second season at the wheel of a 180-mile-an-hour Brand Source sponsored hybrid dragster.

The daughter John Force has acknowledged as his “problem child,” Brittany Force is a headstrong California blonde with a serious “need for speed” that hasn’t always been channeled to the racetrack.

Unlike her older sisters, Adria and Ashley, Brittany initially eschewed a job at the John Force Racing complex in Yorba Linda, Ca., to work at a pizza café. A further manifestation of her rebellious nature occurred on her father’s 56th birthday when, while every other woman in the team compound was wearing an “I Love John Force” t-shirt, Brittany opted for an “I Love N.Y.” model.

Like her father and sisters, Brittany is intensely competitive once she gets to the track, donning her fire-engine red driving suit and climbing into the cockpit of her Super Comp dragster. Nevertheless, a career in racing is no certainty.

“She’s tough when she’s in the car,” her father said, “but she’s got to learn to do everything else, like giving enough time to the sponsors and the media and the fans. She’s always gone her own way but if she wants to race, I’ll do all I can to give her a chance (to succeed).”

Name: Courtney Force

Age: 17

Occupation: Student

Education: Esperanza High School (Yorba Linda, Ca.), completing her senior year

Hobbies: Shopping, hanging out with friends, going to the races and the beach

Racing background:Courtney earned her NHRA competition drivers license in August of 2004 after graduating from Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School; entering her second season at the wheel of a 180-mile-an-hour Brand Source sponsored hybrid dragster.

Statuesque, like mother Laurie, Courtney Force is the youngest of drag racing champion John Force’s four daughters. She also is the offspring Force always believed was most likely to follow him into the family business. Yet, like sisters Brittany and Ashley, Courtney isn’t obsessive about driving a race car.

“Their mother has tried to give them balance in their lives, something I’ve never had,” Force said. “She tells them that there’s more to life than just racing. I tell them that if they want to be champions, they have to live racing, night and day.”

A former cheerleader at Esperanza High School in Yorba Linda, Ca., Courtney demonstrated that balance last October in Las Vegas, Nev., where, after qualifying first in her division on Saturday, she bypassed race day on Sunday to return to California for a school dance.

Like her sisters, Ashley and Brittany, Courtney’s professional racing aspirations will hinge upon her acquiring a college degree.