A salute to the greatest athlete of our generation

[jmowreader]

This is John Force. He drives an NHRA funny car.

He is 57 years old. About a hundred pounds overweight. And not all that pretty either. He spends his time in the pits between laps wearing an oxygen mask.

He also has 122 national event wins, 194 final round appearances, and has qualified for 391 consecutive races. Only one racer in the history of motorsport has won more events than Force--Richard Petty, with 200. His fastest pass was at over 333mph--there are only a couple guys who have gone faster, and they were in Top Fuel dragsters which are faster than the cars Force drives.

And yesterday, he won his 14th NHRA Funny Car championship.

Raise a glass to old farts who are still gettin' it on.

[evlbstrd]

1. Athlete?

I think not.

[skygazer]

2. While I appreciate someone who doesn't let his limitations

limit him, how is someone who drives a car considered an athlete? Good driver, yes. Athlete? No.

[Phillycat]

3. I'm sure you're right. He's a better athlete than Michael Jordan.

:rofl:

[jmowreader]

9. Michael Jordan played a slightly different kind of sport than does John Force

Michael Jordan played basketball. You run. You jump. You shoot the ball. You get whacked in the mouth on occasion. It is a strenuous sport. And he retired permanently before he was forty.

John Force is old enough to be president (there are only 15 presidents in American history who were older than John Force is when they were inaugurated) and he drives a funny car. Launching one of those things subjects the driver to about five Gs of acceleration, and four seconds later subjects him to negative five Gs of deceleration. By way of comparison, an F-14 shot off an aircraft carrier subjects the pilot to six Gs, and he doesn't get the almost-instantaneous negative-G deceleration that the funny car driver does.

Plus, they don't expect the F-14 pilot to do it four times in a day for three days straight, which is what the event winner has to endure. Nor will the Navy let you do it when you're 57 years old and as fat as John Force is.

There is a retired Top Fuel driver named Joe Amato. Drag racing ripped the retina completely off the back of one eye and separated most of the other one, which is why he's retired. He can see because they spot-welded them back on with a laser, but he can't race anymore. I don't even think they'll let him drive on the street. And he didn't have nearly the number of passes John Force has.

There's an infamous Fram oil filter commercial out there where John Force describes how easy it is to hold a "Sure Grip" filter even when you've got oil on your hands. They go back and forth between Force strapped into his seat with an oil filter in his hand screaming "I still got it!" and footage of his car tumbling down the track for a thousand feet. The wreck in that commercial actually happened. (He crawled out of the demolished car. Needless to say, this was NOT one of his event wins.) I've seen some of MJ's "wreck" footage--him going over the scoring table is about as good as it gets. Bo-RING!

[One_Life_To_Give]

4. Very good, but

John Force is in a select group of Legends when it comes to driving a dragster. And he would be able to 60ft and 100+MPH before most people knew the light turned green. Not to mention the upperbody strength and reflexes it takes to keep a 4sec. 0-300+ car moving in a straight line.

But that doesn't make him the best athlete. Bruce Jenner may have only won the decathelon once. But that all around performance can be more demanding than any single event like drag racing.

[Drum]

8. I would've said Jenner too.

:thumbsup:

[Little Wing]

5. Drag strips should have loop-the-loops

about 3/4s down the track

[seemunkee]

6. Hot wheels style tracks

That would be awesome

[Gatchaman]

7. He doesn't even stack up to a NASCAR driver

After all, NASCAR drivers have to both drive fast AND turn left.

(full disclosure: I think NASCAR blows).

[jmowreader]

12. They also have to do it for three hours at a time

John Force once said that every day he thanks God he's in a four-second sport.

Those guys actually make their money on reaction time--how fast can you notice that the light turned green and get your thumb off a button on the steering wheel? Force did it in .054 second in the event finals on Sunday.

[Truebrit71sbruv]

10. Hey.... less of the "our" in that generation claim.... he's an old fart n/t

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. Did you know Force's frame builders have to compensate

for the extra forward weight caused by his overbite?



Seriously, I didn't even know he was still driving, as I don't think I've watched an N/A/IHRA event in at least five years. I kinda got away from the Funnies and Top Fuel because they got as commercial as NASCAR — though the balls-out power is just mind-blowing. When they got into the fours, I was like, "Okay, this is too damned fast."

Props to 'im, though. :thumbsup:

(What was the name of the first guy in the fours? Blonde hair, bad teeth; that's all I remember.)