SHE WANTS TO BE A FORCE IN NHRA.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK

There will come a time this season when rookie Ashley Force will roll up next to her father, 14-time NHRA funny champion John Force, in the elimination round of a drag racing event. It will be the first time in NHRA history that a father and daughter will race against each other.

Only in auto racing could this even be possible. There may come a day when fathers and daughters will race against each in NASCAR. Or maybe even in the Indianapolis 500.

For now, drag racing is the only arena in which a father and daughter could share a love for a sport and compete against each other at its highest level.

This wouldn't happen in the NBA. It wouldn't happen in Major League Baseball. Certainly not in the NFL.

Perhaps if Michelle Wie ever has sons, one of them might play in a tournament with her on the PGA tour. Now that would be a twist.

Ashley Force, who will drive one of the four Funny Cars for John Force Racing, might end up facing her father as early as this weekend at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona for the season-opening NHRA CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals.

``I can't wait to run next to Dad and his team,'' said Ashley Force, 24. ``I'm very excited. The big question we're all asking is which side my mom is going to stand on at the track.''

As the season rolls on, Ashley Force might be making history faster than her runs down a quarter-mile stretch of drag strip. No woman has ever won an NHRA Funny Car event. No woman has ever qualified No. 1 for an NHRA event. No woman has even been in an NHRA Funny Car race since 2000.

She will be the only woman racing in NHRA Funny Cars on a regular basis this year.

``I'm sure she's going to screw with a lot of the guys,'' said Tony Schumacher, the NHRA Top Fuel champion. ``I'm sure it's going to bother some of them. I'm not sure which ones. But you know there will be a couple of guys up there thinking their manliness is getting jeopardized. It's pretty cool. And she's going to take 'em out, too.''

There are women racing and winning in other divisions of the NHRA. Angelle Sampey is a threat to win the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship every year. Melanie Troxel won the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona and was a championship contender in the NHRA Top Fuel division last year.

But of all the women in NHRA, Ashley Force said she rooted for one in particular.

``Of course, Shirley Muldowney,'' Ashley Force said. ``She's a good friend of my dad's. I met her a handful of times. She let me sit in her car at one of the events when she was racing. She's talked to me a lot about it. I've seen movies on her, read books about the things she went through.

``It was a whole different world when she started. She paved the way. I couldn't imagine.''

Before Ashley Force began the news conference to announce that she would be driving one of her father's cars, she asked him for some advice about what to say. She was worried that she would be asked about the expectations he placed on her. With John Force's championship record, what kind of measuring stick would he have for her?

John Force told his daughter the news conference wasn't about him. It was about her.

``I said: `Girl, there's no more I can tell you, but to be there with you under the pressure,''' John Force said. ``You got to learn. The way you learn it is getting beat up every week, 'cause the media, they're going to love you when you're good. They're going to beat you up when you're bad. But that's what it's about.''

Ashley Force had one of those bad days during testing at Firebird International Raceway in Arizona in January. Her car exploded and caught fire while she was making a test run.

``She got a little bit of smoke,'' John Force said. ``She was gasping to breathe and I felt so bad. It was scary for me, but she was like, `How long do you think it will take to fix it?' ''

She wasn't down long. Within two hours she was back in the car and making test runs again.

As for expectations, Ashley Force said wants to concentrate on having fun, particularly at her father's expense.

``I think it will be a good year for us,'' she said. ``If we can go around, get qualified, maybe beat up on Dad one or two times, but really go out there and have fun.

``I think you do better if you don't get too caught up in the nervousness and expectations, really just try to go out there and have fun, because we do have one of the funnest jobs, I think, in the world.''

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Dixon back for another Top Fuel run

Larry Dixon will be back in the NHRA top fuel division with Don Prudhomme Racing. The only visible difference will be the familiar blue Miller Lite logos on his dragster will be replaced with orange, blue and white SkyTel letters.

Most of his team from last year is still intact. There are four new crew members, but most everyone else is returning. They were able to make some test runs at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz., a couple of weeks ago.

One of the things the team was working on in Arizona was setting up the car.

The NHRA has made some modifications in regard to the position of the motor and fuel tank to improve the balance of the top fuel dragsters. Dixon said the change required a different setup than the team is used to.

A two-time NHRA top fuel champion, Dixon struggled through much of 2006. He has 38 career top fuel wins, but didn't record a single one last year.

Tony Schumacher rallied to erase one of the biggest deficits in NHRA history to win the top fuel championship last year.

When Dixon was asked if his team had anything for Schumacher this year, he said, ``If we don't, somebody will.''

``I think we had more to gain over the winter than he did,'' said Dixon, a Van Nuys High graduate. ``I'm going to go in there and give it our best.''

One thing is for sure: Dixon wouldn't want to be in Schumacher's place.

``Everybody wants to be No. 1, but I certainly wouldn't trade positions with him,'' Dixon said. ``I'd rather go in there and put it together.''

Schumacher won his third straight NHRA top fuel championship last year. He did it in record fashion, but not the way he is accustomed to.

``When we won a few years back, we had won 10 races and it had never been done before,'' Schumacher said. ``Well, that was a real unique way to do it. Then nine races the year after that. And then to do it, just to be a part of what we did last year, was fantastic.''

Schumacher still is amazed how his team rallied at the end of the year.

``But in reality, you know, it was unheard of,'' Schumacher said. ``And it was so exciting that I just can't come up with a solution. I don't think you can sit back and say here's an exact perfect script that would be better than last year.''

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Ashley Force, right, could make history this season and race in an NHRA Funny Car event against her father, John.

National DRAGSTER/NHRA

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(2) THIS WEEK