John Force, the winningest driver in NHRA history, is widely regarded within the sport as accommodating, funny and likable. His family, however, says it has seen little of those qualities in the 13-time funny car champion.
The father of four girls, Force bares his soul and allows television viewers to gawk at his dysfunctional family in the reality show “Driving Force,” which debuts Monday night on the A&E Network.
Force, who is scheduled to compete today in the Mile- High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, admits he has much to prove when it comes to being a family man.
“This dad thing doesn’t come naturally to me,” he said. “But I’m not giving up.”
The show focuses on attempts by Force to connect with his three youngest daughters through drag racing. Each is involved in the sport through Force’s team.
Ashley Force, 23, is in her third season driving top-alcohol dragsters 260-plus mph and is scheduled to move up to 330-mph funny cars within two years. Brittany, 20, and Courtney, 18, both graduated from the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School, and drive 180 mph Brand Source dragsters.
“I really kind of failed as a father,” Force, 57, said in a national teleconference last week. “I try to explain the mistakes, how racing took me away, but it’s given me a chance to come back.”
Dad is hard to handle
Force lives separately from his wife, Laurie, the mother of his three youngest daughters. His oldest daughter, 37-year-old Adria, is from a previous marriage. She has managed finances for John Force Racing since she was 20.
Laurie, Brittany and Courtney live in a luxurious home near Force, and Ashley has her own condo. Force lives alone in a condominium overlooking a lake in Yorba Linda, Calif.
“At Laurie’s house, the real me isn’t allowed,” Force said in an advanced screening of the show’s first episode. He was kicked out of “the big house” seven years ago.
“I built it for her, like I did everything, and the gardener sees it more than I do,” Force said.
Away from the track, John’s wife and children treat the NHRA star like a clown who shows up for birthdays and barbecues. John doesn’t seem to understand the need for boyfriends, piercings, or anything his girls typically fancy.
“It’s impossible to live with him,” Laurie said in the first episode. “I can only take him a few hours at a time.”
“He’s really loud and doesn’t really care what other people think,” Courtney said.
“My dad, he’s a lot to handle,” Brittany said. “He has so much energy all the time, it just wears me out.”
Laurie said she never looked to John for parenting help.
“When it comes to parenting skills, he has none,” she said. “For example, when the girls were little, he’d come home, get them all out of bed at midnight or so, and it would be like a party, yet they have to get up in the morning for school. And here I am, the ‘mean mom,’ telling them they had to go back to bed.”
Laurie said John was at his worst with the girls during the late stages of the NHRA season.
“When you’re vying for a championship, which he’s had success in for years, it puts you in kind of a war mind-set,” Laurie said. “When he’s off to battle every weekend, he doesn’t just come home and relax. He’s still in the war mode, and that’s been very difficult for me and the kids.”
Like father, like daughter
Now his girls are dipping their toes in the racing environment, which Force said simultaneously pleases and scares him. In the show’s first episode, John and his wife discuss the possibility of losing one of the girls in a racing accident, and he warns Ashley about the perils of the drag strip.
The daughters show little fear, however, and a bond heretofore not built between father and daughters seems to be growing around the sport.
“He’s very protective of all of his daughters, but I know it’s only in a good sense,” Brittany said.
A&E and the Forces originally agreed to film six episodes of “Driving Force.” John said the plan now is to produce 14.
“I’m pretty excited about it, but extremely nervous,” Courtney said of the debut show, which will air in Denver at 7 p.m. “We’re putting our lives out there and showing people how we act at home.”
“The hardest thing about filming a reality show is sharing your private life with the world,” Brittany said. “My boyfriend got frustrated with it a few times. My girlfriends are the same way. There’s a shot when me and my girlfriends are at a club and my boyfriend and I get in a fight. People are like, ‘What’s going on?”‘
Laurie said the racing element of the show was inspired by Ashley.
“People should understand that Ashley was more of a determining factor than their dad,” Laurie said. “Their older sister, they saw her surviving out here, and it inspired them to give it a try.”
John never met a microphone he didn’t like, or a story he didn’t want to tell. His energy seems to be wearing off on at least one of the girls.
“My mom is very calm, and so are my sisters,” Courtney said. “But lately, Ashley is beginning to talk louder, and we’re like, ‘Oh, no, she’s becoming like dad.”‘
Ashley sees racing as a bond.
“My sisters and I, we grew up in racing,” she said. “But in drag racing, it even brings them closer together like a family….You want to be at the track because they’re the ones there for you, that support you and you get through it together.”
Said John: “Ashley has really evolved. I’ve become so proud of her in the last few months. She’s going to evolve way beyond me because she’s smart.”
Mile-High Nationals
Today: Final eliminations, noon
Site: Bandimere Speedway, Morrison
TV: 9:30 a.m., 7 p.m. (taped), ESPN2
Info: www.bandimere.com
Staff writer Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
