Monster Energy Takes New England By Force
The Monster Energy Top Fuel Dragster piloted by Brittany Force has become a definite threat once again.
It’s been a long time coming, but during the last couple of races, the Monster Energy Top Fuel Dragster piloted by Brittany Force has become a definite threat once again. At round 9 of the 24-round 2017 NHRA Drag Racing Series, at Epping, New Hampshire’s New England Dragway, Brittany Force came in confident and left with a Wally.
Brittany Force qualified in P2 with a 3.686 at a blistering 331.36 mph down the 1000-foot racetrack. On race day, two days later, Brittany and her Monster Energy crew were ready to go to work. And they did. First, Brittany made short work of Steve Chrisman in round one of the eliminations, throwing down a 3.754 at 328.62 mph. Next, she faced Troy Coughlin, Jr., and dispatched of him with a dominant 3.745 at 330.88 mph over his 3.822 at 320.66 mph.
And she was feeling mighty confident following her round-two win.
“It feels good to be back in a car that we want to call our race car,” Brittany Force said. “We got our racecar back, and I said it all weekend long, Epping’s it for us. We’re ready to take home that first win of the season, and good job to my guys, we’re going to do it here.”
Then came the Semifinals, where she had to face off against former Top Fuel champ Shawn Langdon. Langdon never left the line, but Brittany still threw down a 3.731 at 331.69 mph. As her team dialed in her Monster Energy nitro dragster, she just kept getting faster. And she was going to have to keep that up to defeat three-time and defending Top Fuel Dragster Champion Antron Brown, plus she was going to have to do her best to match Brown on the tree.
She had been leaving just a little late all day long, and at the previous round two weeks prior to the showdown in New England, she lost in round two based entirely on her slower reaction time. She knew she had a car that could’ve won that weekend, and she knew it at New England Dragway, too. If her crew did their job on setup, Brittany knew she had to cut a light with Brown to take home her first Wally of 2017.
At the green, Brown cut a blistering .050 light, but Brittany cut her fastest light of the day, too, and her .055 RT was close enough for her car to do work down the rest of the 1000-foot track. Brown stayed close, but couldn’t quite hold Brittany Force’s Monster Energy dragster back. She took a monumental win with a 3.716 at 328.62 mph, topping Brown’s 3.728 at 327.98 mph.
“This Monster team has been fighting all season long, and this is a very proud win right now,” Force said. “This is a very proud win! We got lost for a little while, but this Monster team, we never lost focus, and we never gave up, and that is the real reason we’re here today. I’m so proud of my guys [Crew Chief] Alan Johnson and [Consultant] Brian Husen. We got this car back in motion, and she’s hauling ass! We’re excited. We won today, and thank you to all my sponsors, Monster Energy, Auto Club, Chevy, Peak, Advance Auto Parts, PPG, Mac Tools... Wooo! We did it!”
Brittany’s win was the fourth of her young Top Fuel Dragster career, and with the win she qualifies for the Traxxas Nitro Shootout in Indianapolis this September. She has now moved up to sixth in points behind a group of top-fuel legends as the series heads to the Summernationals in Englishtown, New Jersey, this coming weekend.
