Name:

Age: 57

Occupation: Professional race car driver

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

Hobbies: Going to the movies, collecting memorabilia

Racing background: The most prolific winner in drag racing history with 120 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, Calif., 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 11 times a runner-up before winning for the first time in 1987. He’s been winning ever since.