ASHLEY FORCE HOOD
President, John Force Entertainment

Long before she learned to manipulate one of the world’s most powerful race cars and years before she put her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang in the winners’ circle in back-to-back appearances in the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals (2009-2010), Ashley Force Hood earned a degree from Cal State-Fullerton in Radio, TV and Film.

This year, the 28-year-old will begin to make maximum use of that degree as the president of John Force Entertainment, a company tasked with the responsibility of taking the JFR brand to new markets and new audiences.

Because of the demands of that job and the fact that she and her husband Dan are expecting their first child, Force Hood is at least temporarily stepping out of the cockpit of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang in which she set an NHRA speed record (316.38 miles per hour) just a year ago.

“I won’t be driving a race car this season,” Force Hood acknowledged, “but I will still represent Castrol, Ford, Auto Club, BrandSource and Mac Tools; I will still be involved in media, commercials and interviews; and I will definitely still be rooting on my teammates to go after that 2011 Championship.”

She also will spend time coaching youngest sister Courtney, who this year will be testing a Ford Mustang Funny Car in anticipation of a 2012 pro debut.

Among the goals of John Force Entertainment are the creation of a real-life TV show similar to “Driving Force,” the breakthrough series that aired for two years on A&E Network, and the completion of the authorized John Force biography.

Force Hood also will oversee the completion of an interactive “day at the races” children’s book she has authored, a graphic novel featuring a “superhero” version of her father and JFR-generated driver segments that will be available on the internet.

“This is a great opportunity for me to use the education my parents provided to

benefit the overall John Force Racing effort,” Force Hood said. “It will be different not being in a race car because that’s been my job for the last seven years, but Dan and I are excited about starting a family and I’m excited about the projects we’re going to be developing for John Force Entertainment.”

Force Hood will work directly with Brent Travers, former producer of the “Driving Force” series, who has been hired as creative consultant within the new company.

With 16 final round appearances, 15 No. 1 starts, a national speed record, back-to-back Top 3 finishes and second team Auto Racing All-America recognition in 2009, Force Hood is stepping back while at the top of her game.

Significantly, with last year’s repeat victory at Indianapolis, which made her just the fourth Funny Car driver ever to win successive titles in the sport’s biggest race, she showed that she was more than just an occasional contender on the NHRA tour.

After an apprenticeship in sportsman racing where she won five times in Jerry Darien’s A/Fuel dragster, Ashley demonstrated in her rookie Funny Car season flashes of the form that would make her one of the most popular young stars in the sport.

Winner of the Auto Club of Southern California’s Road to the Future Award in 2007 as Rookie-of-the-Year, she became the first woman to win an NHRA Funny Car event a year later and, in 2009, became the first to lead the points during the NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoffs (before ultimately finishing second).

Regardless of what the future holds, Ashley’s legacy will be that she forever changed the perception of Funny Car racing and, significantly, of women race car drivers. Before she turned pro, conventional wisdom suggested that the short-wheelbaseFunny Car simply was too physically challenging for a woman.

Ashley proved otherwise. Not only did she contend for the championship, she proved to be terrific in situations in which everything didn’t go according to plan.

When she crashed at Seattle in her rookie year, she was calm and calculated in her assessment of what occurred and what she would have done differently given the opportunity. It would not be the last time she was in trouble on the track. However, it would be the last time she wasn’t able to save her car.

Despite her status as a role model for young women entering the sport, Ashley

never has been comfortable with her characterization as the “most successful female driver in Funny Car history.”

“Yes, I am a female driver, but I had nothing to do with that,” she said. “That was God and my parents. Besides, I had a team of men that worked on my car and it was them and me, working together, that put us in position to compete for the championship.

“Someday, if we could have an all-female team, now that would be something to talk about,” she said. “To have females as the mechanics, the tuners and the driver would be amazing (and) I think it will happen in my lifetime. There are so many girls in Jr. Drag Racing and the sportsman categories and those are the ones that (eventually) will move up to the professional level.”

With her pedigree, her Hollywood good looks and her accessibility, Ashley has enjoyed as much success off the track as on it. In 2008, she accepted the Female Athlete of the Year Award from the Los Angeles-based Jim Murray Memorial Foundation. Before that, she won AOL Sports’ inaugural “World’s Hottest Athlete” poll, beating New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady in a tournament-style final.

One of the stars of Driving Force, which chronicled her development as a driver, she twice appeared on NBC-TV’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as on ABC-TV’s Good Morning, America and on the reality series Designing Spaces.

That’s pretty heady stuff for an admitted tomboy who once considered a career as a crew member, the basis for her decision to take elective courses in auto shop and welding while attending Esperanza High School where she was a varsity cheerleader.

Ashley’s “need for speed,” of course, is all in the genes. In addition to her father, who has won a record 132 NHRA tour events and 15 championships, and youngest sister Courtney, her mother Laurie is licensed to drive a Super Comp dragster and her schoolteaching sister Brittany, 24, an A/Fuel Dragster.

Surprisingly, Ashley never seriously considered a driving career herself until her father sent her to Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing school as a 16th birthday present

“I’m a typical father who always wanted his son to grow up and drive his race car,” Force said, “but I don’t have any sons. I always hoped one of my girls would have an interest – but I didn’t expect it.”

Even though she began racing out of high school, Ashley’s mother insisted that before she embarked on a full-time career, she had to earn her college degree. As a result, she spent her weekends racing and her weekdays in school, ultimately graduating from Cal State-Fullerton in 3½ years.

Considering her new position, looks like it was time well spent.