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NORWALK, OH (July 6, 2012) --- Eleven races into the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season top rookie of the year contenders Courtney Force and Alexis DeJoria are coming off their two most successful weekends to date. Last weekend in Chicago, Courtney Force raced to her first career Funny Car final round, falling to veteran Jeff Arend. Just weeks before Force’s break-out event, DeJoria raced to her first professional Funny Car final round at the Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals before losing to a surging Ron Capps. Both rookies have been competitive on the track but Force has a decided edge in round wins and has maintained her position in the Top Ten in points throughout the season.
Force moved up from 9th to 7th based on her Chicago performance and she is just two points behind Arend and the 6th place spot in the Full Throttle standings. DeJoria’s final round appearance in Bristol coupled with her semi-final finish in Chicago moved her up to 11th place.
In both their head-to-head meetings Force has bested DeJoria; the most dramatic race was the recent semi-final round in Chicago where Force outran DeJoria en route to her first Funny Car final. There were a number of critical point ramifications at stake on that run as well as the simple fact of Force wanting to hold off her main competitor for the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award.
Below is a side by side comparison of the two leading candidates for the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future award presented at the season ending banquet to the Rookie of the Year. Stats are only for the eleven races of 2012 and do not include the four races DeJoria competed in at the end of 2011 in advance of her rookie campaign.
Category | Courtney Force | Advantage | Alexis DeJoria
Round Record | 10-11 | COURTNEY | 6-10
Semi-finals | 3 | COURTNEY | 2
Finals 1 (Chicago) | TIE 1 (Bristol)
Avg. Pt. Pos. | 8 | COURTNEY | 14
Head-to-Head | 2-0 | COURTNEY | 0-2
Avg. Qual. Pos. | 10.3 | TIE | 10.6
Qual. Bonus Pts. | 9 (pts. in 3 races) | COURTNEY | 2 (pts. in 2 races)
Avg. ET in elims | 4.247 sec | COURTNEY | 4.327
Avg. RT in elims | .095 | TIE | .097
DNQs | 0 | COURTNEY | 1
Record vs. John Force | 1-0 | COURTNEY | 2-2
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