{"id":3835,"date":"2010-11-22T07:15:24","date_gmt":"2010-11-22T12:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2010-11-22T07:01:29","modified_gmt":"2010-11-22T12:01:29","slug":"john-force-honored-spirit-ford-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/john-force-honored-spirit-ford-award\/","title":{"rendered":"JOHN FORCE HONORED WITH SPIRIT OF FORD AWARD"},"content":{"rendered":"

JOHN FORCE HONORED WITH SPIRIT OF FORD AWARD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Homestead, FL, Nov. 20, 2010 \u2013 John Force, who captured his record
\n15th NHRA Funny Car Championship with a come-from-behind victory last
\nweekend in Pomona, CA, was presented the prestigious Spirit of Ford
\nAward in a surprise ceremony here today at Ford Championship Weekend
\nin the Homestead-Miami Speedway media center.
\n
\nThe Spirit of Ford Award is the highest honor Ford Motor Company
\nbestows for lifetime achievement in auto racing, on and off the race
\ntrack. Force becomes the 24th recipient, joining an international
\nlist of honorees from all forms of racing and racing media.<\/p>\n

He was given his award in a surprise presentation today by Edsel B.
\nFord II, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford and a member of
\nthe company\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegend is a word often used in sports,\u201d said Ford. \u201cBut there truly
\nare legends in auto racing and John Force is one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to present this award to John not just because of his
\nrecord on the track \u2013 which is Hall of Fame worthy \u2013 but also what he
\nhas done off the track to help move forward the sport of drag racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Force, who came back from career-threatening injuries suffered in a
\ncrash in Dallas in 2007, captured his record 15th NHRA Funny Car title
\nthis past weekend in Pomona, coming from behind to win the series\u2019
\nfinal two races.<\/p>\n

He has a record 15 personal championships, a record 132 victories, and
\nhas led his team to 17 championships in the last 21 years, a record
\nunmatched in any form of sport.<\/p>\n

Following the testing death of his teammate Eric Medlen in March 2007,
\nForce turned his grief into something positive for the sport, leading
\nthe way with Ford Motor Company engineers into designing a safer
\ncockpit for Nitro cars, a design credited with possibly saving his
\nlife in his own crash later that year. The effort was named \u201cThe Eric
\nMedlen Project,\u201d in honor of his fallen teammate.<\/p>\n

He and Ford have continued to develop a safer and strong chassis for
\nthe sport, and his championship this year confirmed the
\ncompetitiveness of the design.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn has tirelessly promoted the sport of motor racing far and wide,
\nwith his entertaining stories and his friendship with racers from all
\nforms of the sport,\u201d said Ford. \u201cIt\u2019s because of what he has done, and
\nthe way he has honored the sport, his fellow competitors, and the
\nfans, that he is truly deserving of the Spirit of Ford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spirit of Ford Awards Winners<\/p>\n

Bill Stroppe, 1988<\/p>\n

Bob Glidden, 1989<\/p>\n

Chris Economaki, 1990<\/p>\n

Richard Petty, 1992<\/p>\n

Bob Bondurant, 1993<\/p>\n

Mario Andretti, 1994<\/p>\n

Jackie Stewart, 1994<\/p>\n

Bud Moore, 1995<\/p>\n

Parnelli Jones, 1996<\/p>\n

Jim Clark, 1997<\/p>\n

Phil Hill, 1998<\/p>\n

Stirling Moss, 1998<\/p>\n

Bill France, Sr., 1998
\nBill France Jr. 1998<\/p>\n

Junie Donlavey, Jr., 1999<\/p>\n

Glen Wood, 1999
\nLeonard Wood, 1999<\/p>\n

Dan Gurney, 1999<\/p>\n

Denise McCluggage, 2000<\/p>\n

Bill Elliott, 2000<\/p>\n

Carroll Shelby, 2001<\/p>\n

Wally Parks, 2001<\/p>\n

Ned Jarrett, 2003<\/p>\n

Mose Nowland, 2005<\/p>\n

Jack Roush , 2006<\/p>\n

John Force, 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHN FORCE HONORED WITH SPIRIT OF FORD AWARD Homestead, FL, Nov. 20, 2010 \u2013 John Force, who captured his record 15th NHRA Funny Car Championship with a come-from-behind victory last weekend in Pomona, CA, was presented the prestigious Spirit of Ford Award in a surprise ceremony here today at Ford Championship Weekend in the Homestead-Miami […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4151],"tags":[15803],"class_list":["post-3835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drag-racing","tag-drag-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}