Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Brittany Force, daughter of legendary driver John Force, set a new speed record for the 74-year-old drag racing series over the weekend in competition at the Northwest Nationals held at Pacific Raceways outside Seattle, reports Drag Illustrated. She pushed her car to a blistering 341.85 miles per hour in the quarter mile to knock Doug Kalitta out of competition in the semi-finals. In doing so she beat her Funny Car classed teammate Austin Prock’s previous speed record, a 341.68 mile per hour run during the 2024 season finale. Not only is she the fastest driver in NHRA history, but she has five of the top six fastest passes in the Top Fuel category. This isn’t even a competition at this point.
“Obviously, the highlight of our weekend was in the semifinals when we made a killer run and went even faster than our national record,” said Force. “It’s really exciting for this whole team. We work really hard to turn on win lights and put the best numbers up on the board, and we’re hoping that record will hold for a while.”
Pacific Raceways seems to be the place for record-setting performances, perhaps aided by its elevation, a mere 308 feet above sea level, and its relatively cool, wet Pacific Northwest climate. Every weather condition, every nut and bolt in the car, every molecule of rubber in the tires had to be aligned perfectly to make this run happen, and all of it could have gone sideways if Brittany weren’t perhaps the most talented racer in the series with over a decade of Top Fuel experience.
Now that’s what I call fast
Drag racing rewards speed and consistency, and unfortunately Brittany’s car had an issue in the final run with oil pan pressure, which caused the car to automatically shut down to avoid catastrophic deconstruction on track. Despite coming up short in the final, Force still scored enough points for a potential run at a third title, moving up from sixth to fifth in the championship and gaining some momentum with just nine events remaining in the 2025 season. She is 227 points behind leader Shawn Langdon at the moment, and it’s going to take a lot of luck, effort, and speed to catch up to him, but she’s made impressive moves before, so don’t count her out yet.
“Overall, it was a pretty solid outing for this HendrickCars.com team,” noted Force. “We were able to make our way to the final round but, unfortunately, came up short. Pan pressure automatically shut us off in the final. I had no power and was just coasting to the finish line and saw Shawn go around me.”
That’s a pretty dang impressive speed for anyone to run. It’s even more impressive when you think about the fact that the NHRA shortened its drag strips from 1,320 feet to just 1,000 feet for Top Fuel and Funny Car classes as a safety measure in 2008. With another 320 feet of track could Brittany be running 400 mile per hour trap speeds? The world may never know.
