Imagine interviewing a machine gun. That’s what it is like talking with John Force. The 15-time NHRA Funny Car Champion is the sport’s most popular driver

Californian John Force is extremely well known in the United States, but hardly at all outside the country’s borders. Why is he so well known at home? It’s because as well as being one of the most dominant drag racers of all-time, with over 1000 wins, he is an instant quote machine that talks as fast as his 300+mph quarter-mile runs.

He is the life and soul, a non-stop- livewire, and in another world could easily be a stand-up comedian. I twice had the pleasure of spending a day with him at his factory in Yorba Linda for RACER www.racer.com, and each time ended up with so much material we could have filled the entire magazine – and more. Here is a brief selection of many anecdotes.

His drag racing career actually started in Australia in 1974, and straight away came the first story. “I didn’t have a licence, I’d never been in a professional drag race, and we were bad. I didn’t have a clue, but it meant the organisers could introduce me as ‘American John Force’. I was on fire every week for three months it seemed. I’ve seen more burns units that State Parks.

“The only thing that saved me racing there was that I set a new national record on the opening day,” he said. “The promoter came to me and said ‘since that opening day, you’ve been terrible, you’ve burnt all your engines.’ So I told him he’d better send me home then. His reply was: ‘Well, you can swim back, because you suck.’

“We were milking the media there though, and the Sydney papers were running headlines about me. We were wearing big ol’ cowboy hats and boots in the pictures – I’d never worn a cowboy hat in my life! They all thought we were John Wayne… That’s when I realised the power of the media. I could give my own line of BS, and these people would love me.”

Force quickly became a sponsor’s dream when he returned to the States (“This guy can’t hit his own ass, but boy can he talk”).

As we set up for the RACER cover photo shoot, Force launched into a load of one-liners as chit chat. “I saw Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder… I never had a physique like that, even in my best days. Look at the guys in Formula 1 and IndyCars. These guys look like movie stars and can drive like hell. Which backyard farm do they grow them in?”

Or on the exhilaration of blasting away from the lights, and acceleration to 300mph and more in no time at all: “It’s about 4gs when you leave the line. They compare it with the Space Shuttle. But I’ve never been in the Space Shuttle.”

As we got closer to the shoot, he came out with this: “You guys at RACER have a great way of portraying race car drivers, and I want to be seen as I am – an overweight, blue-collared guy who gets the job done.”

To give an idea of his popularity, in 2001 he had an open day for his fans at his race factory, which is in the middle of a shopping complex. An estimated 23,000 people turned up, and ruined the trade for all the shops around it. So much so the local council refused to let him repeat it the following year. One of his sponsors was there: “Burger King brought 15,000 buns with them,” he laughed, “and they were all gone in four hours.”

Which leads to one of my favourite stories. “Burger King has been a long-time partner of ours, and you can tell I like them by looking at me. One day we had the big execs coming for a meeting, and the team thought it would be good for me personally to collect them at the airport. So I jumped in the car, and went and picked them up – forgetting that the back of my car was littered with empty KFC cartons! I told them I was just checking up on their rivals…”

As you can tell, he and his family were tailor-made for a TV series like the Osbournes, and sure enough it came. Driving Force was a thoroughly entertaining warts and all reality show about Mr Non-Stop, his wife and three girls.

There are so many more stories to tell –this really is scratching the surface – and we will revisit John Force for part two later in the month as part of a special series based on the photos RACER magazine did. There are some of the out-take Polaroids by photographer Robert Kerian here to give you a tease, so keep an eye out for the real thing!

Special thanks to RACER magazine, www.racer.com, NHRA, and of course John Force Racing, www.johnforce.com

By Andy Hallbery, follow me on Twitter @hallbean

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NHRA: Can you feel the Force? is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

At the Assen Centennial Classic 1998, events were decided on regularity of lap times. Italy’s nine-times world champion Carlo Ubbiali, then aged 68, was a clear winner in his class.

His face was weathered from years of riding in pudding-basin helmets and goggles, but he was still a class act, and such a contrast to today’s small-bore riders.

Ubbiali was never flashy, kept his own council and did not have one major crash in a decade when ‘circuit safety’ was an oxymoron. He was nicknamed “The Fox” for good reason, often luring rivals into a race-long duel and then doing them cold with decisive moves on the last lap.

Born in Bergamo on September 24, 1929, he began competing in 1947 and won a gold medal in the 1949 International Six-Day Trial.

Ubbiali won 39 classics between 1950 and 1960, first with Mondial but the majority with MV-Agusta. He was double world 125/250 champion in 1956, ’59 and ’60 and, we might surmise, adept at MV team politics.

He showed his good judgment again by retiring at the top, just as he turned 31 at the end of 1960. He’d just lost his brother and confidant Maurizio. He could sense Count Agusta was cutting back his race effort and would have seen the growing 125/250 challenges of Honda’s multis and MZ’s two-strokes.

A new champion would soon emerge from the same part of Italy, namely Giacomo Agostini, and he eclipsed Ubbiali as Italy’s most successful racer. Today, Agostini, Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi are the only Italians who’ve won more GPs.

This against the likes of Tarquinio Provini, Cecil Sanford, Luigi Taveri and (in 1954-55) top NSU riders Werner Hass and H-P Muller, and in an era when the there might be as few as six GPs in a season.

by Don Cox

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Legends: Carlo Ubbiali is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

As a galaxy of stars get ready for the 50^th running of sportscars at Daytona this weekend at the 24 Hours we celebrate the  event’s most successful marque: Porsche

There are two things that are great about the Rolex Daytona 24 Hours, as it is now. Firstly, you know it’s the start of another racing season, and secondly, as other championships haven’t started yet, it brings a mix of top-line drivers from all-disciplines around the world to ‘have a go’.

One all-rounder to hit the record books in many ways was “Quick” Vic Elford. This is what he achieved in 1968: He won the Monte Carlo Rally in a Porsche 911, then a week later – yes, a week later – scored Porsche’s first 24 Hour win, at Daytona in the 907. It was the first of many endurance race wins for the German manufacturer.

In that summer Elford also made his Formula 1 debut, finishing fourth, and if that wasn’t enough won the terrifying Targa Florio road race that year too. Later in his career, he added NASCAR, Can-Am and rallycross to his resumé…

His Daytona win, with Rolf Stommelen and Jochen Neerpasch was a landmark, though, Porsche’s first of – to date – 18 wins at the high-banked Florida track. Not only was it the first, they filled the podium too.

Among Porsche’s 18 wins at Daytona came a spectacular run of victories between 1977 and 1983. To put this in perspective, fierce rival Ferrari won just five times between 1963-1998.

And there is no doubt that the iconic Porsche 917 from the 1970s – whether in the legendary light blue and orange colours, or different liveries – even 40 years on, is a work of art. Porsche’s sportscar success has continued, as has the Stuttgart company’s commitment to motorsport. As the cars and stars from all worlds of racing at Daytona for this year’s 24 Hours, the grid will again be full of Porsches racing for the GT class win, and continue the legacy.

By Andy Hallbery. Follow me on Twitter @hallbean

Follow @MotorSportRetro on Twitter

50th Anniversary of 24 hours at Daytona: 1968 – Vic Elford wins for Porsche is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Silverstone Auctions’ upcoming Race Retro sale will present automobilia collectors with an incredibly rare opportunity to own a pair of artifacts from the Formula One legend – one of Ayrton Senna’s race-used helmets and racing suits.

Adorned with Senna’s iconic yellow, green, blue and white livery and appropriate sponsorship, the helmet was used by Senna during his 1991 season with McLaren. It comes via Ron Dennis and a private collector and sports an authentication certificate from McLaren.

Seriously desirable and seriously rare, it features an appropriately serious price tag. It is expected to fetch betwen  £42,000 and £50,000.

Also up for auction at the Race Retro sale will be one of Senna’s race suits from the same period. It features Senna’s full set of sponsors for the season and is personalised with the Brazilian flag and ‘Ayrton Senna’ across the belt. The suit is expected to fetch £22,000 – £30,000.

The Race Retro Classic Car Sale will be held by Silverstone Auctions on the 25th of February, 2012, at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire. The lots will be available for viewing on the 24th.

Via Silverstone Auctions

Photos via Silverstone Auctions

For Sale: Ayrton Senna’s Helmet and Race Suit is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Rubens Barrichello, affectionately known as Rubinho, is the the most experienced driver in Formula 1 history, thanks to 322 starts with Jordan, Stewart, Ferrari, Honda, Brawn and Williams.

The likelable Brazillian made little impact on his debut for Jordan at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami in 1993, however by the third race he was able to show his talent by running as high as second in the pouring rain, having passed the Williams duo of Hill and Prost. His star was on the rise and strong showings for Jordan cemented his place on the grid.

Barrichello then joined Stewart for 1997, the highlight being an outstanding second place at Monaco. Rubens continued his consistent results during 1998 and 1999 and attracted the attention of Jean Todt. For 2000 he would be a Ferrari driver.

It didn’t take Rubens long to claim his first Grand Prix victory, by winning the Germn Grand Prix in 2000. Despite racking up nine grand prix victories, five years as number two to Michael Schumacher forced Rubens to join Honda in 2006.

The Honda experience was hugely dissapointing, but there was light at the end of the tunnel when the team morphed into Brawn for 2009 and Barrichello found himself on the front row for the season opening Australian Grand Prix. Rubens won twice for Brawn, but it was Button who took the Championship.

Barrichello raced for Williams in 2010 and 2011, but there would be no more podiums.

So now, sadly, it looks like we may have seen the last of this talented and passionate racer on the Formula 1 grid.

This is the latest in our series of  photo specials showcasing the stunning images from the Cahier Archive. The collection, by photographers Bernard Cahier and his son Paul-Henri are part of a massive collection of 400 000 originals of which 17 000+ pictures are currently available on their website.

Images: TheCahierArchive©

Buy prints of these photographs from just $49

Best of the Cahier Archive: Rubens Barrichello is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

For a world-famous multiple award-winning actor, Paul Newman kept a low profile at the race track. He was just ‘one of the team’.

Paul Newman was one of those guys that’s hard to describe. You see him on-screen larger than life, yet when not in front the camera he was – I won’t use the word reclusive – I will just say ‘normal’.

But he was very far from normal, just a quiet human being who rarely gave interviews. He was also a bloody good racing driver, winning his class and finishing in second place overall at Le Mans in 1979 with Dick Barbour and Rolf Stommelen. At the age of 70, he won his class in the Rolex Daytona 24 Hours in 1995. He did it again, amazingly in 2005. Aged 80.

With his passing in September 2008 came the end of an era, not just for the film world, but the racing one too. As a team-owner with long-time friend Carl Haas, they built a formidable IndyCar team. When the previous driver list involves Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Michael Andretti, Cristiano de Matta, Sebastien Bourdais, and many others then you know that wasn’t just a play toy for him. He took it seriously and passionately.

For all the success, sadly the Newman/Haas era is now over. Paul Newman has passed and the other half of the team, Carl Haas (who famously always had a cigar in his mouth which was never lit), decided that despite a promising year in 2011, enough was enough.

That is no reason, however, not to celebrate an extremely modest guy, who was extremely good in films like “Cat on a hot Tin Roof”, and then… where do you stop? “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, “The Sting”, and so many more. It was the film “Winning” which enthused Newman about motorsport, and set his love of racing off.

As a racing driver he was no slouch, and after his passing in 2008 Mario Andretti was quoted as saying. “He really was one of us.”

I’ve not even begun on his charity work, again done pretty much under the radar. He founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, and through his “Newman’s own Salad Dressings” (which I buy to this day) has raised over $300m to fund holiday camps for seriously ill children.

A fellow IndyCar team owner and chat show host, David Letterman paid this tribute to his friend in 2008.

There are many reasons to remember Paul Newman: Hollywood Superstar, race team owner, philanthropist, unassuming guy. But in the week of the Daytona 24 Hours, let’s think of him as a quality race car driver – and all-round good guy.

By Andy Hallbery . Follow me @hallbean on twitter.

Paul Newman: Behind Blue Eyes is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

In America in the mid-20th century carnivals and county fairs would hand out cigars as prizes for anyone who might win at the games offered on the midway.  Failure to win might elicit the response “Close, but no cigar.”

Well for Tony Adamowicz and Ronnie Bucknum at the Daytona 24-Hour race in 1971 those words would ring loud and long in their ears following the race.

At Daytona in 1971 few expected that Ferrari had much of a chance against the formidable Porsche 917.  The previous year Porsche had practically swept the field in winning the Manufacturer’s Championship and the only points race won by Ferrari that year was at Sebring after the Gulf 917s succumbed to faulty wheel hubs.

There was a glimmer of hope for Ferrari at Daytona in 1971 in the form of the beautifully prepared Penske-Sunoco Ferrari 512M that was driven by Mark Donohue and David Hobbs.

While the Donohue/Hobbs car won the pole position and led the early stages of the race they began experiencing mechanical difficulties.  On top of that a horrendous accident in the night put them in the pits for over an hour for repairs and when they returned to the track the car’s body was literally held together with duct tape.

In the meantime the Rodriguez/Oliver 917 was running like a train on rails and continued to build up a lead.  After 21 hours of racing their win was thought to be assured and they were 213 miles ahead of the second place NART Ferrari 512S of Tony Adamowicz and Ronnie Bucknum.

With three hours left, and with Jackie Oliver at the wheel the transmission on the 917 crapped out and he coasted off the high banks and down to the Porsche pit with the transmission stuck in top gear.

Under normal circumstances this would be a simple repair since they had plenty of time.  Just swap out the damaged transmission for a working one like Ford did in 1967 when they swapped out no less than twelve units in their Ford Mk. IIs.  However, rules changes by the FIA prevented this and some questioned if there was enough time to rebuild the transmission.

The John Wyer Gulf Team decided to go for it and in an amazingly short 92 minutes rebuilt the transmission.  The time was now 1:05 pm with just under two hours left in the race.  The Porsche had lost its huge lead and was now three laps behind the ailing Adamowicz/Bucknum Ferrari with the Dononue/Hobbs Ferrari coming up fast.

The “little Mexican” Pedro Rodriguez was tasked with regaining the lead and did so in a brilliant piece of driving that took him only 33 minutes.  What followed then were two unscheduled pit stops for Porsche, both for tires.  A brief rain shower forced them to pit for rain tires and when it cleared up they pitted again for slicks.  The Adamowicz/Bucknum Ferrari stayed out the entire time on slicks and regained the lead when the Porsche pitted for tires.

Once back on the track with new slicks Rodriguez continued his aggressive driving style and ended up beating the Ferrari by just over a lap.  It was the closest finish at a Daytona 24 hour race up to that time.

The photo above shows the then leading NART Ferrari 512S of Tony Adamowicz and Ronnie Bucknum as it brakes for turn three at Daytona.  The flames belching from the exhaust were caused by broken valve springs.  Ronnie Bucknum admitted to Tony Adamowicz many years later that he had been running the car at higher RPM’s that he should have and that caused the broken valve springs.  As a result they had to slow the car down to save it for the finish.  If not for that they could have won the race.  “Close, but no cigar.”

Close, But No Cigar: Ferrari 512S – 1971 24 Hours of Daytona is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

This is the stunning car collection of Juha Kankkunen, winner of  23 world rallies and four drivers’ world championships and the only man to become world champion with three different manufacturers.

Talking to insideline.com about his collection Kankuunen said: “It started as a crazy idea in 1992. I wanted something physical that my family could enjoy from my career. Carlos [Sainz] has a car and Didier [Ariol] has a couple, but I wanted to go further.”

The collection is housed at the Finnish farm on which he grew up and stands as a testament to a life spent at and often beyond the limit.

One of Kankunnens’s favourite machines is the The Peugeot 205 T16 Evo 2, the very car in which he won the Swedish Rally in 1986. “In ’86 I went from a rear-wheel-drive Toyota to a four-wheel-drive Peugeot,” says Kankkunen. “It required a totally different style of driving but it only took me three months to adjust and I won the second rally I entered. When you’re a kid you can learn anything quickly.”

Kankkunen won his first World Championship with Peugeot in 1986, but the infamous Group B cars were banned a year later following the death of his close friend Henri Toivonen.

“The cars were dangerous if you gave them to a normal driver,” reckons Kankkunen, “but the professional drivers could handle them. We knew what was happening. The step to the Group A cars that followed was too big. It was like going from Formula 1 to Formula Ford.”

Images: Insideline.com

Photos: WRC World Champion Juha Kankkunen’s Car Collection is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

In 1988, Swan Breweries showcased leading Australian sports people in television advertisements, with the catchline: “they said you’d never make it”.

In a first for Australian motorcycling, reigning world 500 champion Wayne Gardner was featured. It was further proof of how much Gardner’s achievements changed local perceptions of motorcycling racing.

Gardner was a catalyst for two major developments – live national television coverage of all the GPs and Australia having a world-championship GP. He was tireless in promoting the event.

Schooled in dirt track, then on 250/350 Yamahas and finally on Superbikes, Wayne left Australia in 1981 having never won a national title. Success with Honda in Britain earned him a crack at 500 GP on an RS500R triple in 1983.

In 1986, Gardner won the Spanish GP at Jarama in his first appearance as a full works GP rider on the Honda NSR500 V4. He won again at Assen and a sodden Silverstone. The following year, Honda improved the bike and Gardner took the championship with seven victories, the first Australian premier-class crown.

The 1988 bike had issues and Gardner was second in the title, and then came the fabulous victory in the ’89 Australian GP. He won it again in 1990, riding with a broken wrist.

Determination personified, Gardner pretty much willed himself to take the last of his 18 GP victories at Donington Park in 1992, ahead of Wayne Rainey. At other times, his determination hurt him.

Apart from GP success, he won two Castrol Six-Hour races, three Swann Insurance Series, five British crowns and four Suzuka Eight-Hour races. At one stage, he had so many wins in Japan that he was nicknamed ‘Mr 100 Per Cent’.

Switching to cars, Gardner raced successfully in Australia and Japan. And now at age 52, he’s taken his two sons motorcycle racing in Spain.

Legends: Wayne Gardner is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Go for a fang with El Maestro at Monza.

Video: Fangio + Monza + Alfa = must see is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.