Courtney Force married IndyCar driver Graham Rahal in November, and on their honeymoon in Fiji, America's fastest couple simply couldn't do without an adrenaline fix.
"We swam with sharks," Courtney said this week. "That was the craziest thing I've ever done. I have a fear of merely snorkeling in the open water, so it took a little bit of convincing to actually get me in the water. But yeah, that was incredible."
The honeymoon -- and the storybook wedding that preceded it on the edge of a cliff in Santa Barbara County, California -- created some distance from the first rough patch in the NHRA Funny Car driver's career.
A winless season and 11th-place finish in the points, coming a year after she won a Funny Car female-best four events, has given Force something to prove this year, starting with this weekend's 56th annual Circle K NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California.
Force is one of drag racing's most popular drivers, the stylish and personable youngest daughter of 16-time Mello Yellow Drag Racing Series champion John Force. At 27, she is the all-time leading female winner in the Funny Car class with seven event titles. But her off year has given ammunition to skeptics who wonder how much of her success has been due to her dad's normally very fast cars.
"Last year was definitely a rough season for our Traxxas team," Courtney said. "But I think every driver, every team, goes through their ups and downs. It was a season that can make us stronger. We learn from it and take a positive attitude into this season."
Trapped in a rebuilding year
John Force Racing had a rare off year after suffering sponsorship setbacks and adjusting to a switch from Ford to Chevrolet. Still, 66-year-old John Force and Robert Hight, Courtney's brother-in-law, both won twice in Funny Car, and Courtney bowed out in the first round 15 times in 24 events.
Courtney qualified on the pole twice and made one final round. She had a career-best elapsed time late in the year at Las Vegas. Over the long haul, the recurring and frustrating early exits sapped her confidence and kept her out of the Countdown to the Championship.
All of that had John drawing on the experience of his own rough start in the 1970s to try and keep his daughter's spirits up.
"I told her the losing will only make the winning taste sweeter," John recalled. "When you don't win, you've got to take that losing situation and turn it around as a driver. You're not expected to tune the car, but you have to support your crew chiefs and your team. You can't get into that deal that it's all about you. I said at her age, I hadn't won a national event."
Courtney has done far more than win an event. She took a relatively easy path to the 7,000-horsepower Funny Car division, won a race and took Rookie of the Year honors in 2012 and won two more races the following year. In 2014, her four wins included the Kansas Nationals, the coveted 100th NHRA victory by a female driver.
Tony Pedregon, a retired two-time Funny Car champion and current analyst with the new Fox NHRA broadcast team, says Courtney's skeptics don't see the whole picture.
"I've heard some say, 'Well, Courtney, she's the daughter of John Force, and she was handed everything,' " Pedregon said. "That's true to a certain degree. But we're talking about a high-powered, not-very-safe racecar. What Courtney has done as a driver -- forget about how she got here -- can't be ignored. If you can get into one of these cars and not just negotiate it from the start to finish line, but also do so competitively against the upper-tier drivers of our sport, you've earned your stripes and respect."
Pedregon says Courtney is a good but not-yet great driver who has room to improve in the area of car control. And with the competition having gotten better over the last year, she'll need to make subtle gains.
"When you have two cars that are equal in performance, the one thing money can't buy is the difference the driver can make," he said. "Races are won by thousandths of a second or by inches or feet."
Helping sell the brand
The NHRA has undergone an image makeover for 2016 and, for the first time, a majority of its races will be shown on live TV. As with any professional sport, the product is more appealing when the stars are doing well. Courtney, who consistently fares well in fan popularity polls and draws large crowds to the John Force Racing pits, is one of those stars.
Of course, she is but one of several women competing in a series that offers more diversity than any other major form of racing. Among the others are Courtney's sister Brittany Force in Top Fuel Dragster, two-time defending Pro Stock Champion Erica Enders and Alexis DeJoria, who, like Courtney, is vying to become the first woman to win a Funny Car championship.
"People take to Courtney because she's very well mannered," Pedregon said. "She comes off in a humble manner, and it's hard not to like her. And then when someone who is so unassuming gets in this type of race car, you don't see that every day."
If preseason testing is an indication, Courtney could be in line for a rebound season. The team tested its Chevrolet Funny Cars recently in Phoenix, and after struggling early, Courtney posted a career-best 3.890-second time at 323.89 mph.
Ronnie Thompson, who worked on Brittany's dragster last year, is Courtney's new co-crew chief with Danny Hood, who is married to another Force sister, Ashley, who retired from driving in 2011 to start a family. A new and faster Camaro body is expected to debut in April.
"We'll have to see how we do at Pomona, but we're definitely staying positive and excited going into this new season," Courtney said.
So it's back into the water -- with the sharks of the NHRA.
