BROWNSBURG, IN (May 30, 2011) --- The inaugural trip to the Indy 500 was a whirlwind of fans, drivers, media and overall excitement for the drivers of John Force Racing. Over the course of three days John Force, Robert Hight, Mike Neff and Courtney Force signed autographs and mingled with fans on three different occasions at the John Force Road Show at the corner of 16th Avenue and Georgetown located just outside the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. JFR also hosted housands of fans on Saturday before the 500 at their Brownsburg shop during the 5th annual Brownsburg Motorsports Network event.
"I just want to thank all the fans that came to our shop on Saturday. It was a busy day and we had people coming and going for over hour solid. I want to especially thank all my people for working all day to make sure everything went well. That means a lot to me and to the Brownsburg community," said John Force.
On Friday Force as well as Hight, Courtney and Neff signed autographs at the John Force Road Show. A constantly growing crowd was impressed with all six of the Funny Cars on display and they enjoyed the videos highlighting NHRA Full Throttle Racing as well as information about other motorsports series. After the autograph session the group moved inside The Speedway for the first time. Joined by NHRA President Tom Compton, the JFR group explored pit road and the famed Indy garage area. Throughout the afternoon fans and crewman stopped the group and asked for autographs or to pose for photos. John
Force took a few minutes to talk with Indy legend AJ Foyt. Force was impressed with the size of The Speedway especially the sprawling press room where he and Compton met with a number of national media members to talk about the 2011 NHRA season, his first impressions of Indy and his young drivers.
"It was an honor to meet AJ Foyt. He is a real Texas gentleman. We walked and walked all over that place. They offered me a golf cart but I wanted to be out there with the fans. We got to spend some time with Chip Ganassi and we just missed seeing Snake," said the 15-time world champ. "I can't thank the folks at the Indy 500 enough they rolled out the red carpet for us, probably because we had Tom Compton with us. I can't thank him enough for taking extra time out of his schedule to go with us. We got to spread the gospel for three days and on Sunday our Road Show was packed. I was worn out at the end but that is what we do. I can't wait to get to Englishtown."
On Saturday morning Force attended the AARWBA Indy breakfast where he again talked about how special attending his first Indy 500 was and what it meant to be talking about the NHRA to a new crowd of fans.
"I want to thank the Hulman-George family for inviting me to watch the race from their family's suite. That is something this ole truck driver from California never thought would happen. It was an unbelievable weekend," concluded Force.
On Sunday morning Force wrapped up his media obligations with a pre-race sit-down interview with WISH-TV. Force watched the race as a guest of the Hulman-George family and was blown away by the overall crowd and atmosphere.
