John Force was born in Bell Gardens, California on May 4, 1949. Growing up John's family didn't have much money so they lived in a small travel trailer/ mobile home. John was a truck driver early on and had an intense interest in hot rods. At first he could only afford to be a spectator but he finally earned enough money to get his first race car.

During the early years John said he blew his engine up so often and got so much oil on the tracks that the track owners did not want him at their tracks. John met Austin Coil who was part owner/crew chief of the famed "Chi-Town-Hustler" funny car driven by Frank Hawley and the two went to work. Around 1986 Castrol Motor Oil came on board and provided full time sponsorship for John.

For about ten years after Castrol came on board Force and Coil started consistently finishing in the top 5 in the points race and finished first several times during that period of time. John also added a second car and hired Tony Pedragon to drive it. From 1996-2001 John finished 1st. all six years, In 2001 John added a third car and hired long time friend and school teacher Gary Densham to drive it.

John won another championship in 2002, but in 2003 John's second car driven by Tony Pedragon won the Championship. That was the first time since 1992 when Tony's brother Cruz won the Championship that John finished out of first place. At the end of 2003 Tony left John Force Racing to join in a partnership with his brother and Gary Densham departed also.

One of John's crew chiefs, John Medlen, had a son ,Eric, that had been attending engineering school. He told his dad he did not want to pursue an engineering career any longer, he said that he wanted to go to work for John Force Racing. John hired the young man and put him in the #2 funny car that Tony had left. He then promoted his son-in- law Robert Hight, from crew member to driver of the # 3 funny car with Jimmy Prock as the crew chief.

Eric was a quick study and became a very good driver, however, sadly in early 2007 in a testing accident Eric Medlen lost his life. That prompted John Force Racing, Ford Motor Co. and John Medlen to look into what went wrong and make much needed safety changes. Later in the same year at the Texas Motor Plex in Ennis, Texas John crashed on the top end when he deployed his parachutes, it literally separated the car and John was very fortunate to survive that wreck. That accident also brought on many safety changes.

John vowed to return to racing by the start of the 2008 season and after months in rehab and still limping around John was in deed in the drivers seat at the opening race. He won again in 2010 which gives him 15 World Championships. John Force is a drag racer, he loves what he does and the fans adore him.

John now has three daughters that race, Ashley races in Top Fuel Funny Car with her Dad, Courtney and Brittany are racing in Top Alcohol Dragster category. John is bringing Courtney along slowly to compete in Top Fuel Funny Car with He and Ashley while Brittany is a school teacher and competes part time.