John Force, a 75-year-old drag racing icon born in Bell Gardens and now residing in Yorba Linda, is in rehab two weeks after suffering a traumatic brain injury in a 300-mph crash.
Southern California drag racer John Force was transferred to outpatient care weeks after a terrifying 300-mph incident that left the 16-time NHRA champion hospitalized with a severe brain injury, his family announced this week.
The 75-year-old Force, who was born in Bell Gardens and now lives in Yorba Linda, returned home on Monday after spending 15 days in a Virginia hospital and a spell at an Arizona rehabilitation center, according to his relatives.
“He finally gets to sleep in his own bed,” daughter Ashley Force Hood said in a statement issued by John Force Racing on Tuesday. Daughter Brittany Force shared an Instagram post with a snapshot of her father smiling and giving a thumbs up from his hospital bed.
Force was released from the Barrow Neurological Institute, where he had been receiving treatment since early July, according to the statement. While healing at home, he will undergo outpatient treatment as well as speech, occupational, and physical therapy for any remaining short-term memory and cognitive difficulties, according to the statement.
“Peace out, Phoenix! “After 30 days, my dad is finally returning home, where we will continue outpatient therapy,” Brittany Force wrote on Instagram. “These next steps to recovery will definitely be a family effort!”
On June 23, Force suffered a traumatic brain injury, fractured his sternum, and hurt his right wrist in a crash during his first-round run in Funny Car eliminations at Virginia Motorsports Park. After his engine exploded near the finish line, the car crossed the strip’s centerline and collided into the driver’s side left concrete guard wall. The car then careened back across the track and collided with the other wall.
Force, who attended Cerritos College, was conscious and communicating with emergency personnel immediately following the catastrophic incident. He was evaluated by an NHRA medical team before being evacuated off the course.
Force, who won his 157th NHRA race in New Hampshire this year, was critically injured in a 2007 incident in Ennis, Texas. His impressive NHRA Funny Car career began in 1978. Force won his first NHRA title in 1990, and he went on to win ten more between 1990 and 2000. Force won ten Funny Car championships in a row from 1993 to 2002.
Brittany, 37, has won two NHRA Drag Racing Series Top Fuel dragster championships. Daughters Courtney Fallon Force-Rahal and Ashley Corinne Force Hood also raced in the NHRA Funny Car Series.
