NHRA Funny Car racer Courtney Force will be honored by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever on Wednesday, Aug. 26 during their game with the Los Angeles Sparks at Bankers Life Fieldhouse as part of the Fever’s Inspiring Women Night. This year’s theme for the annual event is “Breaking Barriers in Sports.”
Force, the winningest female Funny Car racer in NHRA history, will be recognized during the pre-game reception alongside Carlie Irsay-Gordon, vice chair and owner of the Indianapolis Colts, NBA referee Lauren Holtkamp and Hall of Fame basketball coach Lin Dunn.
Force gained notoriety last season when she earned the milestone 100th victory for females in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. This season she set the national speed record in Funny Car by powering to a speed of 325.06 mph at the controls of her 10,000-horsepower Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS. She has earned seven career victories and nine No. 1 qualifying positions and is the youngest daughter of 16-time NHRA world champion John Force.
Along with her appearance at Inspiring Women Night at the Fever game, Force will be in Indianapolis next week participating in pre-race testing for the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, the world’s most prestigious drag race, which will be held Sept. 2-7, at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis in nearby Brownsburg.
WISH TV sports director Anthony Calhoun will lead a panel discussion with the four women as part of the pre-game reception, which begins at 5:45 p.m. Individual tickets to attend Inspiring Women Night presented by Elements Financial are $60 and a table of 10 is $550.
The four women also will be recognized in front of the fans during half-time ceremonies at the Fever-Sparks game, which begins at 7 p.m.
