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John Force Racing Adds Tuning Expertise For 2012 NHRA Season

John Force Racing Adds Tuning Expertise For 2012 NHRA Season

Anne Proffit

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Anne Proffit has worked in the automotive field since - well, not telling you that. She's been a car salesperson (before it was popular to hire... More

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1,355 views Dec 5, 2011

Venables tuned Cruz Pedregon to his

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John Force Racing is beefing up its engineering staff for the upcoming 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season of 23 races.

The "brain trust" already in place includes Jimmy Prock, Mike Neff, Dean "Guido" Antonelli, Ron Douglas and Bernie Fedderley.

Force is considering adding a Top Fuel car to his stables for daughter Brittany, using the Ford BOSS 500 engine developed in-house by JFR and Ford Racing. To help put the technical team together for his youngest child, Force hired two added experienced tuners/crew chiefs, Danny DeGennaro and Dickie Venables.

DeGennaro most recently tuned Cruz Pedregon to third place in the 2011 Funny Car Countdown to 1 playoffs, working side by side with driver/owner Pedregon. Together they earned six No. 1 qualifying positions (topping the category) and won once in the Countdown at Dallas, TX.

DeGennaro, 36, first worked on Joe Amato's Top Fuel dragster in the mid-1990s, wrenching together with Prock. He also did a stint with Kenny Bernstein Racing where, in 2007 he worked on the Monster Energy Funny Car Bernstein drove.

Second generation drag racer Venables returns to JFR--he tuned Tony Pedregon to a Funny Car title with the team in 2003--after serving time with Pedregon on a second occasion and winning another title together in 2007. Following that achievement, Venables moved to Al-Anabi Racing, where he tuned Del Worsham's Funny Car and then to Morgan Lucas Racing's Top Fuel team. He most recently tuned Johnny Gray's Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car, one of the hottest floppers on the circuit in the closing stages of 2011 competition.

"The opportunity to work with Dickie again is exciting," said John Force. "I'm expanding my 'brain trust' with more engineers and new technology. Getting someone with Dickie's experience is important because he knows how we work," Force remarked about the 47-year-old Venables.

DeGennaro has been in Force's Brownsburg shop even before this announcement. "He's been working with Jimmy [Prock] on some exciting developments for 2012. We are expanding and looking at running a Top Fuel dragster with the Ford BOSS 500 engine. We also want to strengthen our run for an [overall] 18th Funny Car championship," said 15-time champ Force.

© 2011 Anne Proffit