Adria Force Hight, a founding figure at John Force Racing who helped build the team from a trailer operation into a championship powerhouse, died April 28, 2026, at 56.
Hight was John Force’s only child from his first marriage, and the drag racing patriarch said the sport helped bring his family back together. “I failed as a father, miserably. But drag racing, NHRA, brought them all home to me,” he said.
Born June 4, 1969, in Huntington Park, California, and raised in Huntington Beach, Hight was one of the first employees at John Force Racing. She answered phones, sold T-shirts out of the race trailer and later became the team’s chief financial officer, part of the small circle credited with turning the operation into one of the most successful in motorsports history.
Her role at the team was not limited to office work. Hight was described as the fun big sister to Ashley, Brittany and Courtney, all of whom went on to race professionally in NHRA. She also sang and played tambourine in Mad Man Billy, recorded CDs with the band and played car shows, local restaurants and Pismo Beach.
That mix of business and family ran through much of her life. Hight created Civil Defense Music, had a daughter, Autumn, with her former husband Robert Hight, and kept showing up at race weekends to watch and cheer for her child and her teams in the NHRA series. She later moved to Indiana with her fiancé, Jimmy, in part to be closer to Autumn and bought a motor home so she could travel with her to Super Comp races.
Hight was described by the family as a foundational pillar in John Force Racing, the kind of steady presence that rarely draws headlines but often keeps a racing operation moving. Her death comes as the team continues to carry the legacy of multiple championships and a place near the top of NHRA history. The question now is how the family that built that legacy will mark the absence of one of the people who helped make it possible.