Adria Hight: John Force Racing CFO, Family, Career, and Legacy

Have you ever seen the name Adria Hight beside John Force Racing and wondered how she fit into one of drag racing’s best-known families? She was John Force’s oldest daughter, but her role went far beyond being part of a famous racing name.

Adria spent decades helping build John Force Racing from the business side. She joined the family operation early, handled everyday jobs when the team was still growing, and later became its chief financial officer. Her work placed her behind many years of championships, sponsor deals, travel, payroll, and the daily demands of a major NHRA organization.

Her story took on new meaning in 2026. Adria died on April 28 at age 56. For racing fans, her legacy is tied to the family business she helped shape, her daughter Autumn Hight, and the long rise of John Force Racing.

Quick Bio

Full Name	Adria Force Hight
Known For	John Force Racing chief financial officer and John Force’s oldest daughter
Father	John Force
Mother	Lana Starks
Daughter	Autumn Hight
Career	Longtime John Force Racing executive
Education	Huntington Beach High School graduate
Died	April 28, 2026
Age at Death	56

Who Is Adria Hight?

Adria Hight was a longtime executive at John Force Racing and the oldest daughter of drag racing legend John Force. She worked with the team from its early growth years and eventually served as chief financial officer.

That title tells only part of the story. According to NHRA, she was one of the first employees of John Force Racing. Her early duties included answering phones and selling shirts from the race trailer. As the operation grew, so did her responsibilities.

By the time John Force Racing became one of the sport’s most successful organizations, Adria was helping manage the business behind the race cars. Her position made her an important part of a company built around family, competition, sponsorship, and decades of NHRA racing.

She Grew Up Beside Her Father’s Racing Dream

John Force did not begin with a polished team, large headquarters, and a long list of championships. His career developed over years of travel, financial pressure, crashes, mechanical work, and constant attempts to become more competitive.

Adria Hight grew up close to that world. NHRA says she was beside her father in Montreal in 1987 when he earned his first NHRA national event win. That moment came well before the Force name became linked with the record-setting success fans know today.

Being there in 1987 gives useful context to her later career. Adria did not enter an already finished racing company as an outside executive. She had seen the operation during its building years and understood how the racing and business sides depended on each other.

From Answering Phones to Running the Financial Side

Family racing teams often begin with people doing several jobs at once. Adria’s path followed that pattern. NHRA described her early work as everything from answering calls to selling team merchandise from the trailer.

Those simple jobs matter in a young racing business. A team needs money to travel, parts to compete, sponsors to stay visible, merchandise to reach fans, and staff to keep every part moving. Over time, Adria Hight moved into a much larger leadership role as CFO.

In that position, she became part of the group responsible for keeping John Force Racing healthy away from the starting line. Drivers and crew chiefs are the most visible people on race weekends, but a major racing team also depends on budgeting, contracts, staffing, planning, and long-term business decisions.

Her career shows the less visible side of professional motorsports. Winning happens on the track, yet teams survive because someone also manages the company around the cars.

John Force Racing Became a Family Business

John Force Racing has long mixed family roles with professional racing jobs. John Force drove and owned the team. His daughters Ashley Force Hood, Brittany Force, and Courtney Force all became familiar names in the sport in different ways. Adria Hight built her career mainly on the business side.

An official John Force Racing story from 2024 identified Adria as the team’s chief financial officer. It also described Ashley as a vice president and creative director while looking at the next generation of the family.

This structure helps explain why Adria’s role mattered. The Force family was not only appearing together at races. Several members had defined jobs inside an organization that had grown over decades.

Her Connection With Robert Hight and the Next Generation

Adria’s family story is also tied to former John Force Racing driver and team president Robert Hight. Their daughter, Autumn Hight, has grown up around the same racing organization.

John Force Racing wrote in 2024 that Autumn was 19 and expected to race in NHRA Super Comp. The same article identified Robert as her father and Adria as her mother. It placed Autumn among the grandchildren John Force hoped to see advance in the sport.

That creates a clear three-generation link. John Force built his career on the track. Adria helped manage the company. Autumn began exploring racing herself.

It also gives fans a better sense of why the Force organization often feels different from a normal sports business. Family history is woven directly into its leadership, competition, and plans for the future.

Adria Hight Was Part of Racing History Without Being the Driver

Much of drag racing coverage naturally focuses on elapsed times, championships, rivalries, and dramatic race-day moments. Adria’s work usually happened outside that spotlight.

Still, the history of John Force Racing cannot be understood only through its drivers. The team needed a stable company behind every Funny Car and Top Fuel dragster. Adria helped provide that stability for years.

Her career also offers a useful reminder about sports families. A famous last name can open attention, but a long working role still has to be carried out day after day. She stayed with the organization as it changed from a smaller family operation into a major NHRA team.

The Force Family Faced Difficult Years Together

Racing brought the Force family championships, but it also brought serious injuries and difficult stretches. John Force survived major crashes during his long career. In June 2024, he suffered a severe crash at Virginia Motorsports Park and spent time in intensive care before beginning a long recovery.

During that period, his daughters remained close to him. Family updates and later reporting showed how central the Force family remained while John recovered.

Adria had already spent most of her life around the risks and demands of the sport. Her work was business-focused, but her family ties meant the racing side was always personal too.

Her Death in 2026 Brought a Different Kind of Attention

Adria died on April 28, 2026, at age 56. NHRA included her in its 2026 memorial coverage and described the scale of her contribution to John Force Racing.

The memorial named her daughter Autumn, her parents, her fiancé Jimmy Collins, her sisters Ashley, Brittany, and Courtney, and several nieces and nephews among the family members she left behind.

For people who knew the Force family mainly from television or race results, the news also drew attention to the business career Adria had built. Her contribution was not a short side role. She had been part of the organization from its early days and rose to one of its key executive positions.

Why Her CFO Role Was So Important

A motorsports team can spend heavily simply to compete. Cars need engines, tires, transport, tools, crews, facilities, testing, and constant replacement parts. Sponsorship agreements and hospitality programs add another layer of work.

The CFO of a racing organization works inside that complex business. While the exact details of Adria’s daily responsibilities were private company matters, her title shows that she held senior responsibility over the financial side of John Force Racing.

That work became more important as the organization expanded. John Force Racing ran multiple professional cars, worked with major sponsors, employed large teams, and operated across a national racing calendar.

Adria Hight’s career therefore helps answer a question many fans rarely ask: who keeps a championship racing organization functioning between race weekends? In the Force family, she was one of the people carrying that responsibility.

A Legacy Built Behind the Scenes

Adria Hight was never the most visible member of the Force family. Her sisters raced in front of packed grandstands, and her father became one of the biggest personalities in American drag racing.

Her own impact was quieter. She knew the business when it was small, stayed as it expanded, and became the CFO of the team her father built. That kind of continuity is difficult to replace in any family company.

Her story also connects the early John Force years with the next generation. She witnessed the first national event win in 1987. Decades later, her daughter Autumn was preparing for competition of her own.

Final Thoughts

Adria’s life was closely tied to John Force Racing, but her place in that story was earned through years of work. She started around the everyday jobs of a growing race team and eventually became its chief financial officer.

She was also a daughter, mother, sister, and part of a racing family whose professional and personal lives often overlapped. Her death in 2026 came far too soon, but NHRA’s own tribute makes clear how much of the team’s growth she helped support.

For more deeply researched stories about people connected to well-known families and careers, explore the Celebrity section on LakewoodScoop.co.uk.