TEAM CASTROL/JFR25THANNIVERSARY SEASON
ROBERT HIGHTPre-Race Package for the 11th annual SummitRacing.com NationalsApril 16-18, 2010The Strip at Las Vegas Motor SpeedwayLas Vegas, Nev.Sixth event in the Countdown to the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Championship
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FUNNY CAR CHAMP HIGHT LOOKING TO LIGHT UP LAS VEGAS
LAS VEGAS --- Robert Hight knows he has a bad hot rod. The 2009 Full Throttle Funny Car champion has qualified in the top four at the first five races of the 2010 Full Throttle season. He has two No. 1 qualifiers to his credit so far this season giving him thirty-four in his young career. Heading into the 11th annual Summitracing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Hight and crew chief Jimmy Prock would like to turn those strong qualifying numbers into their first winner’s circle appearance of the season.
The good news for Hight is he is heading to a race track that has been kind to him recently. Last year during the Countdown to 1 Hight all but wrapped up his first Full Throttle Funny Car championship qualifying No. 3 and winning the race in dominant fashion.
Last year at the 10th annual Summitracing.com Nationals Hight raced to a semi-final finish before losing to eventual winner Ron Capps. That race day performance was the last positive experience for Hight for a very long time as his Auto Club Ford Mustang went on a performance hiatus that didn’t end until just before the end of the NHRA regular season.
This season Hight has started strong on the performance front but unfortunately he has just run into some bad racer luck. In the first round of the NHRA Four Wide Nationals Hight was out in front of his quartet when his BOSS 500 motor dropped a handful of cylinders and pushed him across the centerline. In Gainesville and Houston he dropped second round races to eventual finalists Bob Tasca III and Jeff Arend respectively.
The loss in Houston was especially tough considering how tricky the track became almost overnight and how well his Auto Club Ford had been running.
“The motor did everything we wanted it to. (Houston) was the first really hot day we have had this season. The track temperature was over 115 degrees and that is incredibly hot. That makes just about any track tricky. Our motor hooked up and we had a great 60 ft. time but we just missed it a little. We are disappointed to not get the win. This AAA Mustang was in great position to get into the winner’s circle. It just didn’t happen for us (in Houston). We’ll regroup, learn from this, and head to Las Vegas,” said Robert Hight after the race.
The odds this weekend are in Hight’s favor according to Fred Crespi, oddsmaker for The Palms Resort Casino in Las Vegas. While two-time 2010 winner John Force is the front-runner at 2 to 1 odds, Hight gets the nod at 7 to 2 right behind most recent Funny Car winner Matt Hagan at 3 to 1.
A strong qualifying performance and a big finish on race day could have Hight cashing in and that would put a welcomed smile on the 2009 Funny Car champs face.
Castrol/JFR 25th Anniversary Flashback:
After winning his first two NHRA Funny Car titles, John Force rolled into the 1992 season with great confidence and, despite an engine explosion and fire at Memphis, Tenn., that prompted his now famous “I saw Elvis at 1,000 feet” remark, appeared to be in control midway through the season.
After driving his Castrol GTX Oldsmobile to victory at Sonoma, Calif., his fourth win of the year, he led rookie Cruz Pedregon by 161 points. It was at that time that he and crew chief Austin Coil made a decision that would come back to haunt them. They opted to begin working on a new engine/clutch combination for the following season.
Meanwhile, Bernie Fedderly, who had tuned Pedregon to an early season victory at Houston, had been dismissed by car owner Larry Minor. He quickly was hired by Force as co-crew chief with Coil. Although the Coil-Fedderly tandem ultimately would guide Force to 110 tour victories, at the outset it was powerless to stop the mechanical attrition attendant to the new combination.
In just four races, all of them won by Pedregon, Force’s substantial lead turned into a 43-point deficit. When the Castrol Olds went on its roof in the first round of the season-ending Winston Finals against Gary Bolger, Pedregon was the new champ.
EVENT OVERVIEW:
The 11th annual SummitRacing.com Nationals, first of two NHRA tour events contested at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, provides a study in contrasts for John Force Racing drivers.
For the team’s namesake, racing at The Strip has been anything but lucky. However, for the other two JFR drivers, reigning Full Throttle Champion Robert Hight and last year’s No. 2, Ashley Force Hood, Vegas has paid off handsomely although for Hight it has been a “Vegas giveth and Vegas taketh away” scenario.
In the heat of the championship battle in 2007, after he had qualified No. 1 in his Auto Club Ford, Hight suffered a parts failure on the burnout before the first round and watched helplessly as rival Jim Head drove to an unopposed first round win. Last fall, after starting the Countdown to 1 in 10th place, Hight effectively clinched the title by winning the Las Vegas Nationals. He also earned an emotional victory in the 2007 SummitRacing.com Nationals.
Force Hood, who licensed at The Strip in 2006 and became the first woman to reach an NHRA Funny Car final when she opposed Tony Pedregon in the 2007 Las Vegas Nationals, drove her Castrol GTX Ford to runner-up honors in the SummitRacing.com Nationals a year later.
By contrast, her father hasn’t reached the final round in nine appearances in the spring race and has won just once in 18 total races at The Strip (fall, 2002). Moreover, it was at Las Vegas in 2007 that Force saw his streak of 395 consecutive starts in the NHRA series come to an end with a DNQ. He followed up that stumble by failing to make the starting lineup again in 2008.
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JFR RACING HISTORY AT THE STRIP AT LVMS:
Last year – After qualifying No. 2, reigning series champion Robert Hight powered into the semifinals before losing to Ron Capps. Ashley Force Hood made a rare first round exit and John Force and Mike Neff couldn’t survive round two.
Notable #1 – When John Force failed to qualify for the SummitRacing.com Nationals on April 14, 2007, it ended at 395 his record-setting streak of consecutive starts on the NHRA circuit that dated to the start of the 1988 season.
Notable #2 – Robert Hight’s 2007 victory in the SummitRacong.com Nationals was particularly emotional insomuch as it was the first event in which John Force Racing drivers participated after teammate Eric Medlen lost his life in a testing accident in Florida. Hight and Medlen had worked together as crewmen on Force’s championship-winning Funny Cars in the 1990s.
Notable #3 – Tony Pedregon’s sweep of the two Vegas races in 2003 powered him a series championship, the first JFR title not won by John Force. The year before, Force’s victory over Pedregon in the final round of the fall race secured a 10th consecutive title for the sport’s biggest winner.
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FUNNY CAR – 1. John Force, Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang, 441; 2. Matt Hagan, Diehard Dodge Charger, 371; 3. Ron Capps, NAPA Dodge Charger, 345; 4. Ashley Force Hood, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang, 312; 5. Jack Beckman, MTS Dodge Charger, 311; 6. Tim Wilkerson, Levi, Ray and Shoup Ford Mustang, 283; 6. Tony Pedregon, Quaker State Chevrolet Monte Carlo, 283; 8. Robert Hight, Auto Club Ford Mustang, 281; 9. Bob Tasca III, Quick Lane/Motorcraft Ford Mustang, 268; 10. Del Worsham, Al Anabi Toyota Solara, 240.
TOP FUEL – 1. Cory McClenathan, 456; 2. Larry Dixon, 428; 3. Doug Kalitta, 381; 5. Antron Brown, 378; 4. Tony Schumacher, 366; 6. Shawn Langdon, 275; 7. Morgan Lucas, 245; 8. Steve Torrence, 228; 9. Brandon Bernstein, 219; 10. David Grubnic, 206.
PRO STOCK – 1. Mike Edwards, Pontiac GXP, 574; 2. Allen Johnson, Dodge Avenger, 382; 3. Jason Line, Pontiac GXP, 338; 4. Greg Anderson, Pontiac GXP, 311; 5. Jeg Coughlin Jr., Chevrolet Cobalt, 299; 6. Greg Stanfield, Pontiac GXP, 267; 7. Ron Krisher, Chevrolet Cobalt, 254; 8. Rodger Brogdon, Pontiac GXP, 250; 9. Bob Yonke, Pontiac GXP, 240; 10. Ronnie Humphrey, Pontiac GXP, 199.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE – 1. Hector Arana, Buell, 284; 2. Eddie Krawiec, Harley-Davidson V-Rod, 244; 3. Matt Smith, Suzuki, 235; 4. Andrew Hines, Harley-Davidson V-Rod, 214; 5. Karen Stoffer, Suzuki, 167; 6. Craig Treble, Suzuki, 164; 7. Steve Johnson, Suzuki, 158; 8. Michael Phillips, Suzuki, 157; 9. David Hope, Buell, 142; 10. Shawn Gann, Buell, 129.
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NEXT EVENTS (2010 NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship):13th annual AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals, April 30-May 2, Madison, Ill.30th annual Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals, April 16-18, Atlanta, Ga.22nd annual NHRA O’Reilly Summer Nationals, May 21-23, Topeka, Kan.13th annual UA Route 66 Nationals, June 4-6, Joliet, Ill.41st annual UA SuperNationals, June 10-13, Englishtown, N.J.10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, June 18-20, Bristol, Tenn.
