Hight advances to second round for disappointing finish
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/r_hight.jpg" alt="r_hight"align="right"borders="0" />
Richmond, Va. (10-8-08) -- Robert Hight beat John Force in round one when Force's Mustang lost traction at about 200 feet. The winningest driver in NHRA history did not give up, getting back on the throttle before his Funny Car moved too far outside the groove.
Force’s efforts, while aggressive, were overly ambitious considering his teammate Robert Hight was flying down the Virginia Motorsports Park track, covering the 1000 foot track in a spectacular 4.005 seconds once again recording the quickest 1000 foot time since the NHRA truncated the racing distance.
In round two Hight paired up with Ron Capps but the tricky track ended his day as the Auto Club Ford Mustang shook just past the starting line and Hight was forced to watch Capps advance while his championship aspirations took a hit. Even with this setback Hight did not concede his chance of winning his first POWERade championship.
“It’s not over. We can’t give up and we can’t hang our heads. We have to keep working hard. It is not over. We still have a shot. We have a good running car. This race track is a little odd. If you don’t have it just fast enough leaving the starting line it wants to shake and that is what happened to us. We weren’t trying too hard even though that four flat was a stout run but people will think we smoked the tires the next round because we got too aggressive. It was just the opposite. It was a little weak,” said the two-time championship runner-up.
“I am encouraged though because the motor ran good all weekend. It had eight cylinders. It is responding to changes that (crew chief) Jimmy Prock is making and the fuel system is all good. We probably won’t see these kind of conditions again with a starting line that is that good. The same thing won’t happen in two weeks at Vegas. We just have to make sure we don’t have anything else bite us.”
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/r_hight.jpg" alt="r_hight"align="right"borders="0" />
Richmond, Va. (10-8-08) -- Robert Hight beat John Force in round one when Force's Mustang lost traction at about 200 feet. The winningest driver in NHRA history did not give up, getting back on the throttle before his Funny Car moved too far outside the groove.
Force’s efforts, while aggressive, were overly ambitious considering his teammate Robert Hight was flying down the Virginia Motorsports Park track, covering the 1000 foot track in a spectacular 4.005 seconds once again recording the quickest 1000 foot time since the NHRA truncated the racing distance.
In round two Hight paired up with Ron Capps but the tricky track ended his day as the Auto Club Ford Mustang shook just past the starting line and Hight was forced to watch Capps advance while his championship aspirations took a hit. Even with this setback Hight did not concede his chance of winning his first POWERade championship.
“It’s not over. We can’t give up and we can’t hang our heads. We have to keep working hard. It is not over. We still have a shot. We have a good running car. This race track is a little odd. If you don’t have it just fast enough leaving the starting line it wants to shake and that is what happened to us. We weren’t trying too hard even though that four flat was a stout run but people will think we smoked the tires the next round because we got too aggressive. It was just the opposite. It was a little weak,” said the two-time championship runner-up.
“I am encouraged though because the motor ran good all weekend. It had eight cylinders. It is responding to changes that (crew chief) Jimmy Prock is making and the fuel system is all good. We probably won’t see these kind of conditions again with a starting line that is that good. The same thing won’t happen in two weeks at Vegas. We just have to make sure we don’t have anything else bite us.”
