<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/r_hight07.jpg" alt="r_hight07" align="left"borders="0"/>
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – After a misstep that made him a race day spectator for the first time in his career, Robert "Top Gun" Hight is poised for redemption this week as the NHRA POWERade tour moves to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park for the 38th annual Pro Care Rx SuperNationals.
"We can't wait to get our Auto Club Mustang back on the track," Hight said. "Having to wait an extra week after we failed to qualify (at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.) was painful.
"You sit and think about all the things you could have done differently and it makes you crazy."
Nevertheless, few expect the 37-year-old Hight to suffer a similar fate when the NHRA pro tour makes its most northeasterly stop.
In fact, despite the DNQ, the former trap shooting champion remains one of the favorites to win the $500,000 POWERade championship which will be decided in a six-race shootout that begins with the Labor Day Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.
"That just shows how tough it is out here in Funny Car right now," Hight said of his stumble. "We didn't qualify at Joliet, but John (teammate and father-n-law John Force) didn't qualify in Vegas and (points leader Ron) Capps didn't qualify in Topeka (Kan.). If you make one mistake, you wind up watching everybody else race on Sunday and that's no fun."
Until a broken supercharger drive belt ended his bid at Joliet, Hight had strung together a category-best streak of 53 consecutive starts. Now, he's starting over at one, just like Force did earlier this year when his record-breaking streak ended at 395.
"I have nothing but confidence in (crew chief) Jimmy Prock, this crew and this race car," Hight said. "We just need to go out and do our job."
The 2005 winner of the Auto Club's Road to the Future Award as the tour's top rookie, Hight was a Top 5 finisher in each of his first two seasons. Significantly, despite his DNQ, the seven-time tour winner remains second in points behind Capps as one of the two drivers whose position in the Countdown appears secure.
A crewman on Force's Castrol GTX Ford for five championship seasons, Hight has been a contender since first he climbed behind the wheel of the Auto Club Ford three years ago as the successor to veteran Gary Densham.
"It is really cool to be on this team," Hight said, "because nobody every gives up, ever. They're the best."
Despite his success (he's finished fifth and second in his first two seasons and has qualified on the drag racing "pole" in more than one third of the races he's run (18 of 54), Hight is realistic about his position.
"If you ever think, boy, this is starting to get easy,' you better get in another business," Hight said. "I've learned real quick that this sport will humble you.
"I try to take the approach that I'm still a rookie at this, I'm still new (and) I have a lot to learn. I don't ever think I've got it figured out because I know I don't. I know I'm going to continue to make mistakes, but that's how you learn. Fortunately, I'm in a real good race car and that makes a big difference."
A finalist four times already this season and a winner at Las Vegas and Atlanta, Hight hasn't had much success thus far at Raceway Park. In two previous starts, he's won a single round of racing and was taken out in the very first round a year ago (by Tim Wilkerson) after qualifying No. 2.
He hopes to turn that around this week in a car in which he has posted the two quickest quarter mile times in Funny Car history -- 4.644 seconds at Pomona, Calif., and 4.634 seconds at Phoenix, Ariz.
Did You Know:
Robert is one of only a few marksmen to have achieved the target shooting Grand Slam consisting of 200 straight targets from 16 yards, 100 from 27 yards (the maximum handicap distance) and 100 doubles (two targets at once). A former California State Junior trap shooting champion, he bypassed an opportunity to try out or the 2004 Olympic team because it would have conflicted with his job at John Force Racing.
Notable:– Although Robert Hight has not enjoyed a lot of success in the SuperNationals, crew chief Jimmy Prock has. Prock has celebrated in the winners' circle five times – three times with former Top Fuel Champion Joe Amato (1996, 1998 and 1999) and twice with Gary Densham in the Auto Club Mustang (2002, 2004).
– Robert Hight is the ONLY Funny Car driver to have led the POWERade points in each of the last three seasons.
HIGHT SEEKS REDEMPTION IN RACEWAY PARK EVENT
Auto Club Ford Driver Tries to Bounce Back from Qualifying Stumble
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – After a misstep that made him a race day spectator for the first time in his career, Robert "Top Gun" Hight is poised for redemption this week as the NHRA POWERade tour moves to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park for the 38th annual Pro Care Rx SuperNationals.
"We can't wait to get our Auto Club Mustang back on the track," Hight said. "Having to wait an extra week after we failed to qualify (at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.) was painful.
"You sit and think about all the things you could have done differently and it makes you crazy."
Nevertheless, few expect the 37-year-old Hight to suffer a similar fate when the NHRA pro tour makes its most northeasterly stop.
In fact, despite the DNQ, the former trap shooting champion remains one of the favorites to win the $500,000 POWERade championship which will be decided in a six-race shootout that begins with the Labor Day Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.
"That just shows how tough it is out here in Funny Car right now," Hight said of his stumble. "We didn't qualify at Joliet, but John (teammate and father-n-law John Force) didn't qualify in Vegas and (points leader Ron) Capps didn't qualify in Topeka (Kan.). If you make one mistake, you wind up watching everybody else race on Sunday and that's no fun."
Until a broken supercharger drive belt ended his bid at Joliet, Hight had strung together a category-best streak of 53 consecutive starts. Now, he's starting over at one, just like Force did earlier this year when his record-breaking streak ended at 395.
"I have nothing but confidence in (crew chief) Jimmy Prock, this crew and this race car," Hight said. "We just need to go out and do our job."
The 2005 winner of the Auto Club's Road to the Future Award as the tour's top rookie, Hight was a Top 5 finisher in each of his first two seasons. Significantly, despite his DNQ, the seven-time tour winner remains second in points behind Capps as one of the two drivers whose position in the Countdown appears secure.
A crewman on Force's Castrol GTX Ford for five championship seasons, Hight has been a contender since first he climbed behind the wheel of the Auto Club Ford three years ago as the successor to veteran Gary Densham.
"It is really cool to be on this team," Hight said, "because nobody every gives up, ever. They're the best."
Despite his success (he's finished fifth and second in his first two seasons and has qualified on the drag racing "pole" in more than one third of the races he's run (18 of 54), Hight is realistic about his position.
"If you ever think, boy, this is starting to get easy,' you better get in another business," Hight said. "I've learned real quick that this sport will humble you.
"I try to take the approach that I'm still a rookie at this, I'm still new (and) I have a lot to learn. I don't ever think I've got it figured out because I know I don't. I know I'm going to continue to make mistakes, but that's how you learn. Fortunately, I'm in a real good race car and that makes a big difference."
A finalist four times already this season and a winner at Las Vegas and Atlanta, Hight hasn't had much success thus far at Raceway Park. In two previous starts, he's won a single round of racing and was taken out in the very first round a year ago (by Tim Wilkerson) after qualifying No. 2.
He hopes to turn that around this week in a car in which he has posted the two quickest quarter mile times in Funny Car history -- 4.644 seconds at Pomona, Calif., and 4.634 seconds at Phoenix, Ariz.
Did You Know:
Robert is one of only a few marksmen to have achieved the target shooting Grand Slam consisting of 200 straight targets from 16 yards, 100 from 27 yards (the maximum handicap distance) and 100 doubles (two targets at once). A former California State Junior trap shooting champion, he bypassed an opportunity to try out or the 2004 Olympic team because it would have conflicted with his job at John Force Racing.
Notable:– Although Robert Hight has not enjoyed a lot of success in the SuperNationals, crew chief Jimmy Prock has. Prock has celebrated in the winners' circle five times – three times with former Top Fuel Champion Joe Amato (1996, 1998 and 1999) and twice with Gary Densham in the Auto Club Mustang (2002, 2004).
– Robert Hight is the ONLY Funny Car driver to have led the POWERade points in each of the last three seasons.
