Robert Hight and John Force offer up their thoughts on their very successful NHRA Funny Car Championship winning racing season…

Robert Hight, driver of the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro, took a few minutes to sit down and look at how his second NHRA Mello Yello championship came together as well as how important the championship was to his family and his relationship with crew chief Jimmy Prock. Hight, a four-time winner in 2017, captured the second championship of his career on the strength of two wins in the Countdown and three No. 1 qualifying efforts.

Q: Was the second championship more satisfying than the first?

I believe it was. It was easier to win the championship in 2009 because we did it from the No. 10 spot. I don’t think that is possible anymore unless you win four or more races in the Countdown. Four out of six would be tough to do. All I had to do was show up in 2009 and qualify and it was over. I also think we went into Pomona this year needing to go round for round with Ron Capps. He went a lot of rounds this year and won a lot of races. He was the current champ so there was a lot more pressure on him. This one was more special. I also got Jimmy Prock back as my crew chief. I was pretty bummed in 2013 when John (Force) switched crew chiefs and he ended up winning the championship that year. I was pretty bummed and then Jimmy left after that. We were lucky enough to get him back and I was really lucky to have him as my crew chief. I always thought that there was some unfinished business. With all that and the difficulty to win in this class and how hard it is this championship is more special.

Q: Talk about going up against Ron Capps this year and that rivalry this season?

He is a great driver on a great team. He won the most races this year. Jimmy Prock called it when they were winning all those races this year and he said it would be tough for them to keep this up so we better get our act together at the right time. They were peaking at the wrong time which turned out to be the right time for us. Jimmy didn’t think they could maintain that level. Our goal was to get our act together by the time the Western Swing started and that is exactly what we did. We won two of the three Swing races and set national records along the way. So the rivalry was fun. Capps is a great racer and I respect him. We both give it our all and we don’t play any games up there. I was the first to congratulate him when he beat me and he was the first to come over and congratulate me. It is a rivalry that is going to continue. It is a long way from over.

Q: Talk about the performance of your car and your team over the last half of the season?

The way my Funny Car ran from Denver until the end of the season gave me so much confidence as a driver. When you feel like you roll up to the starting line and you have to pull a rabbit out of a hat because your car isn’t very good that is when you make mistakes. When you have the confidence that you just have to do your job you can win a lot of races because it makes it so much easier. For a while I was down on myself the last couple of years. I don’t blame the car. I blame myself. I am realistic and think, ‘Am I part of the problem?’ You start getting down on yourself and losing confidence. It is tough so when we got that first win and started turning it around, my driving got better. My lights got better. I was having a lot of fun. We were all having fun doing it as a team. I think that is the most important thing. We have a group of guys that can work together and are really like family because you are with them all the time on the road. We had a blast. For the most part this is the same team I won with in 2009 with the exception of Chris Cunningham. He makes Jimmy better. I am looking forward to next year already.

Q: Talk about your relationship with Jimmy…

I started my career with Jimmy from 2005 until 2013 so most of my 41 wins are with Jimmy. I was really bummed when we split up. He was my best friend. There wasn’t a day that went by when we didn’t talk to each other. Our wives used to joke about it. They thought Jimmy and I talked more to each other than we did to them. We were always on the same page. Racing was all we did and it was what we loved. I felt like I won the lottery when I got him back. We have to make this work and we did. Jimmy and I are very close and I feel like he is the best out there. There are a lot more wins to come and we just have to keep it together.

Q: You and Brittany have two double up wins together and you clinched your championships together. What is that relationship like?

It is pretty cool. I was at the top end when she won her first race in Gainesville and that was the first double up for John Force Racing. It was the coolest thing to see her get that win. It took a while for that to happen and she was so jazzed when it happened. To get to do it again in the Countdown in Dallas when it really counts and all of us were dreaming of winning two championships with two great teams. To both clinch championships on the same day in back to back rounds was amazing.

All I can say is Brittany Force is going to become so much better of a driver because now she has done it and dealt with the highest level of pressure that a driver can get. She had more pressure than I did to win her championship. She was behind in the points and she had to go down the track to win. I didn’t have to because I was the first pair in my battle. There wasn’t that kind of pressure on me. She dealt with the highest level of pressure and dug down to do her job really well. The next time it will be easier because she has done it before. I am really proud of her and proud of that whole team. To be at the top of both of these classes we are going to have fun next year being champs.

Q: What was it like to share this championship with your daughter Autumn who can really understand the meaning?

She spends all summer on the road going to races with me. She loves going to as many races as she can especially the close ones like Las Vegas, Phoenix. She loves racing. From Vegas on all I know is I had to hear about how nervous she was every day. She would say, ‘Dad I am so nervous.’ I would tell her not to be nervous because all we have to do is go out there and do our job. It shows you how badly she wanted it. If you watched the race on FOX they zoomed in on her during the broadcast and to see her react to me winning. I think she was more excited than I was. To see that emotion was priceless. I would like to somehow get a photo of that. She and I are a team. At the banquet I brought her out on the stage with my team because we all feel like she is on the team. She is my biggest supporter.

Q: What did John say to you after you clinched the championship?

He just made a run and when he got to the other end he was emotional. He said he was crying before his run because I clinched on a run before him. I think it was pay off for all the hard work we have put into this operation the last three years. We have had a lot of sponsorship changes and personnel changes. We tried to put the right people together which is an ongoing battle. It was validation that all this hard work paid off and what we are doing is the right direction. At that point Brittany hadn’t won the Top Fuel championship and we were on top of the world thinking we had won the Funny Car championship and then she gets the win and we were like, ‘Wow, there is no way to ever top this.’

Q: What does it mean to JFR to have both of the Nitro championships?

It is going to be huge when you go into a board room. Sponsors want winners. You have to stay in the spotlight and be relevant. The best way to do that is to win. In the era of the toughest competition we won both classes and one of them was with a single car team in Top Fuel. It just shows that we are going to be contending. We aren’t going to back down. We are only going to get better and stronger. This is beyond our wildest dreams.

Q: How excited are you to defend this championship?

Very excited. You have a target on your back and everybody is gunning for you. You want to represent the sport and the Funny Car class and do a good job. You want to present yourself as a champion. I am ready to get back out there and start getting round wins. Both of my championships would not have been won without the Countdown. The first year they had the Countdown I would have been the champion if they would not have reset the points. It has helped me and it has hurt me. Next year my goal is to lead the points from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. I want to win a championship whether there is a Countdown or not. I think we are only going to get better and I think that is possible if we all work together and stay focused.

Q: When did you feel like you were in control for the championship or did you even feel in control before you won it?

I never felt like we were in control even going into Pomona with a one round lead. What we hoped for going into Pomona was to get a bunch of those little bonus qualifying points and extend the lead so Capps would have to win two rounds on Sunday. Anything can happen when you are dealing with a car that has thousands of parts. Sometimes they have a mind of their own, no matter what your team does and how good they are. Anything can happen. That plan didn’t work because we got in on the last run as the No. 15 qualifier. Actually, going into Sunday we felt like we were the one chasing Capps. We had the tougher race first round if you compare us to Capps. I never felt like we were in control but once we won first round with the run we made, which was low ET for eliminations, I felt like now we were in it but there was still a lot of pressure. It could have come down to Ron and I in the semis and you have to go up there and cut a light. So many things could happen so I never felt like it was a done deal until he smoked the tires.

Q: Can you talk about how you felt on Friday and Saturday?

Friday we smoked the tires both runs but I didn’t really worry about that. I knew we would get two shots on Saturday and I knew it wasn’t going to rain and conditions would be decent. I wasn’t really that worried about it on Friday. Once we made the first run on Saturday and smoked the tires and we weren’t in then it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, anything could happen on the last run.’ Something could break. It could drop a cylinder. The stress level felt like they were testing me on Saturday for what I was going to have to do on Sunday. I am getting a head start on all the stress. On the last run I thought it was fine until right before half-track it started spinning the tires. I had to pedal it and get it recovered to get it in the show and then it blew up. We were all excited but we were still nervous. We had four runs and hadn’t made it down the track yet and we have to race Tim Wilkerson. We are trying to go round for round with Capps and it was a lot to think about. I couldn’t sleep at all on Saturday night. I still knew I had to believe and believe in my team. We are here for a reason and we have a job to do and we have the best car. Nobody was down and we knew we had to fix it. We all just stayed focused and determined to do our jobs. No one was negative and we all came together and it worked. Jimmy and Chris got it together and I knew if you gave those guys five shots they would figure it out.

John Force, the 148-time Funny Car winner, wrapped up the 2017 season in seventh place in the NHRA Mello Yello point standings with a No. 1 qualifier and a win at the Gatornationals. The winningest driver in NHRA history’s season was highlighted with two more NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world championships as a team owner. Daughter Brittany Force earned her first Top Fuel world championship and son-in-law Robert Hight took home his second Funny Car world championship crown. John Force took some time to reflect on the 2017 season and talk about what’s coming in 2018.

Q: Could you be any happier as a team owner?

No, because we told Chevrolet, Jim Campbell, that John Force Racing had won all those championships for all those years and that we could turn it around again. We need to get back financially and get our people back and we made that happen. No, I’m tickled pink to be a champion, as part of this championship team with Robert winning and with my daughter Brittany. It’s amazing what took place.

Q: You’re still winning races, still contending for championships, how do you stay motivated?

I can’t get off this train. I love it. I’m here with Robert. I consider him my best friend. We work together everyday because he’s like me. My wife wrote an article the other day about what is the best thing she could tell her daughters. She said, “You gotta have religion, hobbies, give time to you and your family and don’t be the way your dad was.”

I lived for racing, I’m still living it. It’s all I know. Everyone, our crew guys and all, went on vacation after the Finals. Robert and I went back to work. I love it. I love racing and now I get to be with my kids and do it and my granddaughter, well she’s driving junior dragsters.

Q: How proud are you of Robert and Brittany winning the championships?

We’ve got a great sponsor with Auto Club with Robert. They’re unbelievable how they’ve supported us, 16 years. They’re the longest running sponsor of John Force Racing. Robert won them a championship but we struggled for a lot of years. Not everyone can win. I won some and Robert was over do. We had to put the band back together and Jimmy (Prock) had won with him before and we brought Jimmy back and I’m really proud of him, couldn’t be any prouder. He’s a great diver, great on the Christmas Tree, great saving the car, especially on that last qualifying run at the Finals. You can’t be more proud of an individual that lives it everyday and is deserving of it. You get what you negotiate. You get the work that you put in. To us negotiating is getting a race car down the race track and he did that and locked up the championship.

Brittany with that great sponsor in Monster Energy, well she struggled all year with that gut ache. She worried that, you know, it’s the great Alan Johnson and it’s Brian Husen and it’s one of the greatest teams. I told her, yeah, but you gotta learn. Champions are not born, champions are made. And that gut ache is either gonna put you out of business or turn you into a winner. And that’s where you gotta go. You gotta make it turn you into a winner.

I used to joke with her when she was younger and she was nervous, she’d say ‘I have a belly ache going into this cheerleading thing’ and I would always take the sickness out of her and put it into me and it was kind of a little joke we had. Her mom always said, ‘You feel sick, go to your dad, he’ll take it.’ I told her that on race day, you’ve gotta find yourself and only you can find yourself.

We did hire a trainer, Scott Garwood. He and his team worked with her for five races starting in Denver, Sonoma, Seattle, Brainerd and Indy. Then he said he was going into the Countdown. If you’re a driver or a crew chief or corporate America, you need to look at this guy. I don’t know all what he did but it sure helped turn her around. Alan Johnson worked with her too. Alan Johnson is probably one of the best teachers I’ve ever met and I don’t even know him. Just the way he took care of her when she red lit it was like, ‘Our team has got your back. It wasn’t all your fault.’ I stayed out of it because I never drove a dragster. I’m proud of her. I folded up on the starting line. I was telling her mom, ‘It’s going to be okay. I don’t want to be negative but they’re up against killers out here that know the drill.’
I’m proud of her to tears. And she’s done something that no woman has done since Shirley Muldowney 35 years ago.

Q: Can you talk about the success of your partnership with Peak and how it has helped the whole organization?

I lost two major partners. It hurt us financially. Peak was already with our car and they stepped up and bought a half a season and they wanted to see where it would go, if I could grow their business because no ones done more store chain displays or conventions than me. I’ve lived the auto parts business across America. Peak is how we met Advance Auto Parts and they ended up with Courtney.

I’ve been really lucky. Peak is very aggressive, Old World Industries, have tons of brands. They know I understand that business, how to sell to the store chains and they know I know how to promote them and be there. So, they gave me a chance. A guy at my age getting a contract, a lifetime contract, to drive, we’re growing the company. I was really lucky and I look at them as family. They’re owner is older than me but he’s got more energy than me, if you can believe that.

Financially, Peak has put me back together whole with the car. Then I met Advance Auto Parts through them. The way they market and the way the promote us, they just get it. Bryan Emrich is the lead guy over there. They gave me an opportunity and I’ve got to win them championships and that’s what I’m going to do but I had to get a lot of my designers back that I lost, crew chiefs that I lost and that’s where it went. The 2018 season will be a very good year for John Force Racing.

I’m just thankful for that opportunity. That they came in and looked at a guy like me at my age they know I know the business.

Q: You are two away from 150 career wins. Did you ever think you would approach that kind of record?

First off, I’ll get there. People wanted me to go after 250 like Richard Petty. You know I won championships in AHRA, ADRA. I’ve won tons of races, if you counted them up, not match races but actual national events, I’ve probably already made 250. People say ‘Why don’t you print it?’ Because I never raced Petty and I don’t want to catch him. He is a hero to me. Just like Prudhomme, I’m still chasing Prudhomme. I remember standing at the fence watching Don Prudhomme, watching him do a burnout in the Hot Wheels Car. I’m five to seven years younger than him. I started late too. I didn’t go professional until I was 24 even though I was racing before that in high school, in ‘67 I was in a fuel altered, people don’t even know I drove fuel altered. I’m trying to buy the one back that was up at the March Meet. My fuel altered was up there. My yellow fuel altered I want it in the museum.

Q: Talk about your celebration after John Force Racing swept the championships in the nitro categories…

It was very emotional. Robert had just won a championship, Brittany had just won a championship. I was on straight nitro, I was on straight adrenaline. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to do a burnout to the lights. I had always dreamed of doing those big ol’ smoky burnouts. I know that’s what the fans love and it helps sell t-shirts over at Maingate. I gave it a pretty good one and got after it pretty good. I got kind of a wake up call out there, hell I thought it was almost going to die on me but that baby stayed lit. Then I realized it’s time to get my focus, I had a race to win for Peak. I wasn’t able to get the job done. But at the end of the day John Force Racing ended up with 20 championships. Pretty dang god day.

Q: Any final thoughts?

I just wanted to drive Funny Cars, I’ll probably never go to dragster because it’s just, if you’re gonna go you need to go because you can win and you need years to learn it. Bernstein won Prudhomme won but they came from dragsters to Funny Cars and went back. I drove a front engine dragster in my early days but never did anything in it. Never did anything in fuel altered but crash. What I’m saying is now, this is where I’m gonna ride it out. I’m a champ and I’ll always be the champ and now my daughter is a champ.

Posted by : Sara Slaughter
Photos by Randy Anderson & Bruce Biegler