Robert Hight and the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS team raced their way to victory  at the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals in front of a sold-out crowd.

Hight, who only qualified 11th, had to face a slew of veteran racers on his way to the second win of the season, 43rd of his career and second at Sonoma Raceway. Hight and his Auto Club of Southern California Camaro were consistent throughout the day with three sub three-second runs.

“Sonoma Raceway, they really know how to do it right,” said the 43-time tour winner.  “The weather we had this weekend made for three great days of racing. Then when you put a night session here where it cools down, well, you saw what we did last year. We ran 339.87 mph on Friday night last year (the NHRA national record). It cools down and this is a fast race track where anything can happen. But, we missed it this year on Friday night. We blew it up at about 200 feet. When you do that, it puts you behind the rest of the weekend.

In the first round, Hight defeated Tim Wilkerson with a 3.974-second pass at 322.65 mph to Wilkerson’s 4.010 at 321.96. When the second round began, it was the warmest part of the day slowing the hot rods slightly. The Auto Club team adjusted well to run 4.010-seconds at 317.19 mph against Bob Tasca III who had trouble early crossing the line at 12.467 seconds. The win over Tasca set Hight up to run against rival Tommy Johnson Jr. in the semifinals where Hight had the quickest run of the day and needed it defeating Johnson Jr.’s 3.990-seocnd pass at 323.81 mph with a 3.956 at 322.04.

In the final, Hight, the reigning world champion, faced a familiar foe of John Force Racing, Ron Capps, the 2016 world champion. Hight had the better car with a 3.984-second pass at 319.75 mph that out did Capps’ 4.077 pass at 296.11 mph despite Capps having the better reaction time. Hight is now 34-31 against Capps including being 6-2 over him in final round meetings.