Robert Hight and the Auto Club of Southern California Chevy Camaro SS team earned their third NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car world championship Sunday when they had a runner-up finish at the Auto Club NHRA Finals. Hight and the Auto Club crew became only the fifth Funny Car team to earn more than two titles. They join the ranks of Don Prudhomme, Raymond Beadle, Kenny Bernstein and John Force.

“It’s unbelievable. To win six races from start to finish, lead the points from start to finish which has been a dream of mine since the Countdown Era, and with the competition level in Funny Car, this is by far the championship I’m going to cherish the most because we earned it. We did our job. This has been the steadiest year I’ve ever had and that’s a real tribute to the Auto Club team and Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham. It’s amazing. I’m the luckiest guy in the world to drive this Funny Car,” Hight said. “What’s amazing is not that you win more than two championships but that, that puts you in a real elite group. To be among big names like Raymond Beadle, Don Prudhomme, John Force, Kenny Bernstein and then you add my name to that list, it’s almost like it doesn’t belong.”

By the time Hight entered the finals, he only needed to ensure he did not pick up any sort of penalty to clinch the victory. After an epic, crowd pleasing, long burnout, Hight wasn’t able to back the car up giving Beckman a solo run to the race win. En route to the championship victory, Hight entered race day qualified fifth for the Finals, a position that had him facing team owner John Force in the first round. Hight would end the legendary driver’s quest for a 17th championship with the quickest pass of the session, second quickest of the day, 3.945-seconds and 327.82 mph that bettered Force’s 5.234 at 141.97 after tire smoke. In the second round, Hight defeated Shawn Langdon with a 3.976-second pass at 324.75 mph.

In the semifinals, Hight would face championship contender Matt Hagan. Hight powered his Auto Club Camaro to a 3.977-second pass at 324.59 mph outrunning Hagan’s 4.014 at 326.95. The bid into the finals would set Hight up to only need to not be penalized in the finals, meaning as long as he did not cross the center line, hit a cone or the wall or oil down the race track, he would become the 2019 champion. Despite not making the pass, Hight was not penalized and had enough of a points lead to take the 2019 Funny Car title.

“It was a wild and crazy weekend. It started with qualifying, going into the last session in the bottom half and you don’t want to do that here in Pomona. This place is very tricky and you really need lane choice so, my guys did a really good job last night at making a real decent run but then we had to go race the boss whose had the best car since Seattle,” Hight said. “He wanted to win a Championship. You never know when these opportunities are going to come around again. There are no guarantees so we had our work cut out for us but we got the win and got to race Shawn Langdon next round.

“He’s a great leaver and the cars been running good, and we get by that but then it’s the most important run of my life, the semifinals against Matt Hagan. I’ve thought about this before. Sometimes it comes down to one run to win a championship and you think how will you perform; will you choke, will you get the job done and you don’t really know until you get there,” continued Hight. “My heart was beating out of my chest when I was staging the car and we got it done. Not to say next time, it won’t go another way, but this time we got it done and I really look at it like it would have really be a shame to lose the championship after the season we had.”

Hight ends his 2019 NHRA Funny Car world championship season with a career best six race victories and eight No. 1 qualifiers. It is the third consecutive year Hight has finished inside the top three. In 2018 he was No. 2 and in 2017 he won his second championship.

Posted by Sara Slaughter
Photos by Randy Anderson – Ron Lewis – Courtesy of National Dragster