Robert Hight’s Auto Club Ford Mustang remained the hottest car in the Mello Yello Drag Racing series appearing in his fifth straight Funny Car final during NHRA’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Spring Nationals near Houston TX.

Hight ran a 4.055 at 314.90 to defeat Jack Beckman, who was appearing in his first final of the season. It was the thirteenth consecutive Funny Car final that featured a John Force Racing car.

“I had high expectations coming into this weekend because I got my first win here,” said Hight, who won his 32nd career race. “[Crew chief] Mike Neff has owned this place, and we came here on kind of a roll after four straight finals. Dating back to Indianapolis, that’s 13 final rounds in a row for John Force Racing in Funny Car, and some of those have been John and me together in the final.”

Hight struggled during Friday’s qualifying session not completing a pass. The team rebounded and Hight’s car went on to be the quickest Funny Car in the last six rounds of competition.

Robert Hight roared to his 5th consecutive NHRA FC final round and came away victorious in the JFR AAA Auto Club Mustang

“It was like we didn’t show up on Friday,” Hight said. “It was horrible. We just totally missed it, but I never lost faith in my team. They showed confidence that we were going to get them tomorrow. On Saturday, we went out there and ran .07, .08, and then we went .07, .07, .07 before the final. Do you know how hard it is to do that in one of these cars? There are so many variables. It’s hard to make that many consistent runs in a row.”
With the win, Hight expands his points lead to 122 over John Force Racing owner and teammate John Force.

Beckman, the 2012 Funny Car world champion, was appearing in his first final since St. Louis last season. The Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger ran a respectable 4.176 at 308.43 in the final but it just wasn’t enough to top Hight.

Event Essentials:  NHRA O’Reilly Spring Nationals (Baytown TX):

Photo by: Mark Gewertz