{"id":2620,"date":"2017-07-31T14:09:58","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T14:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2017-07-31T14:50:13","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T14:50:13","slug":"versatile-victory-stunning-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=2620","title":{"rendered":"Versatile Victory & Stunning Speed!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fuel Funny Car class racing during NHRA\u2019s Toyota Summer Nationals produced a impressive winner and also a near barrier breaking run for drag racing!<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
\nAfter winning 9X in his career as a Top Fuel driver, talented young gun racer J.R. Todd powered to his first career Funny Car victory during the event held at scenic Sonoma Raceway north of San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Todd clinched the victory with a 4.049-second pass at 323.27 mph in his DHL Toyota Camry against Tim Wilkerson who went up in smoke in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang during the final round.<\/p>\n

The victory makes Todd the first African-American to win in the NHRA Funny Car category. He also becomes the second driver in NHRA history to win at Sonoma Raceway in both nitro categories, the first was Don Prudhomme.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur car showed us a lot of promise in Denver which gave us hope coming into here,\u201d Todd stated. \u201cWe\u2019ve been struggling so bad this season; I\u2019m just happy to win a Funny Car. I was able to win here last year in Top Fuel and to be able to come back and do it again in Funny Car is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Todd powered past teammate, Alexis Dejoria, 16-time world champion John Force and Jack Beckman before entering the finals. Wilkerson took down Cruz Pedregon, No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight and Courtney Force en route to his second final round appearance this season.<\/p>\n

Todd sits ninths in the standings, while Ron Capps stays in first despite his first-round exit. Matt Hagan and Beckman round out the top three, respectively, in the points standings.<\/p>\n

But while Todd\u2019s victory was significant – an NHRA national speed setting record effort by John Force Racing team driver Robert Hight did grab motorsports headlines.<\/p>\n

Hight, racing his special edition CHP-themed AAA Auto Club Chevy Camaro came ever so close to breaking the 340 mph barrier during qualifying when he ran 339.87 mph. That is the fastest speed ever seen in drag racing history – including Top Fuel dragster class racing.<\/p>\n

Robert Hight\u2019s stellar record-setting pass came during Friday\u2019s second qualifying session and included a (track record for the class) 3.807 secs ET which gave him the pole for the class.<\/p>\n

Hight\u2019s run was more than four hundredths quicker than the field over the four qualifying sessions, and his speed was the first to top 339 mph in any professional NHRA category.<\/p>\n

\"(Robert<\/a>

(Robert Hight came very close to a barrier breaking 340<\/strong>\u00a0mph(!) run @ NHRA Sonoma)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThings are definitely going the right direction for us,\u201d said Hight. \u201cTo come in here and get low ET and to set the quickest run in history, that is pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hight\u2019s pass Friday earned him his second career No. 1 at Sonoma \u2013 his \u201chome track,\u201d as he grew up in northern California \u2013 and third of the season. It is also the 10th No. 1 for John Force Racing in 2017.<\/p>\n

Hight did run to the second round on Sunday before losing out to Tim Wilkerson in a side by side tire smoking battle.<\/p>\n

Event Essentials: \u00a0 NHRA Toyota Sonoma Nationals (July 28-30th, 2017)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nNAME<\/strong><\/td>\nET<\/strong><\/td>\nMPH<\/strong><\/td>\nCAREER WIN<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Winner:<\/strong><\/td>\nJR Todd<\/td>\n\u00a04.049<\/td>\n323.27<\/td>\n\u00a010th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R\/UP:<\/strong><\/td>\nTim Wilkerson<\/td>\n\u00a06.823<\/td>\n100.26<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Low ET:<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Hight<\/td>\n\u00a03.807<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top Speed:<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Hight<\/td>\n<\/td>\n339.87<\/td>\n\u00a0*Record<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bump Spot:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a07.251<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Event Entries:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a016 Cars<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Posted with files by Bruce Biegler, NHRA Communications & Lee Montgomery<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Marc Gewertz<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fuel Funny Car class racing during NHRA\u2019s Toyota Summer Nationals produced a impressive winner and also a near barrier breaking run for drag racing! After winning 9X in his career as a Top Fuel driver, talented young gun racer J.R. Todd powered to his first career Funny Car victory during the event held at scenic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[18,16,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2620"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2627,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}