{"id":3535,"date":"2019-03-21T14:17:30","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T14:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2019-03-21T14:19:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T14:19:28","slug":"hights-historical-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=3535","title":{"rendered":"Hight\u2019s Historical Hit!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Hight defeated a slew of veteran drag racers on his way to winning one of the most sought after titles available — the 50th Anniversary Amalie Motor Oil 50th NHRA Gatornationals<\/strong> at Gainesville Raceway.<\/p>\n

The two-time world champion and his Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team put together a series of four 3.8 passes to pick up his 47th career victory, fourth at the Gatornationals and second this season.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is huge. This is my fourth time winning here now. This is a big one. The 50th, there will only be one of these. It seems like my boss, John Force, always wins the big races. We\u2019ve had a 50th anniversary race for NHRA at Pomona in the summer and the big race with Winston Showdown Battle back in the day when he ran the Superman car. He just seems to win all the cool races but I finally got one,\u201d Hight said. \u201cThis is a cool race to win and especially with everybody at this race. Anybody of \u2018whose who\u2019 of drag racing was at this event. A lot of the people I\u2019ve looked up to growing up as a kid were here and, now, I\u2019m here holding the trophy and they\u2019re watching me. It\u2019s kind of a cool thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

First in Hight\u2019s path to victory was long time racer Terry Haddock whose quickest run of the weekend at 4.234-seconds and 284.03 mph wasn\u2019t enough for the 3.869-second, 331.94 mph set-up crew chiefs Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham put into the Auto Club hot rod.<\/p>\n

Next in line for Hight was 2016 world champion Ron Capps who got into trouble early on the quarterfinal pass. Capps was up in smoke at the hit, reaching about 60-feet before having to shut off. Hight was un-phased, crossing the finish line at 3.870-seconds and 330.88 mph.<\/p>\n

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His two round wins would line him up with a familiar foe this year, team owner John Force.<\/p>\n

While Force had been putting on a show of his own on race day, his 3.942-second pass at 324.12 mph was no match for Hight and the Auto Club Camaro\u2019s stout 3.852-second run at 331.20 mph. The duo has faced each other in eliminations each of the first three races in the 2019 season. At the Arizona Nationals in Phoenix just two weeks ago, Hight delivered a second-round exit to the 16-time champ. At the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., Hight would defeat Force in the semifinals and go on to win the race.<\/p>\n

In the finals, Hight faced-off with Tim Wilkerson. Wilkerson was the No. 2 qualifier making it the first time in the 50-year history of the race that the top two Funny Car qualifiers would meet in the final round. Hight had the starting line advantage, even if by accident, and left Wilkerson behind who went up in smoke and had to shut off. Hight took home the victory with a 3.867-second pass at 331.61 mph.<\/p>\n

As Hight\u2019s second win of the season and with three No. 1 qualifiers under his belt, the two-time world champion isn\u2019t holding back his excitement for the season ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a fuel car so consistent as what I have right now, especially a Funny Car. If you take last night\u2019s qualifying run and the first two rounds, they were two thousandths apart for all three runs. Then we broke out basically in the semis at a .85 then back to an .86 in the final round,\u201d explained Hight. \u201cJimmy Prock is on it. He and Chris Cunningham are really happy with the clutch package we have and they keep talking a lot about how my car ran in 2017. It just responds and it repeat so that\u2019s a good sign. We have enough of these clutch parts to go all year long. It\u2019s not like midway through the year we\u2019re going to have to switch a combination. We\u2019re going to refine it and hopefully it gets better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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(John Force set top speed of the meet in FC at 331.94 mph)<\/p><\/div>\n

Posted with files by Sara Slaughter & Bruce Biegler<\/em><\/p>\n

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Tommy Johnson Jr provided the most dramatic incident of the event during the final qualifying session.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Racing his Ford Mustang – Tim Wilkerson had a superb final round placing.<\/p><\/div>\n

Event Essentials: \u00a0 NHRA Amalie Motor Oils Gatornationals \u00a0(Mar. 14-17, 2019)\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>\nRobert Hight<\/td>\n\u00a03.876<\/td>\n331.61<\/td>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a047th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R\/UP:<\/strong><\/td>\nTim Wilkerson<\/td>\n\u00a011.16<\/td>\n\u00a092.63<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Low ET:<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Hight<\/td>\n\u00a03.852<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top Speed:<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn Force<\/td>\n<\/td>\n331.94<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bump Spot:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a04.410<\/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
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(Fan favourite racer – “Fast Jack) Beckman – went to the “final four”)<\/p><\/div>\n

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FC class racing did get off to a rather auspicious start when Gary Richards had this wacky incident during the first Q run.<\/p><\/div>\n

Photos by Bruce Biegler – Dave DeAngelis – Randy Anderson<\/em><\/p>\n

To view more Funny Car event photos from Gainesville link to our event gallery : HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Hight defeated a slew of veteran drag racers on his way to winning one of the most sought after titles available — the 50th Anniversary Amalie Motor Oil 50th NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. The two-time world champion and his Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team put together a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[47,16,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535"}],"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=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3542,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions\/3542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}