HIGHT, B. FORCE QUICK AND CONSISTENT AT ENGLISHTOWN
ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – Robert Hight in the Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car along with Brittany Force in the Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster held onto their Friday provisional qualifying positions and will go into race day as the No. 3 and No. 4 qualifiers, respectively. Courtney Force and John Force also held form and will face each other in a tough No. 8 versus No. 9 first round match-up.
Robert Hight impressed the nearly packed Old Bridge Township Raceway stadium with a session best 3.930 second run to close out qualifying today at the 47th annual NHRA SummerNationals. It set up the 2016 Gatornationals winner with three more qualifying bonus points and confidence going into race day. Hight will face journeyman Jeff Diehl in the first round.
“(Crew chief) Mike Neff made sure it was going to go down the track. I am really proud of these guys. We came here with a lot of new things on this Auto Club Camaro. We have a lot of things that are completely different than parts we have run in the past,” said Hight.” We changed a lot of things from Epping. To come in here and qualifying solidly the first run. We have been working it out since that run. You make a nice run like that and get three points we have a good team here. They are doing a great job and it is obviously showing there is more out there and there is a lot of potential with these changes we have made. I am excited.”
The Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car was looking to fine tune their race day tune up in the first session today running beside Tim Wilkerson. The 2099 Funny Car champion smoked the tires just past half-track crossing the finish line with a 4.693 second run. They held onto the No. 3 qualifying position.
The Funny Car qualifying session started with a single run by John Force in the PEAK/Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car. John Force improved his performance slightly running 3.964 seconds but at a much slower speed of 294.95 mph. He stayed in the No. 9 spot and did not move up in the qualifying order. The Camaro was on a solid run but it spun the tires down track and Force lifted before the finish line.
“It spun before the lights probably at 800 or 900 feet. I just took my foot off of it because it spun so hard. It might have run a little bit better time. I am trying to get off that match-up with my daughter Courtney Force in that Traxxas Chevy in the first round,” said Force. “I have a lot of PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant and Monster Energy customers. I am running the Advance Auto Parts Funny Car this weekend. I love those guys and they take good care of me. I want to give them a good race car but right now I am not where I want to be.”
Force’s run held up as the second quickest run of the session and earned the 16-time champion two qualifying bonus points.
In the final session Force was looking to move up in the field but his PEAK Chevrolet Camaro smoked the tires and Force cruised across the finish line with a pedestrian elapsed time of 6.743 seconds. Force will have to try and outrun his youngest daughter in the first round for just the eleventh time his career.
“The only good thing is Courtney is in the points lead and I am trying to get in the Traxxas Shootout so one of us will go to the second round. Whoever wins at least that is a win for JFR. What we do is race our lane,” said Force, a four-time SummerNationals winner. “We are going to go up there and stage it and go. It doesn’t matter if Courtney is beside me or some other driver. All we try and do is our best with this Camaros. We thought we could step up and run a 3.92 or a 3.93 like Robert but it got loose down there at about 750 feet in that last session and smoked the tires. We didn’t get the job done but we are a team and we will keep trying.”
Although Courtney Force and her Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team ran a solid 3.96 in the heat this evening at Old Bridge Township Raceway, it wasn’t enough to step up from her 3.947 elapsed time at 319.29 mph from Friday which put her in the No. 8 qualified spot. Despite the impressive pass in Q4, she wasn’t able to shake up the ladder that had her lined up with her father in the first round of eliminations tomorrow.
“Our Traxxas Funny Car is qualified in the No. 8 spot so we aren’t exactly where we would like to be. We definitely tried to improve our time all day today. The last two runs we made we tried to push the car hard. It was hotter today than it was yesterday so we were battling different track conditions. We did our best and still ran in the 3.0s, but couldn’t run quick enough to get around some of our other competitors.
“We’ll be facing my dad in the first round of eliminations tomorrow and it’s going to be a tough day. It’s unfortunate one of our teams are going to be on the trailer early, but we’re really trying to hang onto the points lead. Our Traxxas team is in the fight and we’re going to need a long race day tomorrow to keep that momentum. We’ve raced my dad several times before and we have a pretty good race car so I think we have a pretty good shot at it tomorrow,” said Force.
The 27-year-old youngest daughter of John Force is 7-10 to her famous father in previous events. She has come out on the losing end of their last four match-ups, but will have lane choice in the first round tomorrow. This is the second time the pair of JFR drivers have met in eliminations this season, but the first time they have race each other during the SummerNationals in Englishtown. Almost half of their elimination meetings have occurred in the opening round on race day.
Brittany Force and the Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster were looking to improve their qualifying position on Saturday during the opening qualifying session. The No. 4 qualified dragster launched hard and it was powering down the track when it overpowered the racing surface and lost traction slowing to a 4.904 second run at 145.47 mph.
In the final qualifying session Brittany Force and the Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster made a strong run to hold onto their qualifying position. Under race day like conditions Force lit up the scoreboard with a 3.876 second pass at 314.61 mph. The Monster Energy Top Fueler will go into race day facing No. 13 qualifier Luigi Novelli. This will be the second time Force has raced Novelli. She defeated him in their previous meeting, the 2014 Kansas Nationals.
“It definitely feels good to end on a run where you get down the race track. We struggled some this weekend. With this Monster Energy Top Fuel team led by Brian Husen and Alan Johnson struggling even a little in qualifying is really unusual for us,” explained Force from her pit area. “We usually go down the track every single run. I know as a team we will get it figured out going into race day. We have Novelli in the first round and we want to go rounds and get another win.”
Last year Force raced to the final round before losing a close race to local hero Antron Brown. This year Force is looking to get one more round win and add a third win to her record.
“Having success here gives you an extra boost. We just need to take it a step further. Going rounds here last year definitely gives me confidence for tomorrow,” said Force.