Auto Club driver Robert Hight ready to win at Norwalk

Photo credit: Gary Nastase and Auto Imagery
NORWALK, Ohio (June 24) – Auto Club of Southern California Funny Car driver Robert Hight is fired up for final eliminations for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals on Sunday at Summit Racing Motorsports Park.

Hight secured the No. 2 qualifying spot and was the quickest Funny Car in the final qualifying session, giving him confidence in his pursuit of his first victory in Norwalk.

“I have a real good feeling about tomorrow,” Hight said. “I’m excited. I’ve never won Norwalk, but I’m going to tomorrow.”

Hight’s best pass was 3.870 seconds at a track-record 334.65 mph, run in the Friday night session. After breaking traction in Q3, Hight then earned three bonus points for running the quickest time in the final session: 3.921 seconds at 328.86 mph.

“That’s huge going into Sunday,” Hight said. “You don’t want to not go down the track two runs on Saturday that are going to be representative runs for Sunday. We were real, real close the first run to going, and it was going to be quick today.”

Crew chief Jimmy Prock was fine with smoking the tires in the third qualifying session, helping learn the track for Sunday’s race.

“Actually, Jimmy said, ‘I’m glad we smoked the tires first run today because we won’t try that tomorrow. We know our threshold and what our limit is,’” Hight said. “We went up there in Q4, got three points and made a great run. It gives you confidence going into Sunday.”

Hight will start eliminations against No. 15 qualifier Jim Campbell, who made a best pass of 4.092 seconds at 310.91 mph.

Final eliminations are scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday. Fox Sports 1 plans three hours of finals coverage at 6 p.m. Eastern Sunday.

4-Second Reads:

Qualifying Round 1 (Left Lane): 7.412 seconds/85.78 mph; shook tires about 60 feet down the track (No. 11 of session and No. 11 overall; no bonus points)
Qualifying Round 2 (Right Lane): 3.870 seconds/334.65 mph; both ends of the track record with a speed mark (No. 2 of session and No. 2 overall; two bonus points in session and two bonus points overall)
Qualifying Round 3 (Left Lane): 4.848 seconds/161.09 mph; smoked tires around the 330-foot mark (No. 15 of session and No. 2 overall; no bonus points in session and two bonus points overall)
Qualifying Round 4 (Right Lane): 3.921 seconds/328.86 mph; straight down the track with quickest run of the session (No. 1 of session and No. 2 overall; three bonus points in session and five bonus points overall)
This is the fifth time this season and 38th time in his career Hight has qualified No. 2. He has qualified No. 2 on three straight occasions, with No. 2s also at Englishtown, N.J., and Bristol, Tenn.
This is the third time Hight has qualified No. 2 at Norwalk. He also qualified No. 2 at the track in 2009 and 2013.
Hight’s matchup against Jim Campbell marks only the second time the two will compete against each other, with the other meeting coming in April at Houston. Hight won that race, which occurred in the first round.