CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
MOPAR MILE-HIGH NHRA NATIONALS
BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY AT MORRISON, COLORADO
SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2017
Chevrolet Cruises to Mile-High Victories in Funny Car and Pro Stock
• Robert Hight secures the 249th Funny Car win for John Force Racing
• Drew Skillman becomes first back-to-back Pro Stock winner this season
• No. 6 qualifier Brittany Force advances to Top Fuel semifinals
• Courtney Force sets Funny Car track records in earning No. 1 qualifier honor
MORRISON, Colo. (July 23, 2017) – Robert Hight checked two items off his to-do list.
The driver of the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS claimed his first Funny Car victory of the season – the 38th of his career – in the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals to secure a spot in the Traxxas Nitro Shootout on Labor Day weekend at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals.
Hight, the No. 3 qualifier, picked up his fourth victory at Bandimere Speedway with a 3.995-second run at 317.57 mph in the final against Tommy Johnson Jr. Hight extended his streak to at least one victory in each of his 13 years as a Funny Car competitor, and secured the 249th Funny Car victory for John Force Racing.
“This is the big one. You have the team behind you and Chevrolet and Auto Club,” Hight said. “Everybody kept coming up and saying, ‘You’re due.’ No, you have to go out and win (the Wally). There’s going to be more coming. You can’t sweep the ‘western swing’ unless you win Denver. Great job and Chevrolet.”
Chevrolet claimed its 14th consecutive Pro Stock victory this season as Drew Skillman won the battle of Indiana residents against Bo Butner. There have been nine different Chevrolet winners, and Skillman, who registered his fifth career victory in his 60th Pro Stock race, became the first to win back-to-back races. He won at Route 66 Raceway two weeks earlier.
Skillman posted a 6.916-second run in his Ray Skillman Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro SS to knock out Pro Stock points leader Butner, whose Butner Auto Sales Chevrolet Camaro SS checked in at 6.953 seconds. Butner, the No. 9 qualifier, was making his sixth final-round appearance of the season and third in the past four races.
“I’ve got the best team out there and I’ve got a bad hot rod,” said Skillman, who recorded his first No. 1 qualifier honor of the season. “We came out here and tested two days early in the week and were here from sun up to sun down and made a ton of runs. That really helped.”
Chevrolet drivers won every Pro Stock elimination round. Butner ousted No. 2 qualifier Erica Enders (Melling Performance/Elite Chevrolet Camaro SS) and Skillman defeated reigning class champion Jason Line (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS) in the semifinals.
In their 72nd head-to-head matchup, Line got the better of KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS) on a holeshot in the second round. Enders defeated Chris McGaha (Harlow Sammons of Odessa Chevrolet Camaro SS), and Butner outdistanced No. 3 qualifier Vincent Nobile (Mountain View Tire Chevrolet Camaro SS).
Courtney Force reset the Funny Car racetrack elapsed time (3.889 seconds) and speed (328.3 mph) records in earning the No. 1 qualifier spot for the sixth time this season in the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS to lead the John Force Racing contingent to a sweep of the top three qualifying positions for the second time this season and 19th time in team history.
John Force, who had advanced to the final round at Bandimere Speedway the past three years and earned his seventh victory at the track in 2016, was the No. 2 qualifier in the PEAK Coolant & Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro SS. Both drivers fell in the first round of eliminations.
Brittany Force was the No. 6 Top Fuel qualifier in the Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster and advanced to the semifinals for the fifth time this season. She eliminated Top Fuel points leader Steve Torrence in the second round. Force has won first-round matchups in the past seven races.
Ross Gregory of Brighton, Colorado, was the No. 2 qualifier of 32 Stock Eliminator entries in his Chevrolet COPO Camaro. He advanced to the second round of eliminations. Dan Fletcher of Churchville, New York, won two rounds of eliminations in his Chevrolet COPO Camaro.
Two-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Erica Enders was the No. 6 qualifier in Super Stock in a 2017 Chevrolet COPO Camaro. Dan Fletcher of Churchville, New York, earned his 101st national event victory – and second in a row — by winning Super Stock in his ’69 Chevrolet Camaro.
The western swing continues July 28-30 with the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway in California. Last July, John Force prevailed in Funny Car for the second consecutive week, and Greg Anderson defeated KB Racing teammate and No. 1 qualifier Bo Butner in the Pro Stock final to pace Chevrolet drivers.
FOX Sports 1 will telecast live qualifications at 11 p.m. ET July 28 and will telecast live eliminations and finals at 4 p.m. ET July 30.
ROGER ALLEN, CHEVROLET RACING NHRA PROGAM MANAGER: “Congratulations to Robert Hight and Drew Skillman for their victories in the Mopar Mike-High NHRA Nationals. With rain early in the weekend, changing track conditions, and the high level of competition in both Funny Car and Pro Stock, they made solid runs throughout the race weekend. Also, congratulations to the entire John Force Racing team, with Courtney Force earning her sixth No. 1 Funny Car qualifier spot of the season, John Force qualifying No. 2 and Hight the No. 3 qualifier. And Brittany Force reaching the semifinals in Top Fuel also was an accomplishment. Now it’s on to the second leg of the western swing, and hopefully more good fortune for Chevrolet teams.”
An interview with Funny Car winner ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier; ended winless streak dating to Gainesville 2016; 38th career victory; fourth win at the track; has 29-9 round record at the track; won a race for 13th consecutive year; sixth driver to qualify for Traxxas Nitro Shootout; recorded 249th Funny Car victory for John Force Racing):
Q: HAS ANY OF YOUR WINS BEEN AS FULFILLING AS THIS ONE?
ROBERT HIGHT: Not at all; this is the big one. You have the team behind you and Chevrolet and Auto Club. Everybody kept coming up and saying, You’re due. No, you have to go out and win (the Wally). There’s going to be more coming. You can’t sweep the western swing unless you win Denver. Great job and Chevrolet.
Q: TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR PHYSICAL CONDITION TODAY.
ROBERT HIGHT: I don’t know whether I ate something bad last night or this morning but I’ve been sick all day. A guy from California at sea level and then you get up here to elevation and have these problems. The Chevys ran great in qualifying – 1, 2 and 3 – and then you snap your fingers and it’s like it all turned around. (John Force Racing teammates) Courtney (Force) and John (Force) out, and Todd Simpson, who I was racing first round, red lit. Normally, a red light doesn’t affect me, but he left so early that my mind started thinking and I double stepped it and we lost lane choice for second round. Sometimes that can be a big deal and sometimes not. Luckily, we have a great racetrack here at Bandimere Speedway and it wasn’t a big deal. In the second round and semis, we kept dropping cylinders. We were lucky to get those wins, but every time you go to the starting line with (crew chief) Jimmy Prock in your corner you believe it’s going to be fixed and you can outrun these guys. That’s exactly what he did in the final. It really makes me proud to see our other teams coming in and helping Jimmy, and them all working together to get this car in the winner’s circle. That’s how John Force Racing is going to prevail because we work so close together. We’re a family, we work hard, and no matter who’s in the winner’s circle we all share the wealth.
Q: HOW GOOD IS IT TO BREAK THE DSR STREAK?
ROBERT HIGHT: It’s big, and it was 34 races since I won last and you try to put it behind you and not even think about it. But the media continuously remind you of it, and it starts wearing on you a little bit as you see the other guys winning. What’s really frustrating is our performance is there. We run really good. We qualify well. We just haven’t raced well on Sunday, and haven’t had any luck. Today we got some luck; we needed it. Those guys have been winning; you can’t take anything away from them. But they’ve had some luck, too. This is my favorite time of the year, the western swing, with three great races at three awesome racetracks in a row. These crew guys have to work so hard. They have to change everything for Denver to race in this altitude and now they have to change it all back in a matter of a couple days, get to Sonoma, and we’re at sea level. It’s a big deal to sweep the swig, and you can’t sweep the swing unless you win Denver, and we did that.
An interview with Pro Stock winner DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN RACING, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO GROUP CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; first Pro Stock driver to win consecutive races this season; earned fifth victory in 60th Pro Stock event):
Q: 6.92 (SECONDS) WAS A NUMBER YOU LIKED THIS WEEKEND. TELL US ABOUT YOUR CAR.
DREW SKILLMAN: The car was a bracket car. It just kept running the same number. We knew we were close to the tune-up and gearing and it just kept repeating. That’s the sign of a good car when you can repeat like that and go that fast, we’ve got a good car and a great team.
Q: WHAT HAS COME AROUND FOR YOU GUYS IN THE LAST FEW RACES?
DREW SKILLMAN: Just attitude. When you get up and you start doing well, it helps everybody. We’ve always had the same talent, we’ve had the same pieces, we’ve had the same horsepower, we just finally are utilizing it all in the same way.
Q: YOU JUST TRY TO USE YOUR NORMAL STUFF AND DEAL WITH THE CONDITIONS?
DREW SKILLMAN: Absolutely. Those cars are so finicky that you don’t want to build one just for here. They take forever to figure out. We just take what we’ve got, and we have excellent power, especially for the mountain apparently.
Q: ARE YOU STARTING TO THINK ABOUT A SWEEP?
DREW SKILLMAN: Absolutely. That’s what I came out here to do. When we tested earlier in the week, that’s when I knew we had something. We’ll see what happens in Sonoma. We’ll take it one race at a time. Right now, we’re the king of the hill but we still have Sonoma and Seattle. I feel confident about it.
Q: DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN BUILD UPON?
DREW SKILLMAN: I don’t think it’s impossible (to win three in a row). I think we have the momentum and momentum is huge in this sport. When everyone is positive and everyone knows you’re going to kick (butt), you move forward like you’re going to. We just have to be aggressive right out of the trailer, and if we do that we’re here. We can win.
Q: WAS THE CAR SET UP TO GO 3.91 IN THE FINAL OR DID IT JUST GET A BETTER HOLD OF THE RACETRACK?
DREW SKILLMAN: It’s been set up to run 91 this whole weekend. I’m just not the best driver on the planet. It probably has a 90 in it.