ROBERT HIGHT READY TO RACE AT HISTORIC BRAINERD
INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 15, 2018) — To say the idea of heading back to Brainerd International Raceway excites two time and reigning world champion Robert Hight is an understatement. The driver of the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car made history at last year’s Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals and with two wins already under his belt this season and a solid hold on the No. 3 points position, it’s game on.
“Brainerd is where we set the quickest run in Funny Car history a 3.793-seconds, the first 3.7 Funny Car run,” explained Hight. “It’s a great race track with great fans and usually great racing conditions. If the conditions are there, we’ll be able to run good there again this year.”
Coming off the three-race Western Swing, Hight and his Auto Club team climbed their way up to the No. 3 spot after two races of qualifying in the top three and a repeat win in Sonoma, Calif. Hight has now tallied two wins, three runner-up finishes and a No. 1 qualifier in 2018 and is on pace with his 2017 championship run where he entered the final two races before the six-race Countdown to the Championship with two wins and in the Funny Car points top three.
Hight picked up his first win of the season in Chicago, winning from the No. 12 spot, his win in Sonoma came from the No. 11 spot giving the world champion all the confidence in his crew chief Jimmy Prock and assistant crew chief Chris Cunningham.
“Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham weren’t happy with our set up in Sonoma, they tried some things during qualifying and they’ll tell you it didn’t work. We were in race day still testing things but these guys have a good feel for what these cars need and they gave me a lot of confidence going into first round. Normally, as the 11th qualifier, you aren’t real confident. They told me this thing was going to be just fine, it will run good, and it did. We ran in the threes all day.
“Ending the Swing, we’re learning still but, the good news is, the performance is there. We just need to get some more consistency. When we get it right, I feel we are going to be quicker than the rest of them,” Hight continued. “We went to Norwalk this weekend for Night Under Fire and got to do some testing, some learning. That’s how you get better. We’ll roll into Brainerd ready to put a win on the board before we get to Indy.”
Hight qualified No. 1 at Brainerd last year and raced his way to the semifinals beating championship runner-up Ron Capps and Dale Creasy Jr., before making an exit against Tommy Johnson Jr. Hight won the event in 2015 where he raced through Capps, Tim Wilkerson, Brian Stewart and Johnson Jr. in the finals.
“I love going to Brainerd, it’s a fun part of the country. It seems like everybody up there knows how to have fun and we need to have some fun with them in the winner’s circle,” Hight said.
Qualifying at the 37th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals starts Friday with sessions at 2:15 and 5:00 p.m. and continues Saturday at 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Eliminations are set to begin Sunday at 11 a.m. Catch qualifying live on FS1 Friday at 6 p.m. ET with live finals on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.