ROBERT HIGHT AAA TEXAS FUNNY CAR No. 1 AT TEXAS MOTORPLEX

TEAM JFR QUALIFYING
REPORT2016
NHRA Friday Qualifying Summary22nd of
24 races in the NHRA Mello Yello Series4th
of 6 races in Countdown to the Championship  31st
annual AAA Texas NHRA FallnationalsTexas
MotorplexEnnis,
TexasOctober
14-16, 2016Photos courtesy of Richard
Shute/Auto Imagery (JForce, CForce, BForce) and Ron Lewis (Hight) for media use
only. *
* * *ROBERT HIGHT AAA
TEXAS FUNNY CAR No. 1 AT TEXAS MOTORPLEXENNIS, TX – Robert Hight is taking a page from the playbook of his
beloved Los Angeles Dodgers and just continuing to grind it out. The 37-time
winner has a tough road to his second championship but performances like today
will put the 2009 NHRA Funny Car champion back into the championship
conversation. Hight drove his AAA Texas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car to the provisional
No. 1 spot tonight at the 31st annual AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals
with a career quickest elapsed time of 3.839 seconds at 332.02 mph. The elapsed
time was a track record and the third quickest run in Funny Car history.“That was
pretty impressive. Going up for that run (crew chief) Mike Neff told me he
thought it could run 3.84. To me you look at that and think, ‘We have never run
3.84 so how do you go about doing that?’ How are you so confident that it is
going to go up there and run 3.84 and we have never done that,�?? joked Hight in
the Motorplex press room. “To go up there and run a little quicker at 3.83
shows he has a really good handle on this AAA Texas Camaro and I am not going
to question him. It was great. We went to St. Louis and made a bunch of changes
to our car and ran really well. We didn’t get the win and we had crazy
conditions in Reading. To come right back here and pick up where we left off in
St. Louis and running this good shows my AAA Texas team is on the right track.
All we can do is go out and try and win these last three races and see what
happens.�??In St. Louis
Hight picked up qualifying bonus points in every session and was the No. 1
qualifier of the event. Today Hight was the second quickest Funny Car of the first
session with a 3.870 second run and the quickest of the last session. In the final
session Hight was beside point leader Ron Capps and the two-time Fallnationals
winner was asked if there was extra motivation to be paired up with and to
outrun Capps.“It doesn’t
matter if it is qualifying, testing or race day it doesn’t matter who you are
racing you want to get to the finish line first. I don’t ever go up there
thinking I have to do something special. They set my car up and I can only do
what is within my best ability. I am not going to try anything extra special because
of who is in the lane beside me,�?? said Hight.Last night
Hight spent some time in downtown Ennis at the Fanfest event and then the avid
baseball fan watched the Los Angeles Dodgers win the elimination game over the
Washington Nationals. The positive vibe and never give up attitude of Hight’s
favorite team was not lost on Hight today as he looks at the next three races.“Things are
starting to turn around. My Dodgers are going on to face the Cubs to go to the World
Series and the AAA Texas Camaro is running good. We got five points today on
our competitors and I think that moved me around Tim Wilkerson from 8th
to 7th. So far so good,�?? added Hight.  “Some of these new parts we put on this race
car are showing potential and to say you ran the third quickest run in history and
we are just getting started.�??The first
session was a stellar performance for the trio of John Force Racing Camaro
Funny Cars. While Hight was posting the second quickest run of the opening
session teammate and 16-time Funny Car champion was right behind him with a
3.873 second pass which was also a career best mark for the 146-time winner.In the
second session Force’s Advance Auto Parts PEAK Camaro launched aggressively in
the tight conditions and overpowered the track. The strength of his first run
kept Force in the top half of the field sitting in the No. 8 position heading
into Saturday.Courtney
Force and the Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car finished up the first
qualifying session as the fourth quickest Funny Car and it one point they were the
track record holder for elapsed time. Their run of 3.895 seconds was the first
3.8 second run in Motorplex history but was quickly surpassed by John Force,
Hight, and Ron Capps. In the second session Force, the youngest daughter of the
six-time Fallnationals winner, stepped up with a career quickest 3.854 second
run and moved up to the provisional No. 5 spot.The Monster
Energy Top Fuel Dragster ran to the provisional No. 4 spot on Friday at the
Texas Motorplex. Brittany Force ran to the top of the field to open the session
with her 3.727 second run but had to wait to see if her time would hold up as
the top performer. At the end of the night she was shuffled back three spots
but going into Saturday the three-time 2016 winner is is good position to
gather critical information for Sunday success. *
* * *NHRA ON TVSaturday Oct. 15, FS1 will
televise one hour of qualifying coverage at 8 p.m. (ET).
Sunday, Oct. 16, FS1 will televise three hours of live finals coverage starting
at 2 p.m. (ET). * * * *THE DRIVERSJOHN FORCE, 67, Advance Auto
Parts PEAK Antifreeze 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying: 8th at 3.873, 329.02 mph Bonus Qualifying Points: +1 (3rd quickest of Q1)ROBERT HIGHT, 47, AAA Texas 2016 Chevrolet
Camaro SS
Qualifying: 1st at 3.839, 332.02 mphBonus
Qualifying Points: +5 (2nd quickest of Q1, quickest of Q2)COURTNEY FORCE, 28, Traxxas 2016 Chevrolet
Camaro SS
Qualifying: 5th at 3.854, 321.65 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0BRITTANY FORCE, 30, Monster Energy
Top Fuel DragsterQualifying: 4th
at 3.727, 322.50 mphBonus
Qualifying Points: 0*
* * *RACE SCHEDULE:Saturday,
October 153rd round of qualifying                   1:30 PM4th round of qualifying                    4:30
PMSunday,
October 16Final eliminations                             11:00
AM****FOLLOW
JOHN FORCE RACING AT www.twitter.com/jfr_racing****PR
Contact: Elon
Werner                                               
                              John
Force Racing,
Inc.              .214-244-1184                           
                
Elon@johnforceracing.com           www.johnforceracing.com