Another good Friday run puts Auto Club driver Robert Hight on top of Funny Car speed chart in Seattle

SEATTLE – It wasn’t quite the moonshot as last Friday, but Robert Hight still made an impressive run in the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS to jump to the No. 1 spot in Funny Car during Friday’s qualifying for the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

Last Friday, Hight ran the fastest speed in NHRA history (339.87 mph) to surge to the provisional No. 1 at Sonoma Raceway. This time around, Hight wasn’t quite as fast, but his run of 3.894 seconds at 329.42 mph was still the quickest of the 16 Funny Cars.

“What I’m most impressed with is my team and how they are able to adapt race to race, as well as different conditions,” Hight said. “Last week, we saw killer conditions on that Friday night run, ran 3.80 at almost 340 mph.

“You come up here and you’ve got a really hot track, and we were second on the first run and low tonight, and it shows my guys have a good handle on everything. And it almost ran 330 mph tonight. I think this thing will run 330 mph on a dirt road. It’s just a lot of fun right now.”

Hight, who won in Denver to start the three-race Western Swing that concludes this weekend, wants more, specifically to be more consistent on race day.

“It still goes back to the same old thing we talk about – we’ve got to race better on Sunday,” Hight said. “We have the performance when it’s hot, cold, and we’ve just to keep up with the track and conditions, not beat ourselves, and we should start winning some races.

“We’re right there; our performance is where it needs to be. We just need consistency.”

John Force Racing owner John Force led the first session and ended up No. 3 in Funny Car with a pass of 3.973 seconds at 307.23 mph with the PEAK Coolant and Motor Oil Chevrolet. Courtney Force had good runs going early in both sessions Friday but stands No. 14 with a pass of 4.187 at 230.33 mph.

Brittany Force sits No 2 in Top Fuel after a run of 3.792 at 323.89 mph in her Monster Energy dragster.

Two more qualifying sessions are scheduled for Saturday at 2 and 4:30 p.m. Pacific. Final eliminations are slated to begin at 11 a.m. Pacific on Sunday.

Fox Sports 1 will provide one hour of qualifying coverage at 11 p.m. Saturday. Fox will broadcast three hours of live finals coverage at 1 p.m. Pacific on Sunday.