AAA Auto Club
ROBERT HIGHT AND AUTO CLUB CHEVY KEEP POINTS LEAD COMING OUT OF NHRA ARIZONA NATIONALS
CHANDLER, AZ — Robert Hight and the Auto Club of Southern California team maintain the points lead with a 
semifinal finish Sunday at the Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park outside of Phoenix. Hight defeated John Force in the second round and in Top Fuel, Austin Prock had a second-round finish and Brittany Force had an early Sunday with a first round exit.
In round one, Hight ran a 3.863-second pass at 329.67 mph uncontested after his would-be opponent, Jeff Diehl, had to push back from the starting line. The win set Hight up to race against team owner John Force in the second round.
The Auto Club Camaro crossed the finish line first with a 3.879-second pass at 327.82 mph to defeat Force’s 3.988 at 325.92. Hight and Force also met each other in the semifinals of the NHRA Winternationals where Hight went on to win the event. Hight has now beaten Force four straight times, equaling the longest winning streak by either driver during their rivalry.
In the semifinals, Hight lined up with reigning Funny Car world champion J.R. Todd whom he battled with for the championship until the last day of the 2018 season. Hight ran a 3.922-second pass at 326.24 mph but was outrun by Todd’s 3.919 at 327.19.
ROBERT HIGHT WINS FOURTH NHRA WINTERNATIONALS MONDAY AT AUTO CLUB RACEWAY
POMONA, CA — Robert Hight and the Automobile Club of Southern California team raced way to their victory at a 
weather delayed Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, the opening event of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. On the way to their fourth win, Hight, the John Force Racing president, handed team owner John Force a loss in the semifinals and watched Top Fuel teammates Brittany Force and Austin Prock face-off in a first round duel that earned Prock the first-round win of his career.
After persistent rain cancelled racing on Sunday, Hight and his Auto Club team, who were also the No. 1 qualifiers, came out Monday morning on a mission. After having to step off the throttle in his first-round win against Terry Haddock to run 4.026-seconds, Hight strung together a trio of 3.8-second runs in three good side-by-side races for his 46th career victory and fourth Winternationals win.
“You know, you look at the Funny Car class and I think it’s tougher this year than it was last and that’s saying something so. Everybody is stacked up. It’s not going to be easy,” Hight said. “You’re going to have to be on your game all year long on the starting line. You’re going to have to have consistency with your car.”
ROBERT HIGHT WINS EVENTFUL AAA INSURANCE MIDWEST NATIONALS
ST. LOUIS — Robert Hight and the AAA Missouri Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car team LED the championship chase 
after winning the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals Sunday at Gateway Motorsports Park. Hight is now 30 points ahead of the rest of the Funny Car pack with his third win of the season and 44th of his career. It is Hight’s 10th Countdown race win and 90th Countdown round win, both are tops in the Funny Car category.
While racing Tim Wilkerson in the final round, Hight crossed the finish line first but soon after his Chevy Camaro suffered an engine explosion blasting the body off the car and made contact with the retaining wall. Hight got the win at 4.036-seconds at 276.29 mph to Wilkerson’s 4.413 at 201.91 and walked away from the wreckage to be transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
“First, we are happy Robert is okay. He went to a local hospital to be checked out and after being x-rayed and evaluated he was schedule to be released tonight. I’m glad Robert has the points lead and now we are going to rest and get ready for Dallas,” said team owner John Force.
ROBERT HIGHT POWERS AUTO CLUB TO SECOND NO. 1 OF THE SEASON
BRAINERD, MN — Robert Hight and the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team 
raced to the No. 1 qualifying position Saturday at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. Funny Car teammates, Courtney Force and John Force, are No. 10 and 13, respectively, and, in Top Fuel, Brittany Force jumped to the No. 6 position.
Hight, who now has two No. 1 qualifiers this season, his first in Houston, was quickest three of the four sessions earning 11 valuable bonus points. He came out of the trailer to run a 3.971-second pass at 326.95 mph that earned him the provisional No. 1 on Friday and then a 3.989-second pass at 324.83 mph in the second session.
Saturday, Hight and the Auto Club team had a stellar 3.959-second pass at 324.67 mph to wrap up the third qualifying session during the warmest conditions of the weekend. They continued the theme of three-second runs with a 3.994 pass at 324.59 mph to close out the day and were second quickest of the session.
ROBERT HIGHT NO. 1 AFTER FRIDAY QUALIFYING AT BRAINERD INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
BRAINERD, MN — Robert Hight leads John Force Racing as the preliminary No. 1 qualifier in Funny Car at the 
Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway on Friday evening. Brittany Force is in the 11th spot in Top Fuel in her black and green Monster Energy dragster and John Force and Courtney Force are looking to improve from the No. 13 and No. 14 spots respectively in Funny Car.
Hight, who set the Funny Car national elapsed time record at 3.793-seconds at Brainerd last season, earned six bonus points throughout Friday qualifying. His 3.971-second pass at 326.95 mph from the first session landed him in the No. 1 spot for the night and his 3.989-second pass at 324.83 mph was the quickest of the second session.
“To be honest with you, that 3.97 first run, I was pretty happy. I honestly thought if we screwed up tonight, that would only be fifth. For some reason nobody stepped up tonight and we actually slowed down a hundredth,” explained Hight. “On that second run (crew chief) Jimmy (Prock) said it needed more power. Maybe the track was a little better than we anticipated and the changes we made, the track ate up. You have to stay ahead of the racetrack and obviously we didn’t.
ROBERT HIGHT READY TO RACE AT HISTORIC BRAINERD INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
BRAINERD, MN — 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.
COURTNEY FORCE TAKES ADVANCE AUTO PARTS TO FINAL ROUND AT NHRA NORTHWEST NATIONALS
KENT, WA — Courtney Force and the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS team raced to their career best sixth 
final round of the season Sunday at the CatSpot NHRA Northwest Nationals ending the day with their second runner-up finish. Robert Hight made a quarterfinal finish and John Force and Brittany Force ended their racing early in the first round at Pacific Raceways outside of Seattle.
Entering race day as the No. 3 qualifier, Courtney Force powered her Advance Auto Parts Chevy Camaro past familiar foe Jim Campbell in the first round of eliminations. Both Force and Campbell left the starting line early but Force’s light of -.015 compared to Campbell’s -.296 allowed her to move on to the second round while he earned the red-light.
The second-round match-up of Force and Shawn Langdon was one of the closest of the day. Force came from behind to run 4.023-seconds at 322.11 mph, chasing down Langdon’s 4.036 at 318.02.
ROBERT HIGHT AND AUTO CLUB LEAD JOHN FORCE RACING FRIDAY AT THE NHRA NORTHWEST NATIONALS
KENT, WA — Robert Hight and his Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team raced to 
the provisional No. 2 position Friday at the CatSpot NHRA Northwest Nationals. Courtney Force, who has dominated the Funny Car class, is currently No. 3 and John Force rounds out the John Force Racing Funny Cars in No. 15. In Top Fuel, Brittany Force landed in the No. 8 position.
After racing to the event win in Sonoma, Calif. last weekend, Robert Hight and his Auto Club team are hoping to keep the momentum going at Pacific Raceways, where Hight is the defending winner and No. 1 qualifier. They’ll start day two of the 31st annual event from the No. 2 position after a strong showing in the second session, they ran a 3.919-second pass at 327.82 mph after shutting off early with a hole out during the first session.
“We dropped a cylinder on the first run and then to go up there and run as well as we did without a run under our belts is pretty impressive,” Hight said. “These guys really believe they are onto something after Sonoma and the numbers are showing it. When you look at it, the numbers are flying. They also believe there is a lot more left in it. Tomorrow, even if the track is 10 or 15 degrees hotter, they still think they can run the same. I am pretty impressed. We got two points tonight and we are in third by only eight points behind Ron Capps. Our goal is to go into Sunday in second place. So far so good.”
ROBERT HIGHT AIMS TO DOUBLE-UP AT SEATTLE, SEAL A ‘MODIFIED’ SWEEP FOR CHEVROLET
KENT, WA — Coming off an impressive win last week at Sonoma, Calif., and entering this week’s 31st annual 
CatSpot NHRA Northwest Nationals as the defending champion at Pacific Raceways, Robert Hight is looking more and more like a man capable of becoming the first in 15 years to win back-to-back Mello Yello Funny Car titles.
After being caught off guard by NHRA’s early-season decision to change the way it prepares the racing surface at its national event tracks, crew chiefs Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham have adjusted their program and settled into a new comfort zone and the 48-year-old Hight couldn’t be more amped up.
“Jimmy and Chris haven’t been happy with our set-up, but they have a good feel for what these cars need,” Hight said. “Normally as the No. 11 qualifier (as he was at Sonoma), you aren’t real confident, but they told me our Auto Club of Southern California Chevy Camaro was going to be just fine.
Auto Club driver Robert Hight eclipses 400th elimination round-win mark at Brainerd
BRAINERD, MN – While Robert Hight’s exciting 3.793-second run in Friday’s second qualifying session for the 
NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway set the famed race track abuzz, it was only one of the significant milestones the John Force Racing president and driver reached during the weekend.
The driver of the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, Hight – who turned 48 on Sunday (no, that’s not the other milestone) – won his 400th elimination round in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The victory came against Dale Creasy Jr. in the opening round of competition.
Hight, the No. 1 qualifier after setting the first 3.79-second pass for a Funny Car, blitzed down the track to become only the sixth driver in NHRA history to win 400 Funny Car elimination rounds.
Team owner John Force leads the way with 1,280 – he scored two wins Sunday – while Ron Capps is just more than halfway to Force’s total, of 652. Hight’s 401st win came against Capps (also his 31st career win against Capps, the most of any of his 57 career opponents) on Sunday. Others include Cruz Pedregon (544), Tony Pedregon (517), and Del Worsham (505), who reached the 500-round club earlier this year.
