Night Ready to Take Summernationals Funny Car Title

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – Robert Hight and the Auto Club Ford Mustang team have started the 2013 Mello Yello season the same way they started the 2009 season. They are winless through the first eight races but have shown signs as of success as of late. Luckily for Hight and his team 2009 turned out alright considering they hoisted the Funny Car World Championship trophy in Pomona. This weekend at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park’s historic Toyota Summernationals Hight is looking to get his first win of 2013 and his first win at the storied East Coast racing facility.

“Englishtown is a major race just like a major event in golf. You want to win at Pomona, Gainesville, Indy and Englishtown. This place has seen some of the most famous drivers and some of the greatest racing. John (Force) used to match race here on Wednesday night and they would have all sorts of crazy things going on but it all came back to the racing. I want to get a win here and we were close last year,” said Hight.

While Hight has not been getting a lot of win lights at the start of the season that turned around in Topeka where he was the No. 3 qualifier and raced to his first final round of the season. Unfortunately for the first time in four final round meetings with veteran racer Johnny Gray Hight came up just a little short losing the final. Hight now holds a 3-1 final round record to Gray.

“It seemed like every time I was going to a final lately it was against Johnny. We were either in a final or the first round against each other. He has a tough race car and he is a good driver. That is always a tough combination. I was glad to go some rounds in Topeka and we moved up a spot in the points,” said Hight, who now sits No. 7 in the Mello Yello point standings.

“The good news is all our John Force Racing Mustangs ran well all weekend in Topeka. That was the first race in a long time where we got four qualifying runs and then went some rounds on Sunday. We need the track time in race conditions. We tested a lot of things in the off season and when you are trying to figure them out you need track time. We lost a ton of runs due of weather to start the season.”

Prior to the start of the race in Topeka Hight received a few words of encouragement from a somewhat surprising source. Fellow competitor Ron Capps took a few minutes during the pre-race ceremonies to tell Hight he was glad the Auto Club Mustang appeared to be turning around after a strong two days of qualifying.

“It was kind of cool. Capps came up to me and said it was glad to have me back running good. He is a class guy and it makes you feel good to know that people are recognizing our success on the track even if it is only a couple of days. You want to give everyone a tough race and Capps is one of the best guys out here with a great team. He made the quickest 1000 ft run last year at Englishtown, 3.96 seconds, and I know if conditions are just right there will be a lot of teams trying to run quicker than that,” said Hight.