Robert Hight had only one shot at greatness, and the past NHRA Funny Car champion made it stick, literally.

Qualifying for the NHRA Keystone Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway outside of Reading, Pa., was limited to one qualifying session. In the mist of incoming rain, Hight thundered to a 3.922, 329.34 to make him nearly three-tenths quicker than No. 2 qualifier Ron Capps.

Hight wasn't overconfident in regards to his performance advantage, realizing quickly his team managed to hit the perfect combination in a session where the majority of his competition just missed the mark.

“I am not going to stand here and tell you how good we are because you don’t get a lot of chances to run under conditions like this and it was kind of a perfect storm," said Hight.  "We hit everything just right, and that is what you have to do to make a run like that. There is some skill but a lot of it is luck."

Saturday's lone session presented atmospheric combinations not found in many team's logbooks. Hight's crew chief went back to the one race where Mother Nature dealt similar conditions - the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., back in August.

“Going up there (crew chief) Mike Neff just looked back at what we ran in Brainerd and set it up like when we ran 3.93," Hight said. "We were using that run as a starting place to see where it went from there. Luckily it worked perfect. There are a lot of smart crew chiefs and a lot of really good race cars, because so for only one car to make it down the track just shows how tricky it was. You have to go into first round thinking did we just get lucky and are we going to be the ones smoking the tires? It is edgy. It is tough.”

Hight was the top leader in bonus points by picking up three from the event's only qualifying session. He races John Hale in Sunday's first round, slated to begin at 11 AM, EST.

Hight understands Sunday's first round will likely be much the same as Saturday's crapshoot; Neff will have to roll the dice and see what comes up.

“I wish that we had another round then you would go into Sunday knowing a little more," Hight admitted. "If we could go out and do it again you would have a lot of confidence. Now with everyone else messing up you don’t know. The good thing is being No. 1 qualifier has its perks because we can wait until the end tomorrow and watch everybody else.

"You are going to have to be ready for anything. You might have to pedal it but I want to thank NHRA Safety Safari for working so hard to get this track in order. I also want to thank the fans who came out. The pit side grandstand was pretty full for the conditions.”

Hight's top qualifying effort was his first of the season and the 47th of his career.

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