This was a much-anticipated heavyweight match-up between John Force and Robert Hight in Sunday’s semifinals of the Fourth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

Robert Hight crew chief Jimmy Prock argues his point with NHRA starter Rick Stewart that the tree malfunctioned. It was later determined the tree was on the quicker end of the random timing activation.

The race between father and son-in-law and JFR teammates was memorable all right, for how bizarre it was at the starting line.

As Hight, who is the reigning Funny Car world champion, was getting ready to stage, the Christmas tree appeared to be functioning abnormally.

“When I pull up forward to (crew chief) Jimmy (Prock), I do not look at the tree or anything,” Hight said. “I’m looking down track to make sure my car is straight. Then, I see him (Jimmy) out of the corner of my eye stop me, and I stopped. He does his deal and he walked away. When he walked away, the bottom light on the tree flashed. The bottom stage bulb flashed. So, I stopped in my tracks. I thought oh $%^&, did he (Jimmy) pull me clear through, am I way too far in, because it was a flash. What the #$%^, how did that just happen? So, I thought OK, and I rolled forward and the top light lit. I actually blanked that out and never thought about it again, it was over with and it was something different. I saw John pre-staged, and I pulled my pump on and I pulled my foot off the clutch and I started bumping in and I was staged. I look over at him (John) and he’s staged and I look at the tree, and I never saw anything and he left.”

Force had a .094 light and clocked a 4.249-second time at 288.77 mph for the easy win. When Hight finally did leave the line he had a 1.257-second reaction time and  a 4.564 elapsed time at 196.10 mph.

“You can see on our video it did flash, the tree did, but I swear I didn’t see it and it was a quick one,” Hight said. “For some reason, something was weird and it was a quick flash. I do not know what just took place. Probably more than anything, it was driver malfunction. I have no idea. I did not see the tree come down. I didn’t. It was weird.”

The craziness at the starting line wasn’t lost on Prock. Prock and some of Hight’s team members had a discussion with NHRA officials at the starting line about what unfolded.

 “I wasn’t sure (what happened),” Prock said. “The only thing that distracted me was because the lights came on and went off and there was no green light, but you do not leave on the green anyway. But, they were trying to tell me that the body was in the lights. I know it isn’t because I put my foot right behind the beam and I roll them forward. I think he (Hight) just got distracted and didn’t leave. I think his brain went dead or something for a minute. I do not know. Originally, we went and argued that the tree didn’t come on because the lights came on and went off so fast. I think that is what made us think that (on the) light, we didn’t get a tree because if you look at the video, the lights came on and went right off and there was no green light. It was just a weird deal.”