Following a script is great in theory but a lot of time it doesn’t come to fruition.

That, however, wasn’t the case for Robert Hight.

Hight, out of the John Force Racing stable, came into NHRA’s six-race to the Countdown to the Championship as the points leader and he increased his lead after the first race in the Countdown after a nearly a perfect weekend at the Pep Boys Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.

Hight qualified in the No. 1 position and then cruised to the victory the 60th of his NHRA nitro Funny Car career.

Hight clocked a 3.937-second elapsed time at 328.38 mph to defeat Tim Wilkerson, who had a redlight start in his back-up car, in the finals.

“Well, this is exactly how we scripted it,” Hight said. “The only problem is it's really easy to script a weekend and it's a lot harder to get out there and get the job done. We told ourselves we needed to go out there and qualify well, get points every run, because at the end of the year, a lot of those qualifying points could be the difference between a championship or not. So, A-plus, we did that. And then to go through the guys we went to through today and get the job done. I mean, it's not easy. I mean there's a lot of good race cars. So, we knew that we had to step up and make a good run against him in the final. And then he red lights.

“But your brain does some crazy, crazy stuff. It's like you know that he just left too soon, and I wasn't late. But then your brain starts thinking, ‘oh man, was I late?’ And then you look up at the scoreboard and it's flashing, and it shows that I won. But you still have to drive the race car and get it down there. Tim Wilkerson's a tough competitor. So, this is huge to start out like this, but it's one down, five to go. We really have to have some fun tonight and put this behind us and go focus on Charlotte next week and try to get the job, the same job done again. If you can do that early on here, you're going to put some pressure on these guys.”

Hight had a first-round bye and then knocked off Cruz Pedregon, Matt Hagan, and Wilkerson. He left Reading with an 81-point lead over Matt Hagan in the points standings.

His milestone 60th career win and seventh this season left Hight smiling.

“There was a point where I never thought I'd ever get a win, that I'd ever even get a chance to drive one of these race cars,” Hight said. “So I'm very fortunate. I can say one thing, there's one common denominator on all 60 of those wins and that's the Auto Club of Southern California. And there's not very many race car drivers who can say that they've had the same sponsor for 18 years and 60 wins. And without them, we wouldn't be doing this. It's just plain and simple. They've made this happen.

“So, nothing more that I'd like to do than to win a championship for them for all they've done for us. Pretty amazing. But 60, that's a big number. No one's ever going to get John Force (155 wins). It's just not going to happen. As a competitor, I hate even saying that because you always want to be the best and end up No. 1, but it ain't going to happen. It's impossible. So, (Ron) Capps and I are battling out for second and Hagan's coming up too. I mean he's got a lot of wins. If you could finish your career, No. 2 in all-time wins, and No. 2 in all-time championships, that's a pretty strong career.”

Hight has three world titles on his resume in 2009, 2017 and 2019. He pilots the Automobile Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS. In addition to his seven wins this season Hight also has three runner-up finishes in the 17 races so far this season. 

“Plain and simple, hard work,” Hight said about the key to his success in 2022. “We struggled last year. We were horrible. We just did not get it done. We came off the 2020 year, where we didn't race basically because of COVID, but 2019, we dominated. We had really high hopes when we got back out here to the racetrack and started racing in '21, that we'd pick up right where we left off. And that didn't happen. We had some highs and lows, but really, we focused all winter, (his crew chiefs) Jimmy (Prock) and Chris (Cunningham) and the whole team, on what bit us last year and kind of went back to basics.

“This is a career year. Seven wins already. That's unheard of. If somebody would've told me at the beginning of the year that any Funny Car driver would have seven wins, I'd have said, ‘you're crazy.’ But seven wins isn't going to get the championship. It's going to take more than that. We're going to have to get even more than that and keep this rolling to win this championship. This is just getting started and there's a lot of really, really good race cars. But I have to give the Auto Club Chevy, the whole team an A-plus for what we accomplished here in Reading.”

Hight did address the concentration he needs to have at the starting line in what he hopes is a championship run.

“The cars are way too evenly matched. You're seeing cars that are separated by thousandths of a second. Matt Hagan and I... a perfect example in second round at Indy,” he said. “We both ran 3.86 and we both had 0.50 lights. And I got the win and had I had a 0.65 (light), which if you averaged 0.65 all year in a Funny Car, you're going to be No. 1, that's going to be the best reaction time average. But I would have been going home. That kind of gave me a wake-up call, taught me a lesson. We do have to focus. And to me focus means just being relaxed. A lot of it is having confidence in your team and your car and everybody, it is way easier for me to go up and do my job when I don't have to pull a rabbit out of the hat.”

Hight also was pleased his teammate Austin Prock won the Top Fuel crown in Reading. Jimmy Prock is Austin’s father.

“It's teamwork and I think this is the best four-car team we've ever had at JFR,” Hight said. “And when I say that it's not based on results. It's based on everybody working together and not having egos, putting everything aside, listening, and helping each other. And that it just showed, I mean, you had Dave Grubnic, Jimmy Prock and (Rahn) Tobler and (Joe) Barlam out there Tuesday testing at Indy, and they turned that thing around and that's how we operate. That's how you have to operate. If you want to win championships and win races, that's how you have to operate. So, it's really cool to see Austin back in the hunt here and to get a win. I've doubled up before with Brittany, pretty cool to double up with him, and really special that he gets to double up with his dad.”

There are five races left in the Countdown with the next one being the Betway NHRA Carolina Nationals Sept. 23-25 at zMax Dragway in Charlotte, N.C., and then the Midwest Nationals Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 in St. Louis.

“Yeah, I love the way NHRA put this schedule together,” Hight said. “You get the first three right out of the way. Bam, bam, bam. And especially if you have a weekend like we had in here in Reading and you carry that momentum another five days from now, we're going to be doing this again. That's exactly what you want. And even if you're doing bad, you want to get right back out there and redeem yourself. From here forward, it's not going to get any easier. It's just not. It's going to be tough. We went down the track, all seven runs, very, very respectable. Seven runs and if we want to win a championship, we got to do it again and again and again.”