Jeff Arend, driver of the DHL Funny Car, made his second final-round appearance of the 2010 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in Sunday’s final eliminations of the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kan.
Arend, a 47-year old native Canadian and resident of San Dimas, Calif., battled against reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion Robert Hight in the final round. The two fan favorites put on a great side-by-side drag race for the fans all of the way down the 1,000-ft. track. At the finish-line stripe, Hight just barely nosed out Arend to get a very close win, 4.150 seconds, 300.80 mph to 4.104 sec., 303.50 mph.
Arend also raced to a runner-up finish in Houston last month. The trip to the flopper final in Topeka was the fifth chance that Arend has had to “run for the money.” He has two career victories in the NHRA Funny Car class, the most recent coming in Memphis, Tenn., last fall.