Make it two-for-two for Robert Hight.

 

The veteran NHRA nitro Funny Car for John Force Racing won his second race to start the 2022 season, the latest being the Arizona Nationals Sunday.

 

In the finals, Hight clocked a 3.837-second elapsed time at 330.39 mph to upend Matt Hagan’s 4.045-second lap at 267.00 mph at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Phoenix.

 

“This is amazing - you have no idea what’s like to win one race,” Hight said. “The Funny Car class, I still feel, is the toughest class out here. From top to bottom it is stacked. To go and win two in a row in this day and age is amazing. If you look back to the string of runs that we are on, five in a row at Auto Club Raceway (in Pomona, Calif.) in the 80s and then come here have seven runs in the 80s. If you take that average it is not 89, trust me. It is probably closer to 85.

 

“It’s pretty impressive what (tuners) Jimmy (Prock) and Chris (Cunningham) came up with over the winter. Even yesterday when the track was 107 degrees, we went up there and ran an 84. You don’t surprise Jimmy very often and that run surprised me too.” 

 

A week earlier, Hight won the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.

 

Hight, a three-time world champion, collected his 55th national event win. This was his second win in Phoenix with his other coming in 2012.

 

During his victory parade in his Jimmy Prock-tuned Auto Club Camaro Hight defeated Paul Lee, Bob Tasca III, John Force and then Hagan.

 

“I’m very fortunate to get to drive this thing right now; it is what you dream about,” Hight said. “It is not going to get any easier from here on out. I had a big battle with (Ron) Capps (in Pomona) and this weekend with Hagan and you are going to see a lot of these battles all year long and hopefully we are up for it.”

 

A year ago, Hight won two races on the season – Houston and Sonoma – and finished eighth in the points standings. Hagan leads the points standings with 247 points followed by Hagan at 182.

 

“Jimmy and Chris like big numbers and they like to push this thing,” Hight said. “But I will be honest we have not found the edge yet. This thing is very, very safe earlier on and that’s what we had last year that didn’t work. You would be going along and for no reason at all just blow the tires off. This thing is anchored, and it has great traction and honestly, I was a little nervous because Hagan ran 82 (Saturday night) in similar conditions. Jimmy, you know he is going to say we are not going to lay up and run an 84. We believe those guys can run an 82 and we are going to go for it and ran an 83.

 

“Jimmy is not going to be happy until he finds the edge, but the consistency on this side of that edge is pretty amazing. You have to give him an A-plus for the first two races.”

 

Despite winning eight-consecutive rounds and two Wallys, Hight knows things can change in an instance.

 

“You could go to Gainesville (Fla., March 10-13, the Gatornationals) and have a bunch of trouble because we haven’t been on a warm racetrack yet,” Hight said. “We have to stay focused and not get complacent. We have to know that all the rest of these guys are going to be gunning for us and we have to keep doing our job. You can’t let up at any time during the year. We want to focus and work and try and win every race we go to this year.

 

“Unfortunately, we don’t get to race next weekend. We get a weekend off and we will enjoy it and show up at Gainesville and try and do it again.”