FUNNY CAR’S HIGHT NAVIGATES TOUGH GAINESVILLE CONDITIONS TO SCORE NO. 1 STARTING BERTH
by Susan Wade, photo by Roger Richards Sun, 2022-03-13 18:15
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Funny Car champion Jack Beckman always has said that “from burnout to turnout, you have no friends on the racetrack.” And Robert Hight said Saturday evening after securing the Funny Car class’ No. 1 qualifying position for the Amalie Oil Gatornationals that track temperature is the real foe.
“Our enemy in these cars is track temperature. If it’s too cold, that’s your enemy. If it’s too hot, that’s your enemy. When it gets cold you’ve got to be very, very careful, and tonight it was getting cold enough,” he said, fortunate to score a 3.831-second elapsed time and 333.41-mph speed on the 1,000-foot course at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway.
Track temperature was the reason NHRA officials determined during Pro Stock qualifying that the racing surface would be too risky for cars to run in a second qualifying session, so the order was set after a single qualifying run for the entire weekend. Rain washed out Friday’s action, and the Safety Safari toiled for almost four hours after more persistent rain showers Saturday to give racers any chance of running at all.
Unlike with the Top Fuel cars, with 21 entrants vying for just 16 spots, no Funny Car driver had to worry about not making the field.
But with all the abnormal conditions, Hight said he was doubly surprised to wind up leading the field for his 72nd time overall and his fourth at the Gatornationals. His Automobile Club of Southern California Chevy Camaro shook the tires enough to make him take notice. He thought crew chiefs Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham had given him a rather conservative tune-up, just to establish a baseline and, more importantly, to get a decent starting spot.
So, Hight said, “I wasn’t expecting to be No. 1. I talked to Jimmy before the run. We backed this thing down. We just needed to make a good run so we had a solid baseline for tomorrow [when he will face No. 16 starter John Smith in the first round of eliminations].
“They told me it ran .83. I was surprised. It shook really bad out there. It almost didn’t make it, but it was weak shake, so that’s something that’s easy to fix for tomorrow. If it’s too aggressive, it’s a little tougher to fix that,” the points lead and winner of both previous races this season, said.
“Tomorrow we’ll have to pick it up a little bit,” he said, “but when we do that, this Auto Club Chevy is going to run even better. It’s amazing. It’s 14 out of 15 runs to start the season that it’s run in the 3.80s. The one run that it didn’t make it, we had to put a new clutch disc in, and it threw us a curve.”
High said the dropping temperatures are what made his car shake at toward the end of his pass: “We were on the weak side. So tomorrow, if you’re on the other side of it – too aggressive – you’re going to smoke the tires. It’s a balancing act, and I honestly feel like I have the best guys in my corner for conditions like this.”
His boss and teammate, John Force, had to settle for 15th place in the order. The driver of the PEAK / BlueDEF PLATINUM Camaro lost traction early in his run and coasted to an 8.924-second, 75.58-mph clocking that set him up for a first-round race Sunday against No. 2 starter Tim Wilkerson.
“Little bit of a wild weekend here with the rain and the cold, but this PEAK team is in the show and that’s all that matters,” Force said.
He has been inconsistent this year. At the Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., he anchored the field at No. 16 and lost in the first round. The next time out, at Phoenix, he qualified third and went to the semifinals. Now he’s starting at the bottom the ladder again.
Wilkerson earned the second starting berth by virtue of speed. He and Cruz Pedregon recorded 3.891s, but Wilkerson’s 328.22-mph speed topped Pedregon’s 327.35 mph.
No. 4 Matt Hagan, of Tony Stewart Racing, was the only other Funny Car driver to post a 3.8-second pass.
Alexis De Joria, the No. 5 starter, and Blake Alexander, the No. 6 qualifier, followed with 3.9-second runs. Bob Tasca III (4.057) and Chad Green (4.075) rounded out the top half of the grid.
This was Alexander’s and Jim Head Racing’s first appearance in five races and the first since last October’s team-hauler accident that claimed the life of crewman Dylan Cromwell.
“It was a long winter,” a somber Head said.
Alexander will line up against No. 11 JR Todd.
Other pairings will see No. 3 Pedregon race No. 14 Jim Campbell and Hagan take on No. 13 Dave Richards.
Pedregon said, “Qualifying in the top five is our goal. It's a nice benchmark to shoot for each week. There are some really good cars here, but top-five is what we always shoot for, so we are happy with qualifying No. 3. Conditions were tough for everybody, but (crew chiefs) John Collins and Rip Reynolds have notes and have run in cooler conditions before. The Safety Safari guys made sure the track was good, and I think it was really a credit to them for prepping the track.
“The Snap-on Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat made a good run. It was business as usual for us. It was a nice, smooth run,” he said. “We're creeping the speed up a little bit, but it was still a run that we really had to go down the track. We weren't trying to be cute and go for the top spot. We’ll get out there tomorrow and see what we can do.”
Hagan, too, liked his starting position.
“We’re on the good side of the ladder and I'm really happy with how it turned out,” he said. “We're going to work real hard on keeping lane choice all day tomorrow and running really hard. The weather's going to be phenomenal, with cool conditions, so we're going to make a lot of power and hopefully run really fast. We just keep building on this new team, and this Dodge Power Brokers Hellcat keeps going down the racetrack. I'm excited to see the guys gelling in the pit and making quick turnovers. Some of those little wins and little goals that we're achieving along the way, it turns into big things over the course of time.
“The drivability of my race car is great. My lights are great. I have nothing but confidence in Dickie Venables, so I feel like we have a real good shot at pulling down the first win for TSR with this Dodge Power Brokers Direct Connection car, and I hope I get to say that a whole lot tomorrow,” Hagan said.
Meeting in the first round of eliminations also are De Joria and No. 12 Terry Haddock, No. 7 Tasca and No. 10 Ron Capps, and No. 8 Green and No. 9 Paul Lee.
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