HIGHT’S QUALIFYING STREAK IN JEOPARDY AT HEARTLAND PARK
Sat, 2008-05-31 12:28
Robert Hight’s qualifying dominance at Heartland Park-Topeka may have come to an
end Friday, but the 2005 NHRA Rookie of the Year still figures to be a contender
for the Funny Car championship in Sunday’s 20th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts
Summer Nationals.
Hight, who started his Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang
from the No. 1 spot each of the last three seasons, was only seventh after
Friday’s first two runs and the hotter conditions expected for Saturday’s two
final opportunities aren’t likely to provide much room for improvement.
Nevertheless, Hight was the highest qualified of the four John Force
Racing Funny Car drivers and one of only two whose first day times will carry
over to Saturday. He was joined in the Top 12 by team owner and eight-time
former Topeka champion John Force, who finished the first day in the No. 9
position behind pacesetting Tony Bartone, whose Chevrolet was the only Funny Car
to break the 4.90 second barrier (4.881).
Outside the elite grouping were 2007 Rookie-of-the-Year Ashley Force and
2008 Rookie-of-the-Year front-runner Mike Neff. Both will have two more chances
on Saturday.
Neff’s day began in bizarre fashion in the Old Spice Ford Mustang when the
steering wheel came off in his hands at 100 miles an hour.
“John told me the same thing had happened to Eric Medlen,” Neff said.
“Luckily, it wasn’t going any faster than it was. I was like, ‘whoa.’ I looked
up and the thing wasn’t going straight. It was going towards the wall. I was
like, ‘aw, don’t tell me I’m going to run into the damn wall.’ I knew you
couldn’t slide (the wheel) back on there, (but) I pushed it on the edge just
enough to get a tooth to grab; just enough to turn it away from the wall.”
Force, still trying to win for the first time since a spectacular crash
last Sept. 23 in Dallas, Texas, was happy to be back in familiar
surroundings.
“I’ve always liked it here because I’m kind of country,” Force said. “I
wear cowboy boots even though I’ve never ridden a horse. I just like the people
and they’re just good to you. I met a whole bunch of people in the hotel this
morning and they were all excited. They worked at the hotel and they had all
gathered to meet me and my family. They really appreciate us here.
“It was pretty warm, but we still got two cars in and Ashley and Neff were
13th and 14th (and ) just missed (the first day cut),” Force said. “Ashley ran
real good in the heat (No. 2 in the first session) so if it’s hot tomorrow, her
car should run. I’m confident they’re going to be OK. So far so good.”
Ashley’s Castrol GTX Mustang was second quickest in the first session
despite a flash fire. However, her second run was even more troubled – and
disappointing.
“Our car doesn’t like this air,” said the graduate of Cal
State-Fullerton. ”That’s the big issue we’re having. In the first round, we
blew the blower off and we haven’t had that kind of trouble this year. (Today),
the two runs we had were crappy runs. Everyone is struggling a little and a lot
of people have been blowing up. It’s been weird (but) we got two runs and we can
learn from those. We’ll see what the car doesn’t like and what it does like and
hopefully we’ll go out tomorrow and make some cleaner runs and not be on fire at
the end.”
“The last run we changed a lot of things in the car. They put a new blower
on that had never made a full run before. I don’t think the guys were that
surprised that we didn’t go out and run some killer run. There were a lot of
new things on the car and it just wasn’t quick enough. It wasn’t happy. They
said when it left the starting line it dropped a cylinder right away. So I made
the whole run only on seven. It’s frustrating because you get so used to this
car going from A to B all the time. I guess we’re a little spoiled.”
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