Robert Hight made a statement Friday evening at the NHRA Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif., taking the provisional No. 1 qualifying position. But he made a bold and absolute statement afterward, refuting the rumor that he is leaving John Force Racing to start his own team.
Hight, who rose from crew member to driver to President of the organization and three-time champion, said, “That’s bullshit, 100 percent. If John gave me the team right now, I wouldn’t take it. I don’t want anything to do with owning a race team.”
He said he wasn’t interested in copying Top Fuel racer Antron Brown, who is making his final appearance this weekend for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) after 13 years with that organization.
“Oh hell no,” Hight said. “No – because I want to be part of the machine that we have. I don’t want to be out on an island.
“If John gave me the truck and trailer and race cars and the team and the sponsorship tomorrow, I wouldn’t take it. So no, I’m not into that,” he said.
Hight is a vital gear in the John Force Racing machine that has produced 21 championships and 286 victories. As President, he is in the unique – and by all indications, satisfying – position of being able to help shape policy, initiate business-development opportunities, and conduct sponsorship negotiations.
“That’s why I want to continue,” the driver of the Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro said.
“One thing I’ve learned is that it takes a lot of good people to make everything happen. And I don’t think with one team you can have enough good people to make things happen. So I want to be part of the machine that we have now. We have a lot of great people that pull their weight and have been doing this a lot of years. I want to be part of a team, not out on an island by myself.”
Hight debunked another crazy rumor that floated around the drag-racing community recently, that current Funny Car leader Ron Capps will leave DSR – like Brown, Leah Pruett, and Matt Hagan – and join John Force Racing.
“I’ve heard lots of rumors,” Hight said, “but I don’t believe that’s going to happen.”
Instead, he said, “Our goal is to get Austin Prock back in the seat, have four of our own cars. It makes more sense for the whole infrastructure that we have at John Force Racing – the fab shop, the machine shop to make our own parts – it honestly makes more sense with the investment that we have to make for four teams [rather] than just three.”
Hight said JFR is “working on it” to bring Prock, the 2019 NHRA rookie of the year, back to the cockpit. He is licensed in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes but competed in a dragster.
“I’d say it’s looking really good right now,” he said of Prock’s potential return but cautioned that nothing ever is certain until contracts are signed. “I’d say there’s a better than average chance he’s going to be out here at Pomona [when the February 17-20 Winternationals will begin the 2022 season].”
He hinted that current marketing associate Frank Tiegs – Prock’s original sponsor with Montana Brand and Rocky Mountain Twist and whose Flav-R-Pac brand is on Brittany Force’s dragster this year – will be involved in Prock’s team.
