Robert Hight has a good feeling about the performance of his Auto Club Ford Mustang after two qualifying runs at Pacific Raceways for the 21st annual Schuck’s Auto Parts Supply NHRA Nationals. His final pass of the day, a blistering 4.056 second run at 304.39 mph, nailed down the provisional No. 1 qualifying position for the leader of the John Force Racing Next Generation drivers.

Hight has been seeing steady improvement over the past two events and he is eager to get back to the track tomorrow.

“Leaving Englishtown and starting at Norwalk we started really running well. It is starting to come around. Denver is so different than anywhere else we race. It is hard to come out of Denver with a lot of confidence,” said last year’s No. 1 qualifier at Pacific Raceway. “We are coming back to sea level. We have had engine gremlins all year and we haven’t been making it to 1,000 feet cleanly. It (the motor) was running really good to 1,000 feet but then it was burning itself up. Honestly, this new format is really helping us. We are getting to 1,000 feet and not hurting it. We can work on our tune up.”

At the top end following his last run on Friday Hight could barely contain his excitement with how well his Jimmy Prock tuned Ford Mustang was running.

“I didn’t want to get out of this Mustang. Even at 1,000 feet it was running so good, it sounded good. It did have a little rattle leaving but maybe this Auto Club Ford is back. We have done well here in Seattle in the past and we want to keep marching,” said the fastest driver to win 100 rounds in Funny Car history.