BLOG CENTRAL - ROBERT HIGHT
UPDATED 11-05-2008
In its never-ending quest to bring the entire world of drag racing to its readers, CompetitionPlus.com has added Robert Hight, one of drag racing’s leading Funny Car racers on the NHRA POWERade tour.
Hight worked his way from the position of crew member for father-in-law John Force to his current position as driver of the Auto Club/Ford Mustang. The former NHRA rookie of the year recipient [2005] has posted back-to-back championship runner-up seasons starting in 2006.
Also a former trap shooting champion, Hight will share with the readers of CompetitionPlus.com life through his eyes on a weekly basis.
UPDATED 11-5-2008
I’m a little bummed that we didn’t win in Vegas. Our car fell off a little and Cruz murdered me on the tree. Realistically we picked up three rounds in Vegas. I’m greedy I would have liked to have picked up four but there is always a bright side. The biggest thing for me is we have a shot at Pomona this year. We didn’t really have a shot last year without setting a national record or having Tony Pedregon not qualify. He almost did that too. He got in as the 16th car. Basically Wilkerson or Cruz could go to the semis lose and I win the race; I’d be the champion. As long as they don’t out qualify me too much. The way our car qualifies we’ll be alright. The biggest bright side to me is from a performance standpoint Vegas was the best we have run all year. Hands down, not even close. This Ford Mustang performed great. We had six runs in a row that were all in the ohs. It doesn’t get any better than that. You can win when you are running like that. We are peaking at the right time.
In that final run versus Cruz when I hit the gas it was a good feeling. I just knew the timing was right. If the light comes on just blaring like if you see it and then you hit the gas; you are late. You have to have the foot going down when that light is just starting to get bright. It is just a timing thing. It is not that you are guessing it is just that you are ready. I was ready. I hit the gas and for the first 20-30 feet I had this good feeling about it because I knew I left on time. At about 400 or 500 feet I saw his nose out there on me and then it kind of disappeared. Then he was back again and at the end I didn’t really see him. When you can see their nose they are out there pretty good on you. You stay with it because you never know if his blower belt will start to come off or anything might happen.
A run like that feels like an eternity. That experience all comes with more runs. Luckily the first two years I had a great car and usually no one was out there on me. It is kind of funny you see them out the side window and you don’t even sense that you are going that fast. You still keep it in the groove. It is kind of a weird feeling. Sometimes I think ‘How do you do this?’ but we all drive to work in the morning and you don’t remember so much about that process. That is kind of the way driving this Ford Mustang is getting. You just do thinks automatically. I am not saying that I have this thing figured out or I am getting complacent. It is getting easier though.
My opinion is no matter how good or comfortable I get I still have to constantly think about and work at getting better. Frank Hawley teaches you that there is no such thing as a perfect run. That is how Jimmy looks at the tune-up. There is no such thing as a perfect run or a perfect tune-up. There is always room for improvement. I am so proud of this team for getting this thing where it needs to be at the right time. We have as good a car as anybody else. Just like they wrote in National Dragster, “We have the car that nobody wants to race.”
We have had really good luck in Pomona. We also have three other Ford Mustangs that are running good. Hopefully Wilkerson and Pedregon can’t get to the semi-finals because of my other teammates. Look at what Neff did in Vegas taking out Wilkerson. I am just excited we actually have a shot. A realistic shot. It is not a long shot. It is a good shot to win this championship. I am tired of finishing second. I know we have what it takes to win this thing with the team with the people. I know I can win rounds.
Neff beating Wilkerson was huge. I thought finally. I thought things were finally going our way for once. I knew Neff could do it. He is a tough dude. Actually we didn’t have any breaks in Vegas. We outran everybody and ran good until the final. Cruz had a couple of guys red-light against him. He makes that luck because he leaves so good. Tony had a couple of hole shot wins on guys. Those guys are tough and you can’t forget about Beckman. He is going to be right in the thick of things in Pomona too. I am excited and I am glad it is only one weekend off.
We are going to SEMA this week which helps big time because you are around fans so we’ll be around a lot of people that are rooting for us to win this championship. I’m going to back at The Strip in Las Vegas next weekend for the girls, Brittany and Courtney, at their divisional race. Hop Sing and I are going to run one of the cars with Darien Meadows. I’m looking forward to that. Jimmy has been talking to Darien on the phone about some tune up stuff. Jimmy wants to get involved in the A Fuel car a little bit. I have no doubt in my mind he can do a good job and help out over there. We’ll be a round fans and racers. I love the sportsman racing. When I used to go to the super comp races with the girls everybody is just so nice and laid back. You are having fun. It is going to be a good week here and we’ll get back to Pomona and game on for one more race.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
8-19-2008
I’m glad they did. It was Tommy Lasorda’s brother. I’ve said it before but I am a huge Dodgers fan. When he started talking there was no doubt that they were brothers. He even looked like him. His voice was so identical if he was standing behind a curtain you would have thought it was Tommy. He was telling some stories about his brother and I told him we were running a Dodgers car. We traded phone numbers and business cards. He is going to call Tommy and maybe we can get him out to Pomona to see that Dodger car at the end of the year. The Dodgers are doing real well so maybe they’ll make the post-season along with this Ford Mustang.
On Saturday night Del Worsham called me since he knew I used to bowl a lot. He said at the bowling alley around the corner from our hotel there were a couple of professional bowlers that were going to bowl with his team. He asked if I wanted to join them. I just wanted to see these pro bowlers. What these guys can do with bowling balls is amazing. They are machines. I ended up bowling two games with them. I had a lot of fun. I like to bowl and actually any kind of competition I’m interested in it. I can hold my own bowling.
I was talking with some guys last night about how similar bowling and trapshooting are. You have to do the same thing over and over and over again. You can’t slow down or speed up. Sometimes you have to adjust if anything is different from ball to ball you aren’t going to be consistent. You have to put the ball where it has to be and trapshooting is the same way. You have to adapt to wind but you have to keep your mind in it. It is 100% mental focus. That is one thing that both of them take to be really good at each of them. If you can focus like that you can drive one of these race cars.
With trapshooting you have to make sure your gun fits you and you mount the gun the same every time, the same way. If you mount it different what you are looking down is different and you get different angles. Trapshooting is all about angles and bowling is the same way. You have to control the angles that the ball comes into the pocket. You have to make the ball do the same thing over and over and over again. You can’t let anything distract you. That is the biggest thing; no distractions. These guys were fooling with each other, the two pros, and they would fool around with each other when they were bowling but they were so mentally tough it didn’t bother them. They didn’t crack strike after strike after strike. To me that is awesome.
I remember watching Bobby Knight’s reality TV show. I like that guy. A lot of people might not like him but I have a lot of respect for that guy. It showed training camp for his college basketball team and what was going on. In one scene his players were shooting free throws and Bobby Knight was trying to put some pressure on these guys. He was telling them that the free throw they were about to shoot was the biggest shot of their entire life. There were 100,000 people watching you and telling them not to choke. He was just trying to rough them up and make them mentally tough. That is what it takes out here.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
8-11-2008
My mindset has changed after Brainerd as far as getting to the number one spot in points. I was second now I’m third. Our mindset now is to get as high as we can. We can’t catch Wilkerson but we want to get as high as we can. More than anything the only way you are going to do that is to have a good running car. We have a pretty good race car right now. We have to just make better decisions. If Brainerd would have been the first race of the Countdown we would have already dug a hole for ourselves. You can’t do that. No bad races from here on out and especially from Indy on we cannot have any bad races. Nobody made any mistakes on race day it was just a bad call on what the track would take versus Melanie Troxel.
I’m looking forward to these last two races. We have dug ourselves such a hole to this point. I’m looking forward to Reading to really qualifying well so I can hold onto the number one spot in the US Smokeless Showdown. If I get bumped it will be by my teammate Ashley Force. She has had two number ones in a row. She is doing well and she deserves it. I want to stay number one if I can. I want to have some momentum going into Indy. I want to have a good race in Reading and just be up for Indy. There is a lot of money to be won there. It is the most prestigious race. We have done well there the last two years getting to two finals and getting a win in 2006. We can go win that race. Having some momentum going in by winning Reading and leaving Indy with a win would be huge starting the Countdown.
It would be awesome to win the US Smokeless Showdown and the Mac Tools US Nationals. I know we are capable of doing it. It is just the matter of making the right calls and driving the car. It is pretty simple if you have a good car and we have a great car.
What is going to end up happening here in this Countdown and this championship is the same thing that happened to me at Brainerd. Guys or gals that aren’t in the Countdown are going to be spoilers because they have nothing to lose and they are going to take out the hitters. That is what happened today. That is what we can’t have happen later on. Don Schumacher Racing might have two cars that aren’t in. They are going to play a role in this championship those two cars.
We want to have all four John Force Racing Mustangs in the Countdown mainly for our sponsors and it gives you a 40% chance to win the championship. Our goal is for one of us to win. When you have a big portion of the field your odds go up. It goes back to the same thing we have been talking about. Wilkerson has gotten out in front as the number one guy by making good calls and racing really smart. That is what we have to do. It comes down to just being smart.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
| |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
7-24-2008
Let me tell you about being on the road with Robert Hight’s Auto Club Ford Mustang team. I had all these grand plans of getting Robert to blog and send cool photos from the road to give fans a behind the scenes glimpse of what goes on behind the scene.
Well let me tell you what goes on. Lots and lots of work. If anyone out there thought they would like to get a job on a race crew because it would be fun to go to the races and work on a race car. Think again. The racing side of it is nice but getting from one race to another is unbelievable.
We packed up after Seattle for about two hours on Sunday night. Monday morning we were back at the track at nine a.m. to finish loading up. The crew guys divided up between the parts trailers, the race rig, and the team Expedition and we were on the road by noon.
We went back to the hotel for some guys to change and get showers. We also hit a great meat market in Blue Diamond, Green Valley Meats, to get some beef jerky. They had more beef jerky in one spot than you could have imagined.
After that we were on the road headed south. The Auto Club crew guys are all business at the track but on the road they have a good time together. The entire team, two rigs and the Expedition, convoy together this way if anything happens they’ll have a small vehicle to run and get whatever they need.
The trip from Seattle to Sonoma is awesome as far as views go. Mountains and clear streams are around every corner. Most guys sleep when they are not driving their shift but they also do the usual stuff like listen to music, read, text wives or girlfriends, or play a little Guitar Hero on the drop down DVD screen.
Yes, you heard me correctly Guitar Hero. There is nothing like cruising down Interstate 5 hearing the hits and “misses” of crew guys as they strum away to their favorite tunes.
Stops were few and far between as everyone was focused on getting to Sonoma. Filling up is a financial hit the likes of which I would not wish on anyone.
Just before midnight we got the call that one of the John Force trailers was on the side of the road with a broken fan belt. We were 40 minutes behind, so Auto Club to the rescue. We had an extra belt and got them fixed up.
The last 4-5 hours were a hazy blur as the smoke from the various wild fires was both visible and smellable (not a real word I know). We pulled into the truck wash station at about 1 a.m. only to realize that 1 .m. on Tuesday morning is apparently the time everyone wants to wash their rig. We got in line and waited a bit but with no progress in sight we loaded up as many people into the Expedition and came on to the hotel in Sonoma.
We rolled in about 4 a.m. tired but looking forward to having a possible day off on Tuesday since we could not park the rig until noon on Wednesday.
Robert took a shift behind the wheel of his trailer and it was great hear stories about his crew days and learning about how to drive one of the big rigs. We even got a call at the Yorba Linda shop from a fellow motorist that was very pleased with how courteous the Auto Club 18-wheeler was on the road. Eric Lane was behind the wheel for that.
There will be more info coming up but wanted to give the readers of Competition Plus a little behind the scenes look.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
7-21-2008
Denver was tough. It always is on everybody. I am looking forward to going back to sea level and getting back to where we left off in Norwalk
Racing to 1,000 feet wasn’t bad at all. I think the fans saw a lot of good races. It is a little harder for the driver in all honesty because you have three quarters of a second less to find the finish line. The first part of the run you are real busy and things are going on. All of a sudden the finish line comes up on you real fast. Seattle might be a little tougher because it doesn’t go up hill past the finish line. It is all how it’s marked and it is also how well you are doing when you get to that point. It you are busy and it is a handful it all depends.
I’m taking the approach that I look at every run on the computer and see where I shut off. That is important. I always wanted to be within 40 feet of the finish line naturally, beyond the 1320 mark. Right now I am telling myself, because I saw a lot of drivers shutting them off early I’m going to get it past that 1000 foot cone. I think Ron Capps would have been No. 1 qualifier and Scelzi did it a couple of times. If I drive it 100 feet past it at the beginning, oh well. We still have a lot of room to shut off. I am kind of looking for the win light too in either lane. When you see that come on that is what tells me to shut off. You aren’t going to be that far past the finish line if you do that.
Last Thursday at the track in Denver I fixed lunch for everyone. I offered when we were back in the shop. I told Bernie I don’t have a ton of work to do on Thursday so I’ll get the stuff for lunch. I told him I’d get up early and go shopping to make lunch for the guys. Our cook Jonny usually does sandwiches for everyone, you know cold cuts. I just decided to help out a little bit since Jonny wasn’t here this race.
It was fun everybody appreciated it. These guys work hard. We miss Jonny I guarantee you that. We all can’t wait for him to get back. When he gets back even with a cast on his arm he’ll do a lot better job than I did. I made tuna salad because that is what everybody likes. I am always asking Jonny to make egg salad because that is what I like. Sometimes he’ll get a couple eggs and make me egg salad but it is a lot of work.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
6-23-2008
Frank Hawley taught me a lot and even after I went to his school and I started driving I would call him after a race and talk with him and ask him questions. In the beginning you’d be back in the staging lanes and you hear all these cars smoking the tires. You start telling yourself, “Be ready. If my car smokes the tires I’ll have to pedal it.”
Frank Hawley told me that he has seen studies done where you take a guy and he reacts to something like a light. He has to react to a light repeatedly and you take an average of his reaction time for that task. Then you take the same guy and you tell him that you have to push this button when you see the light and after you see the light another light will come on and you’ll have to push another button. What happens on this task is the first reaction time goes down because you are thinking of two different things.
If you go up to the starting line and you are thinking you have to be ready for anything and you are so focused on making sure that car is in the groove or you are pre-planning to make sure you stay on top of it and keep it in the groove, if it needs pedaling pedal it then your reaction time will be terrible. You have to go up there and hit the throttle when you see the yellow with nothing else on your mind. Then you react to anything else that comes at you. You don’t want to pre-plan or pre-program anything in your brain. Steering the car is no different than hitting the throttle when you see the yellow light. If it moves right you steer left and if it moves left you turn the wheel right. You react to everything that is going on. If you go up there and pre-program yourself you are in big trouble.
There are times when I’ll go up and I’ll see guys pedal their car when it didn’t need to be pedaled. Sometimes these cars will shake or you will feel it do something and you’ll go right through it. If you have pre-programmed yourself if you feel anything you’re going to pedal it well you would have pedaled it when it didn’t need it.
React to what comes at you as it comes. That is the best you can do. If I am not qualified yet I don’t try to cut a killer light. I hit the throttle and make sure I drive my car right down the middle of that lane. You want to stage it perfectly so you aren’t giving away an ET. You get the thing qualified because that is No. 1. Reaction times don’t matter in qualifying but every run I go up there in qualifying after I am in the show I try and mow the Christmas Tree down. I look at my average versus other guys. I want to try and have the best light all eight runs on a weekend.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
6-15-2008
There are all sorts of games inside every drag race. One of the biggest is staging. Every driver stages differently and there is not right or wrong way to do it according to the rule book.
There are some drivers who like to control everything up there that is their big deal. You can see them in qualifying waiting until the other guy stages and then they goes in. Rarely does another driver hang somebody out but there are drivers who will do just about anything to not go in first anytime. That doesn’t make a difference to me.
Drivers that like to go in last know that when the last light is lit there is a random countdown but if you hit it right and guess you can mow the tree down. You can also red light a lot. The upside is sometimes you cut some .030s lights when you are dead shallow. You physically can’t do that. When other drivers see that they know the other guy was just guessing. It is all strategy.
My first year I was very predictable once both drivers were pre-staged I was like fuel on, clutch pedal out, bump in. When you are that predictable the other guy knows what you are going to do. Then they wait for you to stage then they know once you stages they control everything. They have seven seconds to get in and they can wait those seven. There is no rule that says they have to do anything except stage within seven seconds. Seven seconds is a long time to hang a person out. If a guy goes in first and he takes his foot off the clutch pedal. That takes him a second and now he is just dragging the clutch. You add seven second to that before the other guys is automatically red-lit and that is eight seconds with the clutch pedal out, the clutch is burned up and its over.
There is no rule to day who stages first. Being a new guy I was predictable. No one ever screwed with me but they knew when I staged first then they controlled everything. If you stage first then the other guy controls the tree. What happens is say a guy goes in and he plans on putting the top light out on you and he stages first. He doesn’t know when you are coming in so he can be rolling and trying to set his light. Then the other guy will come in and it just messes you up.
If you are second then you control it. You know you can just jump right in and be ready. You don’t have to worry about what the other guy is doing because he has already done it.
I got beat once by a guy putting the top light out on me, kind of a delayed top light. Seeing the top bulb go out caught my eye. I looked at when his light went out and I was late. I just made my mind up that the next time I raced him I wasn’t going to stage first. I wasn’t going to let him control the time and control what was going on. I was not going to be so predictable.
I still want to do the same things consistently so that my car responds. I think that is a big part of it, how the driver drives his car neutralizes the clutch doesn’t put a lot of heat in it. You have to do the same thing every time when you stage. The crew chief can tune it better. I am very aware of what I am doing with my car all the time.
I learned this from shooting trap. Let’s say you are having trouble with a certain target, maybe left hand targets. If you walk up there and you are telling yourself “Don’t throw me a left. Don’t throw me a left.” Well, you have already beaten yourself. That left hand target has already beaten you.
You have to go up there and saying “I am going to hit whatever they throw at me. I don’t care if it is five lefts in a row. It doesn’t matter I am just going to do it.” It is the same game here. If you go up there and say I have to stage first or I’ve got to stage second. There are two people up at that starting line and you can’t control who stages first or second unless you just sit there and wait it out. That’s not cool.
I don’t care if I am first or second. I don’t ever run up there and try to rush in to get in first and be ready and set-up because what if the other guy is doing the same thing and beats me. Then if he goes in first and I am trying to be first then I’d be like, “Oh no, he beat me in.” My mind is thinking about something it shouldn’t be. It should be thinking about getting in there and seeing that light. It doesn’t matter what the other guy does. That is where shooting has helped. I could care less if I am first or second in the lights.
5-29-2008
I mentioned this at the end of my last blog entry so I thought I’d tell you the rest of the story.
Recently I built a wrought iron stair railing in my house. I had wood rails up my stairs and they needed to refinished. Honestly, Adria and I didn’t like the look of the wood from the beginning. We got some quotes and it was super expensive. I told her if she wasn’t in a big hurry for it I could build a nice railing as I had time. Each time I came home I’d spend a few hours working on that project and I finally got it finished.
It is a little like building a race car; when it as all done you have a lot of pride because you did it yourself and you made it the way you wanted it. We designed it and made it look how we wanted it to look not something you could just go and buy.
I love working at the shop. Luckily I have access to our shop and John he lets me go down there and work whenever I want on my own projects once we are done with the race car stuff. I can work in the shop and weld. It is a lot of fun. If I had the money and the spare time I’d build street rods but you know there is only so much you can do with the amount of time off that we have. It is relaxing for me to work on projects like that. I love it. I love going into the machine shop.
This past Saturday over Memorial Day weekend when I got home from Indy we knew we had a truck leaving on Monday for Topeka, it was the A Fuel trailer and we knew we had a few more blowers to dyno so Steve Warwick and I went in there and wanted to get the blowers done. We wanted to get them on the truck on Monday rather than shipping them with the freight costs. Of course nothing is as easy as you think it is going to be. You think you are going to go in, dyno three blowers and be done. Well the clutch went out in the dyno so we had to put a new clutch in it. What I figured would take two or three hours ended up taking about six. I didn’t look at that like it was a hassle or a hard job. I enjoy working on things. The clutch in the dyno is just like the race car clutch. When I am doing that sort of stuff I look at it like a challenge. How quickly can I get this clutch in and out of this dyno and then get it back up and running? It is all in how you look at things. I love working on these race cars and working on my own projects in the shop. I like to just build things using my hands.”
The rest of the weekend I was lucky to be able to spend time with my daughter Autumn and wife Adria. We barbecued at night. I love to barbecue and get outside like that. We just spent a lot of time together which was really nice. I listened to Neff do the burnout on Sirius’ NASCAR channel. As I was listening to it I wished I was there but it was nice to be home with my family too.
5-21-2008
On Monday after the Bristol race I got up early and headed to Greensboro, North Carolina with John, Ashley, Mike, Dean and 
Kelly Antonelli for an appearance at an Old Spice manufacturing and distribution center. I was looking forward to this event for a couple of reasons.
The main one was Old Spice is one of our newest sponsors and we all wanted to say thank you and show them some appreciation. They had over 350 employees come out to meet us and take pictures with Mike’s Ford Mustang Funny Car. Tony Stewart’s birthday was coming up so they had cake and Force even cut Tony’s cake and handed out pieces to anyone that wanted some
The other reason was we knew NASCAR’s Tony Stewart was going to be there. It is always cool to get to meet other professional drivers and talk a little racing. Before the event started we had a chance to talk and then after the event we talked for a few more minutes. He was a great guy and you can see why he has had his Old Spice deal so long the people love him.
The night before Neff had some problems in the finals versus Melanie Troxel and it was awesome to hear from so many of the Old Spice people that they stayed up and watched the race. They have mostly been into NASCAR so we are definitely making new fans out of this deal.
Mike and I drove to the airport after the event and all we were talking about was racing. Even as tired as we were from having been up well past midnight the night before we still wanted to talk about how we were doing and what we could do better. We also talked about how Tony Stewart has driven just about everything that has wheels on it.
I’m headed to Indy to get ready for Topeka so I’ll have some updates for you before that race and also an update on a special welding project that I just finished up.
5-6-2008
In St Louis I got the chance to spend a
little more time with Mike Neff and I can tell you without a doubt he is going
to be good. He and I work well together. He is big asset to the team and I am
glad he is here. I knew of Mike (when he was with other teams) but I didn’t know
him. He is just a great guy. I honestly thought he was going to get his first
win in St. Louis. He’d never won a round and then goes to the final. He is going
to have a bunch more finals. He does a good job working with John Medlen and he
really fit in. He is in a unique position. He fits the deal perfectly with
Medlen. They get along great.
Our team chemistry is huge. That is why this team is going to have continued success. It is the way we operate. It’s the way John Force has built it from the beginning. We will never get away from that. I think Neff is real close to being in the Top Ten and having four John Force Mustangs in the Top Ten that is how we need to finish up leaving Indy. We are all making strides to get there.
Neff has won championships before tuning a car. He can drive one of these things there is no doubt about it. He is trying to learn about everything that it takes to be a driver from leaving to all the other little things.
Eric Medlen had a practice tree set up in his lounge, which is now Neff’s, and he hadn’t worked with it yet so on Saturday night of St. Louis we were in his lounge talking about what was going on. He was looking at his computer and studying his runs. He is very into the mechanical side of things naturally and I asked him if he had ever used the practice tree. He told me couldn’t get it to work. I set it up for him and showed him how it works.
I use mine before every run. He told me on Sunday morning he went back to his lounge and practiced. He said he could see how that would make you better.
He fits in so well with this team. He is very meticulous and all about attention to detail. I think that is going to help our team in the long run. Now that we are mounting our own bodies and doing fabrication and everything in-house he wants it done perfectly. He wants things done very nice and looking nice. Not just to function but to look good.
Honestly, I don’t think I can help him that much on the driving side because he already gets this deal. I think if you have the mentality to be a crew chief you can drive one of these cars and not let stress and pressure get to you. He has already shown that. I can build one of these cars but I am not a tuner like him. I can help Jimmy with different things but he brings a lot to the table as far as his knowledge and his drive to win.
Speaking of winning I want to congratulate Neff on his first round win and going to the final. I thought he was going to pull it off.
I also want to congratulate John Force on winning 1,000 rounds. It is still mind boggling. They say I was the quickest to 100 round win in Funny Car and it took me three years and one race. To get to ten times that amount is awesome. I haven’t even made a thousand runs yet in my Funny Car much less a thousand round wins.
I am looking to add some more round wins in the races coming up. I’ll see you at the races. Be sure to come by the Auto Club Ford Mustang pits if you get a chance.
4-29-2008
You guys that follow us know we have been looking at all
sorts of things to make my Auto Club Ford Mustang hook-up and run with more
consistency.
After Houston and Las Vegas Jimmy Prock looked at how much wheel slip we were having versus what we were having last year. For the same rear wheel speed the car speed isn’t going the same. It is slipping because of the extra weight we have. Maybe the stiffer car has a little less traction, maybe the track prep is a little off compared to last year, but regardless it has less traction for whatever reason.
Before Atlanta we moved some weight around. We put the fire bottles on the rear and that was 32 pounds. We wanted more weight sitting over the rear tires. Weight is traction. To get that weight off of the front end is important because the car wants to pick the front end up which is transferring more weight onto the rear tires. As long as you can steer it and it has the front wheels on the ground the more weight transfer you can have on the rear tires the more you can put to it to make it go faster and create power.
If the front tires aren’t on the ground where is all the weight now? It is on the rear. There are different dynamics involved with a little bit of weight suspended by torque but regardless of that if the front tires aren’t on the ground then that weight is on the rear tires which that is why a dragster can leave harder than my Funny Car. They have the engine on the rear end and right over the tires. They can give it a lot more clutch. Their whole chassis is flex-ier and it transfers weight better than a Funny Car.
Figuring out that weight transfer is one of the interested challenges of tuning a Funny Car versus a Top Fuel Dragster. There are so many things that go into making our Auto Club Ford Mustang go that we are constantly looking for improvements.
I think we have handling the atmospheric conditions under control. With the formulas we have in place and have used for years based on humidity, air temperature, our blower dyno and how much the output of the super charger is we can figure out the tune up and get the motor to run right. That is actually the easiest part of it.
Getting the clutch in sync with the power that you have and the available traction that you have is the trick. Track temperature, track condition, surface conditions, like is it smooth or bumpy, all of that is the real trick to going quick. As far as where we are racing and the atmospheric conditions we can make the motor run anywhere. We proved that in ’05 in my car when we went to Denver and ran 4.79 at mile high elevation.
We look back to conditions that were similar and how the motor ran. These guys have a good idea based on the amount of grains of water in the air. That is their biggest tool. They think back to when they had water grains in that range to see what kind of tune-up parameters work best for the motor. The formulas that they have for all that are pretty good.
I want to say one last thing. I want to congratulate Ashley on being the first female funny car winner and leading the points. She’s been to the last three finals. We are all a team so we all share in that and we are proud of her.
4-21-2008
The Wednesday and Thursday after the
Summiracing.com NHRA Nationals I got the chance to go to the Ford High Performance
Driving
School at Miller Motorsports
Park. Ford Racing sent
Ashley Force, Mike Neff and me to the school outside of Salt Lake
City for the school it was really cool
and also very cold sometimes.
We were in Mustang GTs most of the time racing around this road course and it was a totally different experience.
When I was out on the course it is a different mental process. I wish I would have paid more attention the first hour that I was there to what they said. It was a lot of information to take in. One of the biggest tips was to get your eyes out there way ahead of you and be looking out there to give your brain information on what is coming up. If you can do that your hands and body just kind of makes the car do what it is supposed to do. If you are not looking far enough ahead then you get behind the car. That is the same with my Auto Club Ford Mustang Funny Car. If you are driving right off the nose of the car you are behind it. If something happens like tire shake and you think I have to pedal it but if it goes through it now all of a sudden you are at half track and your mind is not up with the race car. You have to get your eyes way down track just like Frank Hawley always teaches everybody and it makes it so much easier. Your brain is not as quick as these cars. The further out there you can get your mind and your eyes the easier it is.
People asked us why would drag
racers go to a high performance driving school on a road course. I think any
kind of school is beneficial to anybody that wants to learn more about what
other people do. These guys here are just the nicest, friendliest people and
this is a great place to come. Frank Hawley’s school is great too. They don’t
leave any stone unturned. They teach you everything. They have seen everybody
make mistakes. In fact they know you are going to make a mistake before you make
it. They are three steps ahead of you and that is pretty cool that they know
that much about what they do and it is cool to see people that are good at what
they do.
If I could have had an instructor of this level inside my funny car when I was starting out
it would have made it so much easier. The problem is everything is so fast inside a funny car and it happens so quick they can’t tell you what you are doing as you are doing it and that is one thing that I really wanted. I wanted the instructors to ride with me as much as possible here because I wanted to get better as quick as I could so the rest of the time here I can work on the right things not just making mistakes over and over. I think if you go to any kind of school, racing school or any kind of school you can do, the more of an open mind you have about learning and listening and not thinking you are the greatest then you come in with a real open mind about learning and paying attention it is easy.
I have to thank Dan Davis, all the instructors at Miller Motorsports Park, and Ford for giving me and my teammates the chance to race some awesome Mustangs.
Thursday night before the Summitracing.com Nationals I got the chance to participate in the grand opening of Carroll Shelby’s Shelby Café at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. There was an autograph session with Carroll, Snake, John Force, Bob Tasca III and myself and after the signing event I got the chance to get into Mike Kuhl’s front engine dragster for a mini-cacklefest.
It was pretty cool. You can see how things have evolved. I
guess it is all relative to the timing and what is available to drive. I look
at those dragsters versus what I drive right now and I wouldn’t trade my Ford
Mustang for anything. Those things are a little dangerous. That is why Don
Garlits decided to put the motor in the back. Bob Frey always says when they
have those big explosions in the dragsters everyone owes Don Garlits a big
thank you. I agree. Your butt is right on the rear-end in those dragsters and
rear-ends blow up.
It was cool to see where these cars came from. We used to run Mike Kuhl blowers. It is a first class car. He spent a lot of time building it himself. It was actually kind of cool that he asked me to sit in it and hit the throttle a couple of times.
It was exciting to be sitting at the same table with those guys. As a fan of all these guys if I wasn’t racing there is no doubt I would have been in line waiting to meet these guys and get an autograph. I had the pleasure last year of riding with Carroll Shelby on his jet from a Ford Show back East. I struck up a nice conversation with him because he is a big gun guy and he likes shooting. He had all these gun magazines in his jet and we started talking about it. He told me that shooting would help me with my lights and he was right. It was kind of cool that a car guy like myself has the same interests as a guy like Carroll Shelby. It was interesting to talk with him about all the businesses he has going and all his ventures. The guy is amazing.
I’m sure twenty years from now Funny Cars and dragsters will be much more superior and advanced than what we have now. I honestly think that from where we came from in 2007 to where we are in 2008 is a big change. You look back and there are a lot of things different about these cars. More than anything it is about safety. The Funny Cars right now are about a tenth off from what they used to run with the extra weight and the safety enhancements. Jimmy Prock and I were talking that next year people will be running 4.60s again and we’ll be able to manage what we are doing. At the same time we are going to keep moving forward with safety.
We always have a list of things we want to test on the Auto Club Ford Mustang. It doesn’t seem like you can ever get to test everything on the Monday after a race. We have lots and lots of ideas. It is not just me and Jimmy but when you factor in Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, Guido Antonelli, and John Medlen we have a ton of good ideas. The thing is you can’t really test two things at the same time. If you try two things and something is different on the run then you aren’t sure which thing you changed made the difference. Was it a new clutch or a new injector? Ford helps a lot and what is cool about what Ford has done is they have brought in a lot of engineering and computer models. We can do a lot of modeling that reduces track time. That is a big help.
UPDATED 4-7-2008
I’m excited to be writing a blog for Competition Plus. I
check out the site pretty regularly and I’ve known Bobby for quite a while. If
you are looking for race reports or rumors you can stop reading right now.
Bobby asked me to give you guys an inside look at what it’s like to be a Funny
Car driver on the POWERade Series and that is what I am going to do. I’ll be
honest with you guys and I’ll try and make sure this is entertaining and fun to
read.
Here’s a good place to start. I have the best job in the world.
I know it and I try to make sure every day that I am doing my best for John and for my team. I have a special bond with my Auto Club Ford Mustang team because I used to be a crew guy myself. That is my biggest motivation.
These guys work night and day. A lot of people think being a crew guy is a glamorous job but it is a lot of hard work. You have to love what you do and for the driver to go out and mess up after they have worked so hard to put that car together and give you the best race car that is the biggest fear that I have. That really motivates me to try harder and not let them down.
We are all one big team and yeah, there are four Ford Mustang Funny Cars but we are one team trying to win a championship, win a race or do whatever it takes. We help each other out. We all pull together and it really is one big family working together. It is cool when a guy comes over from another team and they see that and they say this isn’t the way it is on other teams.
People ask me a lot about what it takes to get a job working for John Force Racing or just to be a crew guy. I tell them the biggest thing is paying attention to detail. On the mechanical side it is paying attention to everything and doing the job the same every single time so there are no inconsistencies. Being able to catch something before it fails or seeing a problem before it occurs is critical.
As far as the team aspect, it is getting along with the other guys. You live with these guys; they are like your brothers. You room with them, you travel down the road and you are always together. The biggest deal is being able to get along and work together. What is cool about my team is they go out at night and have dinner together. It is like when they get time-off and they do not have to be together but they want to spend time together. Sometimes you want to be alone too but my guys just seem like they always want to do stuff together. They are really united and close.
When we are in
I think it is important for me to also take a page from the crew’s handbook when it comes to consistency. The driver should try to do everything the same from keeping the burn-out the same length all time, to backing up the same, to keeping the clutch cool. You have to have a routine and stick with it. It eliminates variables for the crew chief. If the clutch is hotter it is going to act differently when you stand on the gas. That is one thing I really learned from Austin Coil.
I am also asking questions of my crew chief Jimmy Prock all the time. Does he need me to do something different in the Mustang? Is the car reacting like he thought? Or what should I be looking for? It is just all about communication.
I like to talk with Jimmy before he even looks at the computer after a run and tell him what went on. I am getting to where most of the time I am right. I think that gives him more confidence in me. I can usually tell whether it was weak or too fast or where it got to on the race track or that it shook first and then spun the tires later. I always try and tell him that so he has more confidence in me before he looks at the computer because the computer doesn’t lie.
This is going to be an exciting season and I am looking forward to sharing my thought with you guys.
| {loadposition feedback} |
