You can always count on a son-in-law. That’s the belief that Robert Hight, son-in-law to Funny Car legend/team owner John Force, keeps finding out. In Pomona, he handed the John Force Racing camp their 18th career win in Pomona.

Despite eating up his Jimmy Prock-tuned ride shy of the finish line, Hight drove his way to a 4.861 elapsed time with a slowing 284.39 miles per hour to edge Cruz Pedregon’s competitive 4.879.322.50 package.

You can always count on a son-in-law. That’s the belief that Robert Hight, son-in-law to Funny Car legend/team owner John Force, keeps finding out. In Pomona, he handed the John Force Racing camp their 18th career win in Pomona.

Despite eating up his Jimmy Prock-tuned ride shy of the finish line, Hight drove his way to a 4.861 elapsed time with a slowing 284.39 miles per hour to edge Cruz Pedregon’s competitive 4.879.322.50 package.

“I'd like to have all the races here,” said Hight. “We seem to have a pretty good track record.  I will say this, I was going down the race track and flashbacks from last year crossing the center line against Scelzi and losing it. I just kept telling myself to keep this thing in the middle, do not let it get inside or over near the wall.  It's funny how all that goes.”

Just ask Hight and he’ll tell you his first two rounds looked anything but promising. He won with a 5.521 elapsed time and a 5.291.

“After the first 2 rounds I didn't give us a chance,” Hight said. “We didn't do real well in qualifying here, like Jimmy said we're still testing.  We didn't get a lot of testing in because these new chassis' were late getting to us and we're just a little behind the eight-ball.  Honestly, we probably would've been better to go back with last years combination and start the year with as little amount of testing that we had but we decided to change the things that we thought we could help ourselves on from last year and work through it.”

The victory marked Hight’s second career season-opening win and third career Pomona championship. He won the season-ending NHRA AAA Finals last November.

Since debuting in 2005, Hight has reached the finals of the Winternationals thrice. He was runner-up last year to Gary Scelzi.

 

Hight was adamant during his post-race press conference that Ford Engineer Niranjan Singh gets credit for this victory. He pointed out the engineer was instrumental in the development of the chassis that won the race in Pomona.

“This win is going to be dedicated and the trophy going to a gentleman from Ford who has worked night and day with John Medlen and Murf McKinney and Austin and all the guys, but mainly John Medlen and Murf. 

“I'm not kidding you, he worked on Thanksgiving and Christmas -- he worked non stop on this race car.  He kept saying we're a little behind, we're a little behind and we just kept saying its better to be a couple of days behind and even a week but do it right, do it right the first time. They did their homework and we did do it right and it shows with our performance.” 

Hight said qualifying all four Mustangs this weekend was a testament to Singh.

“I’m going to give this trophy to him and hopefully he'll be out here in the winners circle with us,” said Hight. “He's worked a lot of hard hours.  He came in from F-1 and he just loves drag racing.  He said the people over here are so nice.  The drivers and all the crew guys, he just loves hanging out with us.  He's going to help a lot of the teams, not just ours.”
 
“He's a great guy, he really is a genius.  You watch, he may want to get into all of this and become a crew chief.  The guy is sharp.”

 

There’s no doubt that JFR has bore the brunt of a gracious cast of critics. The Pomona victory validates their efforts.
 
“We had the quickest runs -- John did actually, in testing.  We came out here with a win,” said Hight in his post race press conference. “My win today wasn't based on performance.  The first 2 rounds we were fortunate enough to not have somebody in the other lane that went down the track. 

“The last few rounds ran well so I don't see how you can argue with what we've done.  Honestly, I can see so good in this race car and I'll be honest, I never really got good at pedaling the car.  I'll be honest, the first 2 rounds that I won today I won by pedaling.  It was because I could see and I knew where I was at, I could feel the car and I just had it under control quicker.  It's not me. I haven't had the practice all winter. I think it's the car.”

Hight’s comments apparently aren’t lip-service based on the Pomona triumph. Following the massive wheel stand in Phoenix, Hight's car was repaired by chassis whiz Steve Plueger.
 
“We knew the car was bent and we decided that if we get the preload right it'll be fine,” said Hight. “We ran it two more times at Phoenix after the wheel stand.  NHRA came over to our shop last Saturday to tech all our bodies and chassis.  My car wouldn't pass tech, it had too much stagger in the front end because it was bent.”

JFR was faced with a serious dilemma. No time to carry the car back to Murf McKinney’s shop, Force called in a personal favor from longtime friend and chassis builder Steve Plueger.

“Plueger said to come on over and I'm not kidding you within an hour my guys had the car stripped and we had it on a flatbed trailer and we trucked it over there,” Hight said. “John came over with us.  Steven Plueger is a master at metal and he heated it up and put some clamps on it and it was as good as new.  We didn't have to put anything on it when we took it back to our shop and scaled it.”

 

Hight wouldn’t say it, but those around him readily agreed bringing Force over to Plueger’s shop was a mistake.

“John was there telling stories and memories,” recalled Hight. “John got in the Plueger & Guyger Mustang and he was blown away.”

Hight was envious and really wanted to drive the nostalgia car. That is, until he realized Plueger didn’t know who he was.

“He quickly gave me the ‘get this kid out of my shop’ look,” Hight confided.

The night ended at midnight with Force following the team’s flatbed truck and of course, some reminiscing.

“We had my chassis on a flatbed and we'd stop at every stoplight and John would pull up beside us, even if there wasn't a lane to my right and we'd roll our window down and he'd say this is so cool seeing a car on a flatbed again,” Hight said with a chuckle. “Then we'd go to the next stoplight and he'd say but you what's really awesome are you have a race car that can win.  He says the car on that trailer back there can win, when I used to have one on a flatbed it wouldn't even qualify. 

“Then we'd go to the next stop light and he'd say Jimmy Prock was a snot nosed kid back in those days now everybody's afraid to race him.”