As they say in show business, practice makes perfect.

Or, in motorsports circles, testing makes perfect.

That was certainly the case for veteran Funny Car pilot Robert Hight, as a bonus test session following last weekend’s Countdown to the Championship opener in Charlotte may have paid big dividends for the 2009 champion.

With only one win and zero No. 1 qualifier awards to his credit in 2016, Hight hasn’t had the season he had hoped when the series kicked off back in February. But following a very successful test session earlier this week, Hight has seen an immediate return with some of his fastest passes of the year en route to taking the provisional top spot Friday at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park.

“This was a big day for us. It was only one day, but when you test on Monday and it was only us and John (Force), it is hard to judge your performance. You don’t really know until you go to the next racetrack and you’ve got the other cars beside you because the Funny Car class is as competitive as it has ever been,” Hight said. “To go out there and be number one two runs in a row today, with all that we have changed on this car, it just shows how good my team is. Those guys have worked their butts off.

“Since Indy, when we had that big explosion, we had to switch cars, go back and build a new car, and, after Charlotte and all of our changes there, my guys were still out late last night putting it together, still fitting and changing, but it is starting to pay off. The only thing that is the same is the driver. Everything else is different.”

Hight topped both sessions Friday in St. Louis, capped off by a 3.893-second pass at 328.38 mph in session two to take the provisional number one spot. If it holds, it will be his first top qualifier award of the year and would keep his streak alive of qualifying first at least once in every season since he started racing.

“This was a deal where Mike Neff just said, you know what, it’s do or die,” Hight said. “We dug ourselves a hole in Charlotte and we need to come out here and really perform and try to get right back in this thing. The six points today, that will definitely help.”

Just behind Hight in second is Jack Beckman in the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car with a 3.907 at 325.22 mph. Tim Wilkerson qualified third with a 3.912 at 325.61 mph. Matt Hagan (3.914) and Courtney Force (3.918) round out the top five.

So, following two chart-topping laps to kickoff racing at Gateway Motorsports Park, what gremlins were holding this team back, leaving them to struggle midpack most of the year?

“Inconsistent horsepower,” Hight said. “You saw first round in Charlotte, we were low E.T. by quite a bit. Then we go out second round and the thing is just down on power and you get beat. We’ve had that happen eight to 10 times this year. It just doesn’t repeat after a good run.

“So we changed a bunch of things and it is definitely repeating now. During testing on Monday, it showed that. It made three really good runs in bad air and pretty hot conditions, just like we are seeing this weekend.”

Stuck in seventh in the Countdown to the Championship and failing to make it past the second round in five consecutive races, Hight believes the team may have turned a corner this weekend as he seeks his second race win of the season.

“I believe in my team. I believe in Mike Neff. He is in charge of our three Funny Cars and when you see Courtney’s car out there doing well and it basically has the same tuneup as mine, it is puzzling, but yet you know it is there,” Hight said. “These are the kind of conditions we tested in on Monday. Luckily for us, that is exactly what we are hoping to see this weekend.”