By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
In a career that's included 59 race wins and three NHRA Funny Car world championships, Robert Hight has never had a year quite like 2022.
"Without a doubt, it's not even close,'' Hight said Friday at Heartland Motorsports Park, where he is competing in the Menards NHRA Nationals. "I've already tied my career-high in wins, I've got a big ol' points lead and everywhere we go we're running good in lots of different conditions. It's been really good.''
NHRA Funny Car star Robert Hight, making a qualifying pass Friday night at Heartland Motorsports Park, will be looking for his seventh win of the year in this weekend's Menards NHRA Nationals. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Hight, driver of the Automobile Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS, has already posted six victories on the year and is in position to become just the sixth Funny Car driver in NHRA history to win as many as seven races in a single season, joining John Force Racing boss John Force (who has done so seven times), Don Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein, Ron Capps and Jack Beckman.
Hight, who has picked up four wins in five final-round appearances over the last seven races, could get that seventh win as soon as Sunday at a Heartland Motorsports Park dragstrip where he has won three times, most recently in 2019. Hight has been the No. 1 qualifier at HMP four times.
Now the goal for Hight is to finish what he's started this season.
"What counts is what you do at the end and we're not taking any of this for granted,'' he said. "We're working hard, we're not getting complacent and we want to be there in the end.''
Obviously, with the way things are going, Hight's team isn't going to make wholesale changes with the Countdown to the Championship looming next month.
But at the same time, Hight said the team won't stand pat.
"We've got some things we're going to do,'' Hight said. "After Brainerd we did some testing and we did some testing last weekend. We're not sitting still.
"We know there's a lot of good cars out here, they're gunning for us, and they're all getting better so we've got to get better, too. We're doing what we're supposed to be doing. We've just got to keep doing it.''
Hight, who will turn 53 next week, is racing at the track this weekend where he joined JFR as a crew member in 1994 and said he still has to pinch himself when he thinks about all that's happened in his career since then.
"I still do,'' Hight said. "I don't take it for granted at all. This is something that you only dream of. This is where it started, right here, with John Force 28 years ago.''
And Hight said he is still enjoying himself as much as he ever has.
"Without a doubt,'' he said. "You just want to keep winning, I still love working with the team and I love all the aspects of nitro Funny Car racing. I'm living a dream and I don't want it to end.''
