For three consecutive years Robert Hight and the Automobile Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS have dominated Sonoma Raceway. Heading into the NHRA Sonoma Nationals July 23-25, Hight will be looking for more of that dominating performance to give him a boost in the points standings.
With the Sonoma Nationals not being contested in 2020, Hight is the two-time and reigning event winner. He has a total of three wins at the property, 2008, 2018, 2019, as well as three No. 1 qualifiers, 2006, 2017 and 2019. In 2017, Hight earned the No. 1 qualifying position when he handled the Auto Club Camaro to a NHRA national record speed of 339.87 mph and track record elapsed time of 3.807-seconds.
“Sonoma is a home race for me. I’m from Alturas, Ca., not too far from there and have been to every national event, first as a fan, then as a crew guy and now as a driver. Sonoma Raceway is special to me in that way. It’s also special because this is where this Auto Club team set the national speed record. I’ve also had a couple No. 1 qualifiers and won the last two times we’ve raced here.”
Currently sitting sixth in points, Hight and the Auto Club team have had one win this season at the NHRA Springnationals in Houston. It was the 52nd victory of Hight’s career which ties him with Top Fuel pilot Joe Amato for 12th on the all-time win list. Hight followed up the victory with a runner-up finish to team owner John Force at the New England Nationals. The Auto Club team started the 2021 NHRA Camping World Series season without skipping a beat coming in runner-up at the Gatornationals and in Las Vegas, the first four-wide event of the season, they were quickest each of the qualifying rounds and bettered themselves with low ET of the event during the first round of eliminations. At the most recent event in Denver, Hight had an early exit thanks to a first round match-up with teammate John Force.
“I’m feeling good coming into the weekend. I really like the back-to-back races. You start to get into a rhythm, you can quickly move on from a bad weekend, you can ride out momentum and make some moves in the points,” Hight said. “Hoping we repeat history here this weekend and get this Auto Club Chevy in the winner’s circle.”
Qualifying at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway begins Friday, July 23 at 8:05 p.m. and continues Saturday with sessions at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Eliminations will start Sunday at 11 a.m. For television coverage of qualifying, tune into FOX Sports 1 (FS1) Saturday at 2 p.m. ET and Sunday at 2 p.m. To catch the finals on television, watch FS1 at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
JFR PR
