Entering the penultimate race of the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season, Robert Hight and the Automobile Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS team are looking to finish the year out with high performance and a couple race wins starting with this weekend’s Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals at The Strip at las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Hight and his Auto Club team are coming off a semifinal appearance at the Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway and their second No. 1 qualifying position that earned them an extra $15,000 at the Texas Motorplex’s Stampede of Speed at the NHRA FallNationals the weekend prior. The Auto Club team also started race day at the Las Vegas Four-Wide event from the No. 1 position. In addition to two No. 1s, the Auto Club Chevy has two victories in 2021 at the SpringNationals in Houston and Sonoma Raceway’s NHRA Sonoma Nationals as well as two runner-up finishes at the season opening Gatornationals and the New England Nationals.
“It hasn’t been a consistent year for us. This Auto Club team has worked hard, Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham, they’ve put together some great runs in this Chevy. We’ve had some bad luck, made some mistakes and because the competition this year has been so tight, so intense, those mistakes and bad luck have put us in a tough spot,” Hight said. “The goal is still to go out and win, qualify well, put up good reaction times, go rounds on Sunday and put this Auto Club car in the winners circle.”
While a fourth championship season may be out of the question for Hight, he now assumes the role of spoiler and immediately becomes the driver no one wants to see in the opposite lane. A worthy role for someone who the last time he won this season, in the final three rounds beat J.R. Todd, Ron Capps and Matt Hagan, the three current front-runners for the championship. With two wins (2009, 2015) three No. 1 qualifying positions at the fall event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and another three wins (2007, 2011, 2012) and four No. 1s at the spring event, Hight and the Auto Club team have success on their side heading into this weekend.
Qualifying at the Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway begins Friday with one session at 4 p.m. and continues Saturday with sessions at 1 and 4:30 p.m. Sunday’s eliminations are slated to begin at 11 a.m. Television coverage of the event will be featured on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) and begins Friday with a qualifying show at 7 p.m. ET and continues with a second qualifying show Sunday at 4 p.m. ET followed by the eliminations show at 5 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
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