Robert Hight Makes Funny Car HISTORY! First to the 3.70’s!

With crew chief Jimmy Prock calling the shots, Robert Hight has had one of the fastest cars in NHRA’s Funny Car category for some time now. Prock, who has always had a penchant for coaxing otherworldly numbers from the cars he tunes, used the stellar conditions at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway to send John Force Racing hired gun Robert Hight into the history books yesterday. In the second qualifying session, with conditions prime for laying down big numbers, Hight uncorked the first ever funny car pass in the 3.70 range with a 3.793 at an equally impressive 338 MPH.

Since the NHRA no longer requires a 1% backup for national record runs, the AAA/Auto Club of Southern California-sponsored Chevrolet Camaro is now the official record holder, although that distinction also no longer comes with bonus points as it did in the past. However, that doesn’t stop the pursuit of record runs, as there are few better things a team can do to win over a horde of new fans than laying down the quickest pass of all time in their category.

Prock is especially known for tuning his cars to massive top end speeds, with Hight setting the MPH record a few weeks ago at the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals with an insane 339.87 run. Hight is dancing all around earning himself another page in the history books if he’s the first car to ever top 340 MPH in any category.

For those wondering, Funny Cars are consistently able to reach higher top speeds thanks to a higher maximum RPM vs that of their top fuel counterparts. The extra RPM allows the floppers to blast through the 1,000 foot at speeds considerably higher than those reached by the quicker dragsters. There are also some who believe the more swept-back angle of the headers give the funny cars a little more MPH, and based on how often the header angle rules change for funny car, there just may be some truth to that theory.

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