FORCE HOOD HAS GROUND TO MAKE UP IN FINAL QUALIFYING SESSIONS SATURDAY

BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Las Vegas — Two solid first day qualifying runs enabled Robert Top Gun Hight to extend his points lead Friday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where on Sunday he will try to take another step toward a breakthrough first Funny Car Championship.

Hight was quickest in Friday’s first session, third quickest in cooler temperatures Friday night, picking up four valuable bonus points for himself, crew chief Jimmy Prock and the Auto Club Ford Mustang.

It was a different story for Ashley Force Hood, who will move to the final day of qualifying for the ninth annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals outside the Top 12 in a Castrol GTX Ford Mustang that picked a most inopportune time to endure a couple of performance hiccups.

While rookie Matt Hagan was delivering a crushing, track record-setting 4.030 second effort that enabled him to top the first day ladder, Force Hood was struggling to times of 4.163 seconds and 4.211 seconds. On both runs, the green-and-white Mustang was anything but its usual stable self, moving aggressively out of the groove as Force Hood fought to regain control.

To add insult, Hagan pushed his Valvoline Dodge to the fastest speed ever at the 1,000-foot distance (313.88 miles per hour), eclipsing Force Hood’s 312.18 mph effort, which had been the standard.

Force Hood, who now trails Hight by 17 points, will have two opportunities on Saturday to (1) get into the 16-car starting field, and (2) qualify well enough to get a Top 8 position and the benefit of lane choice for Sunday’s first round.

“In the first round, it ran pretty good,” Force Hood said, “but on the second run it dropped a cylinder at the hit [of the throttle] so that whole run was [lost]. The good thing is here in Las Vegas the conditions tomorrow should be good. We ran a 4.16 in the first session today. Tomorrow, we should have a chance to duplicate that and get right back in the show.

“We know how the conditions will be and we can still get some points as long as we are one of the quickest cars of each session. We will just see what we can do.”

After struggling just to make the playoffs, Hight has been dominant since the start of the Countdown to 1. With victories at Concord, N.C., and Ennis, Texas, the 11-time tour winner went from 10th to first in an unlikely eleventh hour bid to win a championship that has remained just beyond his reach the last four seasons.

After running 4.090 at 305.42 mph on his first attempt Friday, Hight improved to 4.065 seconds in the second session, a performance that would have been spectacular had it not been for Hagan’s jaw-dropping 4.030 and teammate Ron Capps’ 4.041 at 310.55 mph.

“Honestly I didn’t think anyone would run that quick,” Hight said. “I thought you would have to run 4.05 to be low qualifier. Wrong. Whatever those guys are doing, they have it figured out. They are swinging for the fences and we are inching up on it. It’s not like we’re going out there smoking the tires. We’re going down the track [and] we can tune from what we’re doing.

“I would like to have one more shot at [No. 1] tomorrow night,” said the man who owns the quickest time to 1,000 feet at 4.005 seconds. “With 27 dragsters and over 20 Funny Cars, we will be at the end of the pack [next to last pair of Funny Cars and] we should have a good shot at another night session like this. We are going to make the best of it.

“My guys have all done a great job [but] what I’m really looking forward to is we are going to race on a track that is 105 degrees on Sunday. That changes things [and] I think my Auto Club Ford has a little bit of an edge in those conditions.”

Other than Ashley’s Castrol GTX Mustang, the remaining Fords were solidly in the field after Friday. Bob Tasca III was fifth at a solid 4.107; Tim Wilkerson seventh at 4.118; Mike Neff ninth at 4.128; and John Force 11th at 4.144.

“I am going down the race track, but I’m not competitive,” acknowledged a disappointed Force. “It is not where it needs to be. We’re doing the best we can. [Austin] Coil, Bernie [Fedderly] and John Medlen are working hard and we’ll see improvement.”

Neff also expects to improve Saturday at the wheel of a Ford Drive One Mustang that features the first of the new chassis developed in-house at the John Force Racing facility in Brownsburg, Ind.

“This track is in real good shape and we expect to have good conditions tomorrow,” said the veteran who for the second consecutive race is seeing double duty as both driver and tuner. “We get two more shots [on Saturday] and we’ll try and pick it up a little bit.

“It is not running as quick as we are trying to run. We’re still trying to work out a couple of bugs with this new chassis. Tomorrow we should be able to make some progress. The chassis has been great. It is just all the different components that are in there. We’re still trying to get some of the timing things right.

“To go down the track twice [4.184 and 4.128] is really good. We need to keep it going down the track so we can keep trying to improve.”

A DAY’S WORK
First day qualifiers for Sunday’s NHRA Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:

FUNNY CAR – 1. Matt Hagan, Christiansburg, Va., Shelor.com Dodge Charger, 4.030, 313.88 mph; 2. Ron Capps, Carlsbad, Calif., NAPA Dodge Charger, 4.041, 310.55 mph; 3. Robert Hight, Yorba Linda, Calif., Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang, 4.065, 308.71 mph; 4. Tony Pedregon, Brownsburg, Ind., Quaker State Chevrolet Impala, 4.098, 309.20 mph; 5. Bob Tasca III, Cranston, R.I., Quick Lane Ford Mustang GT, 4.107, 307.02 mph; 6. Cruz Pedregon, Brownsburg, Ind., Advance Auto Parts Toyota Solara, 4.114, 305.98 mph; 7. Tim Wilkerson, Springfield, Ill., Levi, Ray and Shoup Ford Mustang, 4.116, 297.22 mph; 8. Jack Beckman, North Hills, Calif., MTS Dodge Charger, 4.118, 305.01 mph; 9. Mike Neff, Fishers, Ind., Ford Drive One Ford Mustang, 4.128, 299.66 mph; 10. Jim Head, Columbus, Ohio, Head Racing Toyota Solara, 4.132, 305.84 mph; 11. John Force, Yorba Linda, Calif., Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang, 4.144, 302.28 mph; 12. Del Worsham, Chino Hills, Calif., Al-Anabi Toyota Solara, 4.155, 306.12 mph.

TOP FUEL – 1. Larry Dixon, Indianapolis, Al Anabi dragster, 3.805, 318.24 mph; 2. Steve Torrence, Kilgore, Texas, Dexter Tuttle Motorsports dragster, 3.831, 314.17 mph; 3. Tony Schumacher, Long Grove, Ill., U.S. Army dragster, 3.839, 313.07 mph; 4. Shawn Langdon, Brownsburg, Ind., Lucas Oil dragster, 3.855, 313.29 mph; 5. Thomas Nataas, Dryoyak, Norway, 3.859, 307.65 mph; 6. Cory McClenathan, Brownsburg, Ind., FRAM dragster, 3.860, 315.86 mph; 7. Antron Brown, Pittsboro, Ind., Matco Tools dragster, 3.860, 314.09 mph; 8. Brandon Bernstein, Lake Forest, Calif., Budweiser dragster, 3.863, 315.27 mph; 9. Doug Kalitta, Ann Arbor, Mich., Technicoat dragster, 3.863, 311.34 mph; 10. Bob Vandergriff Jr., Alpharetta, Ga., 3.881, 304.60 mph; 11. Spencer Massey, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. Smokeless dragster, 3.884, 309.84 mph; 12. Urs Erbacher, Arlescheim, Switzerland, 3.927, 301.33 mph.

PRO STOCK – 1. Mike Edwards, Coweta, Okla., Young Life/ART Pontiac GXP, 6.623, 207.75 mph; 2. Vinnie Deceglie, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Dodge Stratus, 6.660, 206.23 mph; 3. Ron Krisher, Warren, Ohio, Valvoline Chevrolet Cobalt, 6.668, 206.92 mph; 4. Greg Anderson, Concord, N.C., Summit Pontiac GXP, 6.670, 207.56 mph; 5. Johnny Gray, Artesia, N.M., Mopar Dodge Stratus, 6.677, 206.20 mph; 6. Allen Johnson, Greeneville, Tenn., Mopar Dodge Stratus, 6.679, 206.61 mph; 7. Rodger Brogdon, Tomball, Texas, Kent Trucking Pontiac GXP, 6.680, 206.10 mph; 8. Larry Morgan, Newark, Ohio, Lucas Oil Dodge Stratus, 6.681, 205.72 mph; 9. Jason Line, Troutman, N.C., Summit Pontiac GXP, 6.683, 206.86 mph; 10. Warren Johnson, Sugar Hill, Ga., K&N Filters Pontiac GXP, 6.685, 206.23 mph; 11. Jeg Coughlin Jr., Delaware, Ohio, Jeg’s Chevrolet Cobalt, 6.688, 206.35 mph; 12. Greg Stanfield, Bossier City, La., Attitude Apparel Pontiac GXP, 6.693, 206.07 mph.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE – 1. Hector Arana, Milltown, Ind., Lucas Oil Buell, 6.979, 192.03 mph; 2. Andrew Hines, Brownsburg, Ind., Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod, 6.990, 192.25 mph; 3. Matt Smith, King, N.C., NitroFish Suzuki, 7.000, 190.48 mph; 4. Eddie Krawiec, Englishtown, N.J., Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod, 7.029, 190.14 mph; 5. Karen Stoffer, Smith, Nev., GEICO Suzuki, 7.035, 190.43 mph; 6. Junior Pippin, Conyers, Ga., PiranaZ Buell, 7.043, 187.96 mph; 7. Michael Phillips, Baton Rouge, La., Suzuki, 7.051, 189.47 mph; 8. David Hope, Nevada, Mo., Vroom Racing Buell, 7.061, 188.78 mph; 9. Douglas Horne, Aberdeen, Md., Horne Racing Buell, 7.075, 188.86 mph; 10. Shawn Gann, Stoneville, N.C., Master Cam Buell, 7.076, 188.28 mph; 11. Craig Treble, Harvey, La., Suzuki, 7.079, 189.12 mph; 12. Steve Johnson, Birmingham, Ala., Wyotech Suzuki, 7.106, 184.62 mph.