Press Release ~ John Force Racing drivers Robert Hight & Mike Neff @ Firebird Raceway This Weeke

HIGHT LOOKING FOR FIRST FULL THROTTLE WIN AT FIREBIRD
“(Phoenix) is tricky. You have to get after it hard there. I made the quickest funny car run ever there. So we’ll see what happens.”– Robert Hight
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The Driver
Robert Hight, 39, driver of the Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang, is entering 2009 following his fourth consecutive Full Throttle Top Five finish. He is the only Funny Car driver to have led the points each of the last four seasons.  The 2005 winner of the Auto Club’s Road to the Future award that identifies the Rookie of the Year, he owns the two quickest 1000 foot times in Funny Car history (4.056 and 4.005 seconds) and well as the quickest quarter mile times in Funny Car history (4.646 and 4.636 seconds).
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Robert Hight By the Numbers:
1 – Number of times Hight has started from the No. 1 position at Firebird International Raceway
2 – Number of times Hight has reached the final round at Firebird International Raceway
7-4 – Hight’s round record at Firebird International Raceway
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Track Records:
Top Fuel* - 4.430 sec. by Tony Schumacher Feb. ‘07; 334.32 mph by Hillary Will, Feb. ‘08.
Funny Car* - 4.636 sec. by Robert Hight, Feb. ‘07; 330.88 mph by Tommy Johnson Jr., Feb. ‘07.
Pro Stock - 6.629 sec. by Allen Johnson, Feb. ‘08; 209.49 mph by Greg Anderson, Feb. ‘07.
(*performance records will not be officially recorded in Top Fuel and Funny Car at this event)
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ROBERT HIGHT
HIGHT LOOKING FOR FIRST FULL THROTTLE WIN AT FIREBIRD
CHANDLER, AZ (February 17, 2009) — The past two seasons Robert Hight and his Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang have come close to winning at Firebird International Raceway reaching the final round only to walk away without the coveted “Wally.” In last year’s final the former world-class trapshooter knew his Mustang was not operating at peak performance considering it had gone through a massive overall to add much needed safety improvements just weeks before the start of the season.
This season the Funny Car championship contender feels that his Auto Club Mustang is much more consistent especially coming off a strong performance at the 49th annual Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals where Hight qualified No.1 and lost a tight semi-final race to eventual winner Ron Capps. The biggest hurdle Hight and the rest of the Funny Car field had to overcome in Pomona was the prolonged waiting due to persistent rain in Southern California.
“It was good to get in a race groove (on Tuesday). We got to make a couple of runs. The car went down the track both runs. Jimmy (crew chief Jimmy Prock) made some changes and it is not shaking. I don’t count the first round since everybody shook for else they were so weak they were slow. I still believe everything is going in the right direction. We’ll go out and work real hard in Phoenix. If you would have had your stuff together this weekend you could have run a sub four second run out there with these conditions. We’re just not there yet,” said an optimistic Hight.
Racing in the desert can be tricky but Hight knows he has a battle tested team and one that is ready for another serious run at the Full Throttle Championship.
“We were lucky and we kept our whole team together. Jimmy has been working hard this off season and I know we have the car that can go rounds. I feel a lot better about coming into Phoenix this year. I made it to the semis in Pomona and I’m proud of all these guys. If you get to the semis all year long you are the world champion,” said Hight.
Hight will be taking the fight to the rest of the Funny Car class with three other teammates and he knows that there is strength in numbers. He will be joined by team leader 14-time champion John Force, 2007 Rookie of the Year Ashley Force Hood and 2008 Rookie of the Year Mike Neff. All four JFR drivers qualified for the Countdown to 1 last year finishing in the Top Ten.
 “The four-car team only works because of the people that John has assembled. If we were butting heads and didn’t all get along and race and work together it wouldn’t be a good deal. To his credit, John has put together four teams of good people that work well together. It is a big advantage to share data and one team can try something and if it is good we can share with each other and really it is a continuous learning curve. The key is the interaction and in our case it is four teams working as one,” concluded a confident Hight.
Did You Know….
          On Saturday Hight will take the Full Throttle TV crew to Ben Avery Clay Target Center in Phoenix to show off his trapshooting skills
          Over the off-season Hight built a full size practice tree simulator at the John Force Racing Yorba Linda shop. The simulator allows JFR drivers to sit in a full size funny car and visually and physically experience reacting to the Christmas Tree
          Hight is the only funny car driver to have led the points the past four seasons. He is currently in 3rd place with 78 points only 33 points behind Ron Capps for the lead.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR NEFF LOOKING FOR FIREBIRD SUCCESS
“I feel a whole lot better going into this season than I did last season. I feel a lot more comfortable. Now I can try and start concentrating on being a better driver. Now that I am more familiar with everything you try and do those little things that make a good driver.”– Mike Neff
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Follow John Force Racing at www.twitter.com/jfr_racing
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The Driver
Mike Neff, 42, driver of the John Force Racing Ford Mustang, is entering his second season with high expectations. In his rookie year he reached three finals, was No. 1 qualifier twice and finished in 9th place in the Countdown to 1 championship race. Neff took over the driving duties for the late Eric Medlen, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a testing accident in March of 2007. A racing veteran Neff grew up in Hemet, Calif., racing dirt bikes and off-road trucks.
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Mike Neff By the Numbers:
2 – Qualifying position the last time Mike Neff raced at Firebird International Raceway
3 – Number of finals Neff reached in rookie season
3 – Number of JFR drivers who have been named Auto Club Road to the Future Award winners, most recently Mike Neff was honored as the professional rookie of the year (Robert Hight, 2005 and Ashley Force Hood, 2007)
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MIKE NEFF
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR NEFF LOOKING FOR FIREBIRD SUCCESS
CHANDLER, AZ (February 17, 2009) — Mike Neff is excited to be getting back to Firebird International Raceway. Last year in his rookie debut at the Phoenix area track Neff raced to the No. 2 qualifying position but was upended in the first round by No. 15 qualifier and veteran Jack Beckman. Beckman eventually won the event but the feeling of a missed opportunity stayed with the eventual rookie of the year.
After the race Neff knew what he needed to do to improve.
“All in all we were really excited about the performance and as quick as it was running. We still have a few more small changes but I feel like we are real close to being really good. Still getting more runs for me is the main goal. I get a little better every time,” said Neff last year.
Neff is still very much in a learning mode. As the 2009 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series gets underway with the second event of the year the 25th annual Lucas Slick Mist NHRA Nationals the second year driver knows that expectations are still high and he feels better about being behind the wheel of his John Force Racing Ford Mustang.
“I feel a whole lot better going into this season than I did last season. I feel a lot more comfortable. Now I can try and start concentrating on being a better driver. I am more familiar with everything. I’ll be working on those little things that make a good driver better like staging shallow, being smooth and having good reaction times,” said Neff. “Last year was so overwhelming everything was new and it was hard to be able to concentrate on all the little things. I was just concentrating on the big things like keeping it in the middle of my lane and just trying to get it to the other end.”
With three final round appearances in 2008 Neff is gunning for his first win and he knows that it will be a tremendous accomplishment as well as an emotional event.
“That will be a great moment (the first win) when we can do that. It will be awesome for me, but more for (crew chief) John Medlen and this team. Since the loss of Eric and everything they have been through it will be real special. The biggest thing is for John Medlen and Eric Medlen. We want to try and carry on where Eric left off and he was a winner. I think it will be a real emotional thing but also a great thing for this whole team,” added Neff.
A new season means every team has a shot at the Full Throttle Championship and Neff knows his team will be right in the mix. Last year as the only rookie to make the Countdown to 1 he was in more of a support role for his John Force Racing teammates.
At the first race of the season it was hard for the sophomore driver to get into a racing groove. He qualified in the No. 12 spot and made an early exit after an uncharacteristic red-light start versus Bob Tasca III. Following the red-light Neff went on a wild sideways ride that had him barely missing the guard wall.
“When I hit the throttle it just took off and started spinning the tires that time. When I got back on it the tires still weren’t hooked back up yet. When I hit it again it was like it was on ice. It just kept spinning.  The next thing you know I am looking at the guard wall. Then I am thinking just keep it off the wall. Do not hit the wall. That was the last thing that I wanted to do at that point,” said the always calm Neff.  “I was surprised that I did it (red-lit). As I left I caught the red light out of the corner of my eye. I don’t know what it was. I haven’t seen the time slip. That caught me off guard. Maybe it was just that I was amped up and we’d been out there for a long time. Everybody had been shaking and maybe I was anticipating we would shake and I lost my concentration. I just didn’t wait long enough.”
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Did you know…
            When Neff does capture his first win for John Force Racing he will become the seventh different drivers to have won Funny Car races on the NHRA tour – John Force, Tony Pedregon, Gary Densham, Robert Hight Ashley Force and the late Eric Medlen.
            A strong 2008 rookie season for Neff allowed him to continue another John Force Racing tradition becoming the third John Force Racing, Inc., driver in four years to win the Auto Club’s Road to the Future Award as the NHRA Rookie of the Year following Robert Hight (2005) and Ashley Force (2007).
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Follow John Force Racing at www.twitter.com/jfr_racing