When I saw Robert Hight at the NHRA Mello Yello Awards Ceremony on Monday night I had to ask him if he was still seeing stars after this monster explosion and high speed sand trap entrance at Pomona. The guy had one hell of a day feeling the intense high of capturing a world championship and then experiencing the terror that every funny car driver has to deal with when an engine fails at 330mph and makes things ugly in a hurry. This was a moment where we all held our breath because when you see a car do the things that this one does, it can get bad fast.
When the engine failed and exploded it did a real job on the body. You’ll watch the carbon fiber piece just shred under the concussive force of the explosion. When the body broke it actually deformed so badly that Hight could no longer reach the parachute release handles. That’s why you’ll see that the ‘chutes were not out until very, very late into this situation. Hight also did not know why the thing went basically dead left after the ‘splosion. At the time he thought that it may have damaged a tire, causing that situation and I tend to agree although I have not heard definitively one way or the other on that.
This was a crazy moment during one of the craziest days I have ever experienced in the sport of drag racing. It was one hell of a World Finals!
MEMO TO ALL JFR CREW CHIEFS;
Effective immediately, when facing team cars, your tune up will be set to 85% max.
This fiasco wasted 100% of the championship award which means no 2017 bonus for you.