ENNIS – With three races remaining in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship, Robert Hight, Courtney Force and John Force are fighting to stay alive in the NHRA Funny Car championship hunt.

The three John Force Racing drivers clearly realize that time is running out and winning is crucial at this weekend’s 31st annual AAA Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex.  The event is Round 4 of the six-race Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship.

“We are in a make or break position right now,” said Courtney Force, daughter of team owner and 16-time world Funny Car champion John Force.  “Our team definitely needs to turn things around if we want a shot at this championship and we have to get the win light in Texas.”

The action begins on Friday with two rounds of qualifying for the Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle classes at 4:15 and 7:15 p.m.  There will also be two rounds of qualifying on Saturday at 12:45 and 3:45 p.m.  Final round eliminations are set for Sunday at 11 a.m.

The battle for the Funny Car championship is expected to intensify between the Don Schumacher Racing cars and the John Force Racing hot rods.

Three drivers from the DSR stable currently occupy the top three positions in the point standings.  Ron Capps leads his teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. by 26 points.  Jack Beckman is 22 points back in third followed by John Force in fourth and Del Worsham in fifth.  Rounding out the top 10 are Matt Hagan, Robert Hight, Courtney Force, Tim Wilkerson and Alexis DeJoria.

“This is a point’s time where it’s make or break,” Force said.  “We need to go more rounds and pick up those bonus points.  We need to get a good start in qualifying starting Friday.  We have to qualify in the top half of that field and then we can start pushing our car and see how far we can go on Saturday so we are ready for race day on Sunday.

“People have definitely been going up and down in the point standings.  We need to go more rounds this weekend and take them out early.  I think we have the cars to do that.  We’ve got great race cars over at John Force Racing and we have proven that in the past.  We are going to have to fight to get around those DSR cars and I definitely think we have the cars that can do it.”

Force rides into Texas with confidence.  The fifth-year driver won in Houston earlier this year at the SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway and she also won the $100,000 Traxxas Shootout.  She has eight semifinal rounds and two runner-up finishes.

“Our Traxxas team has had a solid season,” Force said.  “Going into this season I felt that we had the best team.  All season I have felt like I have had the most consistent car that I have ever driven in my Funny Car career.

“It felt good all season long and we picked up that win in Texas.  We locked into the Countdown in a pretty good spot.  We were second in the points for a few consecutive races, which was pretty amazing for our team and it definitely felt good.  If we want to make a difference in this Countdown we are going to need to perform this weekend.”

This weekend Force will be joining a number of her NHRA competitors with a pink race car to bring awareness to breast cancer treatment and prevention

“I am so thrilled to debut the new colors of our Traxxas Chevy Camaro body and this is my favorite one of the season,” Force said.  “We will be running a pink breast cancer awareness scheme starting at Traxxas’ home track in Dallas. I think the fans will love this pink version that Traxxas designed, because it is so different from any of our other pink bodies in the past. We will run these colors for the rest of the season, along with the pink ribbon.”

Force’s teammate and brother-in-law Robert Hight is also in a position to battle for the championship and he said that he must win this weekend in order to have any shot of winning the championship this season.

“We dug ourselves a pretty big hole but we definitely need to come out here with a win,” Hight said.  “All we can hope is that others stumble or maybe we get them early on in the round and then we take them out ourselves.  That’s kind of what we need to happen.  If we don’t gain any points or leave with a win, then we are in trouble in regards to winning the championship with my team.

“For me it’s do or die.  When I won my championship I won the race here that year so this is definitely a pivotal race.  Whoever leaves here with the lead or with momentum probably has the edge with the final two races.”

Hight won the AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals in 2009, the same year that he won his first NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car championship.  The 37-time winner will be driving his AAA Texas Camaro and racing at an event that will be sponsored by his primary race car sponsor.

“I always love coming here because the Texas Motorplex is one of the great facilities on the circuit and it even makes it better when AAA is the title sponsor,” Hight said.  “As a team, John, Courtney and I have all won here and we are looking forward to getting out there Friday and getting things started.”

Hight opened the season and scored an early win at the Gatornationals.  He was runner-up to Courtney Force in the $100,000 to win Traxxas Shootout and since 2005 he has won at least two NHRA national events each season.  He said that success this weekend starts with qualifying on Friday.

“You have to be smart about qualifying but you also have to be aggressive,” Hight said.  “The first run on any given weekend is the most important and that kind of sets everything up for the rest of the weekend.

“If you get out to a bad start then you are playing catch up for the rest of the weekend.  If you go out there and make a really good first run then you can be a little more aggressive and try a little harder to get the number one spot.  The night session will be where the number one qualifier comes from.  That will probably be where the best conditions come from.  There is three points to be had from every round that you are the quickest car.  Those three points every round are going to add up and we could all use those points right now in order to stay alive in this championship.”

Photos courtesy of the NHRA and John Force Racing