Drag racer Robert Hight feels sense of home at Sonoma track

The NHRA has been running cars down the track at the Sonoma Nationals for 27 years. Robert Hight has attended every event.

"It's like coming home every year," said the NHRA's Funny Car points leader.

As a teen, aspiring baseball player and incoming senior at Modoc High School in Alturas, Hight started making the 5 1/2-hour trek from the northeast corner of California to the Bay Area in 1988.

He'd always been interested in all things mechanical and restored his dad's Plymouth Belvedere by the time he was 16. He drove that to the track then known as Sears Point Raceway and later to American River College in Sacramento before landing a mechanic's job with Roger Primm Racing and driver Del Worsham.

Hight was no longer a patron of the Sonoma Nationals. He was a participant.

"I was pretty persistent and just kept calling to get a foot in the door," Hight said.

That led him to his second big break, a spot on John Force's Castro GTX squad as a clutch technician in the middle of the 1995 season. His first week on the job, he and the team landed in the winner's circle.

It was the start of a multi-layered relationship with the NHRA's most successful Funny Car squad and most flamboyant owner. He married Force's oldest daughter, Adria, in 1999, and the couple had their only child, Autumn Danielle, in 2004. In 2005, he fulfilled a lifelong dream to drive.

He first, however, needed the OK from the team sponsor Auto Club of Southern California. With the support of Force, he felt pretty confident.

"John is a pretty good salesman, so I felt pretty good," Hight said.

His driving career has been much better than good. The 44-year-old entered 2014 with more final rounds (49), wins (31, including at Sonoma in 2008) and starts from the No. 1 qualifying position than any driver since 2005.

That includes father-in-law, whom he gives all the credit.

"He took a chance on a guy that had never driven anything but a Ford F-150 truck," he said. "He put me with the very best people and it's been a dream come true."

Hight (1,179 points) and Force (998) rank first and second in the points this season, after the 64-year-old Force made a late rally last season to win his record 16th world championship.

That only came after Hight and Force swapped teams - and crew chiefs - the week following the Sonoma Nationals. Force wasn't happy with how last season had progressed, and the move paid off.

At least for Force. Hight had kinks to work out with new crew chief Mike Neff, won only twice last season and finished fifth in points.

This season, Hight has won five times, splitting two finals with Force (last week, High beat Force in the Mile High Nationals in Denver). With a spot locked up in the Countdown - the NHRA's six-race playoffs - Hight said it's still full throttle ahead.

"We're not going to be tinkering and experimenting as much as refining," Hight said. "Winning at Sonoma would be especially satisfying."

Mitch Stephens is a freelance writer. E-mail: mstephens@maxpreps.com Twitter: @MitchMashMax