POMONA, Calif. (AP) -Robert Hight wrapped up his first Funny Car championship Saturday, qualifying third in the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals to take an insurmountable 106-point lead over teammate Ashley Force Hood.
``This is unbelievable,'' said Hight, the son-in-law of 14-time champ John Force. ``When they started telling me that I clinched it, and even though I had some time to think about it when we had the big lead leaving Las Vegas, I never really got emotional. Tonight, I was in the car with the helmet on and it hit me and I couldn't hold it, but I still had to make a run out there and that was so tough to do.''
Hight was the 10th and final driver to get into the six-race NHRA Playoff, then won three of the first five races.
``It is so emotional, so exciting and we have all worked so long for this,'' Hight said, ``but what is really the coolest is that John Force took a chance on a guy from Northern California who had never driven anything but a Ford F-150 truck.''
John Force Racing has 16 Funny Car titles - 10 with Ford.
``Ford had given us financial backing, and that was major because it allowed us to chase the things that you need, but at the end of the day, it was all Ford's technology that really put us to where we needed to be,'' John Force said.
In Pro Stock, Mike Edwards also clinched his first season title.
In the dramatic Top Fuel race, Tony Schumacher had the second-quickest pass in category history, a 3.772-second run at 320.58 mph to take a two-point lead into the final eliminations Sunday.
``It's playing out exactly how you would have scripted it,'' Schumacher said. ``You can't tell me you're not enjoying it.''
Joining Schumacher as No. 1 qualifiers at the 24th and final race in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event were Force Hood (Funny Car), Edwards (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
In Pro Stock, Edwards put the exclamation point on his first career championship with the quickest pass of the weekend, a 6.562 at 210.64 mph. It was Edwards' 16th No. 1 this season, matching the NHRA record set by Greg Anderson in 2004).
Force Hood's top qualifying pass of 4.059 seconds was matched by her father, but she was awarded the No. 1 by virtue of her faster mph (310.20 to 309.20).
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, points leader Hector Arana delivered a 6.918 at 193.46 to secure his eighth No. 1 of the season and ninth of his career.
Arana will take a 62-point lead into Sunday's eliminations.
