Ashley Force Hood made the most of her last qualifying session at the 40th annual ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals blasting to the No. 2 qualifying position just behind fellow Blue Oval teammate Bob Tasca III with a 4.126 second run at 301 miles per hour.
Force Hood leads the strong contingent of John Force Racing Mustangs into eliminations tomorrow. In the first round she will be paired with Cruz Pedregon. She is on the same side of the ladder as her brother-in-law Robert Hight whom she could meet in the second round.
Getting four quality runs in gives the 2007 Rookie of the Year and 2006 Top Alcohol Dragster Gatornationals champion a lot of confidence heading into tomorrow. With a new engine Force Hood has some unique family support.
“Both of our runs today were huge improvements over yesterday. Yesterday’s runs weren’t so bad we made it down to the end of the track but we were just eating parts. We don’t ever do that. Our team rarely has to swap motors during a race. For whatever reason yesterday it was acting up and today we put in our “Autumn” motor,” said Autumn’s aunt. “We name all our motors and the name is even engraved on the motor. We know this motor will have a ton of energy, because my niece, Autumn (Robert Hight’s daughter), has the most energy of any little girl I know. Sure enough we went out and ran really good.”
Ashley put up the best numbers in both Saturday qualifying sessions (4.168 and 4.126 seconds), but wound up No. 2 in the order behind Tasca (4.124), who on Sunday will become the 89th different Funny Car driver to start from No. 1. The last Ford driver to start No. 1 in a Mustang not owned by John Force was Whit Bazemore, who was the top qualifier for the 1997 NorthStar Nationals at Brainerd, Minn.
The last qualifying session was also very good for Robert Hight who came into the session in the precarious 16th position. He opened the session on a single and with a solid run of 4.179 seconds at 299.20 miles per hour. Hight was pleased with the effort but he knows that crew chief Jimmy Prock will work his magic to improve his chances of grabbing his first Gatornationals win.
“That run was huge. We could have taken more but we just started off on eth wrong foot this weekend. We shot ourselves in the foot when it blew up on Friday morning. We probably would have smoked the tires on that first run but we would have been one run further as far as learning,” said Hight. “The next run we had it set up the same and it smoked the tires. We were just over center. Honestly we didn’t think it would run a 4.17 then. This track is tricky and tomorrow the sun is going to be in and out. It is still hard to figure out where to tune it up if it is cloudy. We have to tiptop a little bit.”
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