Hight's On The Road to the Future
October 17 - All season long, the media has portrayed Robert Hight as the front-runner in the race for the Automobile Club of Southern California's 2005 Road to the Future Award which identifies the NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year. Now it's official.
Hight, 36, a two-time POWERade tour winner this season at the wheel of the Auto Club Ford Mustang, was one of four Rookie-of-the-Year finalists, one from each pro category, identified last week by the NHRA. The winner will be revealed at a Monday banquet following the season-ending Auto Club Finals in Pomona, Calif.
In addition to Hight, the finalists are Jack Beckman, 39, of North Hills, Calif., in Top Fuel; Erica Enders, 21, of Houston, Texas, in Pro Stock; and Chip Ellis, 35, of Americus, Ga., in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
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"It's an honor just to be nominated," Hight said, "especially because it's an Auto Club award and we're an Auto Club team. But the truth is, I'm only (a finalist) because of my team. They gave me a great race car and all the support you could ask for. John (car owner and father-in-law John Force) gave me a chance and (crew chief) Jimmy Prock gave me the tools. I've just tried to do my job, while I'm learning my job."
Nevertheless, in an nhra.com on-line poll, Hight was named by 72.16 per cent of respondents as the favorite to win the award. The resident of Anaheim Hills, Calif., was favored by 4,514 of 6,247 voters. Enders was second with 21 per cent of the vote.
A former crewman on Force's Castrol GTX Ford Mustang, Hight never had driven competitively in any category in any racing discipline before he climbed into the Auto Club Funny Car at last February's CARQUEST Winternationals at Pomona Raceway.
He qualified the blue-and-white Ford No. 1 in only his third race (the Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.) and won in just his fourth start (the O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston, Texas). He later added a victory in the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Denver, Colo., was the No. 1 qualifier a category-leading six times and, in mid-season, led the POWERade point standings for five races.
On the nominations, Thomas V. McKernan, president and CEO of the Automobile Club of Southern California said, "To be nominated recognizes not only that a rookie driver had a noteworthy first season, but also that (the driver) demonstrated exceptional potential for the future. We congratulate all four of the nominees for this year's award and look forward to enjoying their achievements both on and off the track for years to come."
The winner will be selected by a panel of 100 national motorsports journalists through a voting system based on the following criteria: number of events, performance on and off the race track, participation in NHRA promotions and relationships with fans,sponsors and media.
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