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This Week In Ford Racing

Tuesday July 29, 2008

 

Robert Hight, driver of the Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang Funny Car, earned his second victory of the season this past weekend at Sonoma. Hight remains in second place in the NHRA POWERade standings.

Robert Hight – Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang – THE WIN ON SUNDAY WAS YOUR FIRST SINCE THE SEASON-OPENER AT POMONA BACK IN FEBRUARY. WERE YOU STARTING TO WONDER WHETHER THAT SECOND VICTORY WOULD EVER HAPPEN? “Exactly. It was too long between wins, that’s for sure. But, we’ve been fighting a lot of things this year, but yet you see guys wins races and don’t go down the track all four runs on Sunday. Yet, we did go down the track all four runs at Norwalk, and didn’t win. So, when it’s your day, it’s your day. There is some luck. And we actually had some luck second round racing Cruz Pedregon. My car dropped a cylinder at the hit of the throttle and just chugged down there, it was very slow, but luckily, Cruz smoked the tires. I guess that was our one lucky one that we needed.”

DESPITE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN WINS, YOU’RE STILL SECOND IN POINTS. “There are a lot of things – a round here or a round there – if you look at, we could have four wins real easy right, but I think that just shows how tough this class is and how tough it is to win in NHRA Funny Car division.”

WITH THE COUNTDOWN GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER, ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT POINTS? “For sure. But, honestly, I don’t think anybody is going to catch Tim Wilkerson before the Countdown and they restructure the points. But it sure would be nice to be No. 1. I guess anything can happen; there are three races left. We’ve had some opportunities to do it, but luckily this weekend we did get, but we did still only gain two rounds on him because he went to the semifinal. He’s got a pretty good lead put there.”

TIM WILKERSON’S LEAD NOTWITHSTANDING, ARE YOU PLEASED WITH WHERE YOUR TEAM IS AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON? “Yes, I am because the car is running good right now. We’re not having to search for a combination that’ll run good; it does run good. It goes up and down the track real well, as good as anybody. So, we’ll just have to refine what we have and get just a hair better, and not be changing anything once they do change those points, because testing is over then. We need to have everything in place, basically, going into Indy, because we want to win that one, that’s our big race. And, at the end of Indy is when they re-set the points, so we just need to know it’s refined and perfect going into Indy.”

YOU’VE NOW COMPETED IN THREE EVENTS AT 1,000 FEET. HAS THE STRATEGY CHANGED AT ALL – EVEN SUBTLY? OR IS IT BASICALLY THE SAME THING? “Same thing. We don’t change a thing. Basically, the struggle always is available traction, and it doesn’t matter if you’re going 20 feet or 1,000 feet or a quarter mile, it’s what traction is available in that distance, and everywhere during the run making the best and the most of the available traction with the power and the clutch and the combination to get it to the track to be the quickest at all points in the race track. So, it makes no difference. I do believe that reaction time is a bigger deal at 1,000 feet because if you have a car that has a lot of power and runs good, maybe that last 320 feet could run somebody down if they left on you. So, a little shorter track makes the starting line a lot more important.”

HAVE YOU NOTICED AN IMPROVEMENT IN YOUR REACTION TIME IN THE LAST THREE WEEKS? “No, about the same. But, what I’m saying is I think we need to work on that. It’s not just the driver’s reaction, it’s the car reaction, too, how it reacts. And, yes, I need to work on my game as well, but yet we need to keep working on things to make the car really fast-reacting.”

ON GIVING THE TROPHY TO RETIRING DIRECTOR OF FORD RACING TECHNOLOGY DAN DAVIS. “Dan Davis was at this race and I gave him the trophy. It was his last race with Ford, and I presented him the trophy and I also look forward to working with Brian Wolfe.”

The No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype, driven by John Pew and Ian James, sits eighth in the standings entering this weekend’s Grand-Am Rolex Series race at Circuit Gilles Villenueve in Montreal. The two drivers experienced their best finish of the season in the series’ most recent race, a third-place finish at Barber Motorsports Park.

JOHN PEW – No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MONTREAL THIS WEEKEND? “I feel very good. Lately the car’s been coming off the trailer very close to the race set-up. The Shank guys are doing a great job and we’re really happy to have Ford with us as well. Last year it didn’t go that well, but I think this year it we’ll be better. I’m familiar with the track and all of the drivers are pretty familiar with the track. I feel pretty good about it.”

IN THE LAST RACE, YOU AND IAN WERE ABLE TO FINISH THIRD FOR YOUR BEST FINISH OF THE YEAR. “We’ve been knocking on the door for the podium for quite some time. We had some bad luck, but that’s just racing sometimes. We had some bad luck, no fault of anybody. It’s a little long overdue. I think we deserve to be up there and I think we’ll be up there again.”

YOU GUYS ARE CURRENTLY EIGHTH IN THE STANDINGS WITH FIVE RACES LEFT. THE TOP TEAM HAS A PRETTY COMFORTABLE LEAD, BUT HOW HIGH DO YOU THINK YOU COULD FINISH THIS SEASON? “I think we could be in the top five in the points. It would be tough to do any better than that. The teams are pretty close, points-wise, from third place down to us and a little bit past us. But if we have some good luck and finish strong and consistent, I think we could be in the top five.”

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE THAT YOU’VE NOTICED IN CHANGING TO FORD THIS SEASON? “The whole way that we are treated at Ford is just a lot better. We get a lot of other things from Ford, besides the engine. The engine has been good. The engines that we use have been very reliable. And the engineers that they send to us at the track have been very good to work with, and there is a difference.”

Eric de Doncker, driver of the No. 1 Ford Mustang FR500GT4, is leading the GT4 European Cup championship standings heading into this weekend’s race at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium. De Doncker, who also competes in the FIA GT3 European Championship, talks about racing at his home track and his hopes to extend the points lead.

ERIC de DONCKER – No. 1 Ford Mustang FR500GT4 – THIS IS THE FIRST RACE THIS SEASON WHERE YOU ARE ONLY COMPETING IN ONE SERIES. “I really want to retain the GT4 title for Ford and it is easier to do if you do only have to focus on one series at a time. I’ll be able to focus on finding the best set-up for my Mustang.”

YOU’RE STILL FIRST IN THE STANDINGS, BUT YOU LOST SOME OF THE CUSHION THAT YOU HAD BEFORE THE PREVIOUS RACE. “Unfortunately, my lead in the standings isn’t as comfortable as it used to be because of the suspension failure in the last race in Oschersleben. I’ll only start the weekend with a three-point lead in the championship, with only 30 points to be distributed this weekend. So I really have to focus on trying to win races or at least score the maximum amount of points.”

YOU RACING AT YOUR HOME TRACK THIS WEEKEND. “Spa Francorchamps is fantastic. It is a beautiful track and it’s a very technical and fast circuit. This is my home track and I love it, but this track is very unforgiving if you make a mistake. I’ll be racing in front of my own fans and sponsors, so there will be a little bit of pressure on me and my team. But I like that kind of challenge.”

DO YOU THINK YOU’VE GOT A GOOD SHOT TO GET A VICTORY IN FRONT OF ALL OF YOUR FANS AND SPONSORS? “I really hope to win at least one of the three races and score the maximum amount of points for the championship. It is not a bad track for Mustangs. Last year I was the quickest in sector one and sector three, which is the older, faster portion of the circuit, but I was losing time in the new portion of the track, which has a lot more twists and turns. So this year my focus will be on setting up the Mustang the best for this part of the circuit. The weather forecast shows rain on Friday, which would help me and the Mustang to get a victory. The Mustang was really impressive at Monza in the rain. I really hope that I’ll be able to add a larger cushion to my lead.”

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This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Kim DeHaven.

 

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