LOTS OF ACTION IN VEGAS

If the rest of the NHRA season is anything like the first test session at Las Vegas, it looks like 2005 is going to be a humdinger.

On our cover photo, Robert Hight, teammate and son-in-law to John Force, experienced a supercharger backfire or blower blow-up on his Funny Car at about a half-second into a

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test run on Saturday evening, January 22, of Nitro Blastoff testing weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

One of the key points of interest going into the tests was can Hight do it? Is he any good? (Time to wear out a few metaphors) Will he take the team to new 'Heights?" Will he "Heighten" tensions? Got any good "Height-ension lines?" Enough. The 10-year veteran Force crew member passed all the tests in spades. Before the DRO staff backed into the track on Friday (Jan. 20), he'd run a 5.20 shutoff. By the time we'd left, he ran 4.833, 315.78 and whipped his boss in a Saturday afternoon side-by-sider 4.765, 327.98 to 4.77, 324.57. Late Sunday, Hight signed off the air with a very impressive 4.750, 330.55, putting in a rather exclusive club considering the fact that only Force, Whit Bazmore, Gary Scelzi and Tony Pedregon have been 330-mph in a "flopper."

Eric Medlen ran the low elapsed time of 4.744 seconds in his Funny Car.

Morgan Lucas experienced a burst panel blowout during a test run his
Top Fuel Dragster on Sunday. Lucas had the fastest Top Fuel passes with
a 4.573 elapsed time and top speed of 306.33 mph on separate test runs.
(The Strip at LVMS photos by David Allio) [1-24-2005]