Former NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing champions Robert Hight (Funny Car) and Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) posted the best numbers during preseason testing last week in Florida, as teams geared up for the season-opening O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals, Feb. 9-12 at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
Hight recorded the best time in Funny Car Saturday when he powered his Auto Club Ford Mustang to a 4.034sec pass at 316.67mph. He was followed closely by Don Schumacher Racing driver Jack Beckman, who drove his Valvoline NextGen Dodge Charger to a 4.037sec run at 312.35, the second quickest pass of the test session. Hight's teammate Mike Neff had the third-quickest run in his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang at 4.058 at 211.63, while defending class champion Matt Hagan posted the fourth-quickest run of the test session when he powered his Aaron's Dream Machine Dodge Charger to a 4.062 at 315.71.
In Top Fuel, seven-time champion Schumacher sat at the top of the group with his run of 3.761 at 324.28 in his U.S. Army dragster. Al-Anabi Racing driver Shawn Langdon, who tested earlier in the week, posted the second quickest run of the test with a 3.784sec run at 322.48mph in his Al-Anabi Racing dragster. Schumacher's teammate and 2011 Top Fuel runner-up Spencer Massey had the third-quickest time of the group with a run of 3.792 at 309.84 in his FRAM dragster. Matco Tools dragster pilot Antron Brown and Al-Anabi Racing rookie Khalid alBalooshi both came in fourth with 3.794sec runs for both.