CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
AMALIE MOTOR OIL NHRA GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE RACEWAY IN GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA
MARCH 14, 2021
Strong start for Chevrolet in season-opening Gatornationals
Anderson wins Pro Stock, Stanfield Factory Showdown; Hight is Funny Car runner-up
GAINESVILLE, Florida (March 14, 2021) – As birthday presents go, a Wally in the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals is certainly unique. And appreciated.
Greg Anderson, driving the RaceStar Wheels Chevrolet Camaro SS, earned the 95th Pro Stock victory of his career and picked up his fifth Gatornationals title on his 60th birthday in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Camping World Drag Racing Series season opener.
Robert Hight nearly won for the fifth time at Gainesville Raceway, too, finishing runner-up in the Funny Car category in his Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS.
“This is absolutely perfect,” said Anderson, the No. 1 qualifier for the 107th time. “Being that it’s been a year and a half since I won (Dallas 2019) and it happened on my birthday, there’s a lot of reasons that it stands out.
“I’ve had a pretty good race car for the last six months and we just haven’t been able to get to close the deal for whatever reason, whether it’s driver or mistakes made or whatever. It feels good to finally close the deal and prove to yourself you still can win. That’s a shot in the arm and will help us from top to bottom on this race team. I’m confident that it won’t be our last.”
Anderson, who extended his NHRA record for consecutive race day starts to 400, moved to within two wins of leader Warren Johnson on the all-time Pro Stock list. He also closed to six elimination round wins of Tony Schumacher (850) for third on the all-time list. Sixteen-time Funny Car champion John Force leads both categories with 151 victories and 1,357 round wins.
Troy Coughlin Jr., driving the JEGS.com/Elite Motorsports Camaro SS, advanced to his second Pro Stock final in nine races. He fell to his uncle and five-time Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. at Indianapolis last year.
Chevrolet has recorded 331 Pro Stock victories since the formation of the category in 1970, including 212 with the Camaro.
Hight, who was competing in his first race in 13 months, looked strong all weekend, qualifying fourth in his Camaro Funny Car. He outran teammate and No. 5 qualifier John Force in the quarterfinals on the way to his 30th career runner-up finish.
“It’s a good weekend when you go to the final,” said Hight, the three-time Funny Car champion who has 51 career victories. “When you watch the other guy smoke the tires, though, you look at it as one that got away, we beat ourselves. We’ve got some gremlins. We had a lucky round in the semis dropping a cylinder and winning with a 4.09. We have to do some polishing, but we’ll be back. When we go to the final when we have this Auto Club Chevy running right, look out.”
Brittany Force, the No. 5 qualifier in the Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster, lost on a hole shot in the first round. Force, who holds the track Funny Car elapsed time record, earned her maiden victory in the class in 2016 at Gainesville Raceway.
Aaron Stanfield, the 2020 SAMTech.edu Factory Stock Showdown champion, drove his Chevrolet COPO Camaro to victory in the first of the eight scheduled events. Stanfield, of Bossier City, Louisiana, won five of the six races in 2020.
Stephen Johns of Mooresville, North Carolina, advanced to the semifinals of Stock Eliminator in his COPO Camaro.
CHEVROLET FROM THE COCKPIT
TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (NO. 5 qualifier; fell in first round): “A year away and John Force Racing is proud to be back. Our Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac team qualified in the top five and we had a consistent race car all weekend long. First round was tough, getting beat on a hole shot is never easy but finding the positives: we ran well and I had a decent light. I’m using today’s upset as motivation going into the next one. Ready to go after another win.”
FUNNY CAR:
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK/BLUEDEF PLATINUM CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals to teammate Robert Hight): “We all made the show after being off a year. It was exciting to be back and be back in the seat of my PEAK BlueDEF / PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro and we went a couple of rounds. We look like a race team again; Robert Hight and Auto Club getting to the final, qualifying well, Brittany with Monster and Flav-R-Pac. We’ll move on to the next race. We’re excited and we’ll see how it goes.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier; fell in final; earned 30th career runner-up finish): “It’s a good weekend when you go to the final. When you watch the other guy smoke the tires, though, you look at it as one that got away, we beat ourselves. We’ve got some gremlins; we had a lucky round in the semis dropping a cylinder and winning with a 4.09. We have to do some polishing, but we’ll be back. When we go to the final when we have this Auto Club Chevy running right, look out.”
PRO STOCK:
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, RACESTAR WHEELS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (won Gatornationals for fifth time; picked up 95th career victory and first since Dallas 2019; four-time Pro Stock champion):
YOU HAD A MEMORABLE WEEKEND, WINNING ON YOUR BIRTHDAY.
“Thank you to everybody who works on this KB race team. Thank you to LB Davis who helping us this weekend. Your logo of the RaceStar Wheels looks wonderful on the side of that race car. I think it made it run faster yet. It was a match made in heaven. Chevrolet, Summit and everybody for their support. This feels really good. Obviously, these last five months, the KB Racing guys have done a helluva job at the shop. We used our time wisely this winter.”
DOES THIS WIN STAND OUT FROM OTHERS?
“This is absolutely perfect. Being that it’s been a year and a half since I won (Dallas 2019) and I’m getting older by the minute and it happened on my birthday, there’s a lot of reasons that it stands out. You start doubting after a while that you can get it done. I’ve had a pretty good race car for the last six months and we just haven’t been able to get to close the deal for whatever reason, whether it’s driver or mistakes made or whatever. It’s been a long time but it’s over. It feels good to finally close the deal and prove to yourself you still can win. That’s a shot in the arm and will help us from top to bottom on this race team. I’m confident that it won’t be our last.”
YOU HAVE ANOTHER LONG BREAK. WHAT CAN YOU DO AT THE SHOP?
“We had five cars and any one of them could have won today. We’ll go home and look at all the stuff. We’ve raced for the last two week straight (non-sanctioned event in Orlando, Florida) and we’ll try to make things better by the time we get to Las Vegas. We love our shop time. We try to make that mousetrap better. That’s the goal – to show up at Las Vegas with a better product than we had here.”
KYLE KORETSKY, KB RACING, LUCAS OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in quarterfinals): “It was a good start to the season. Unfortunately, we raced our teammate (Glenn) the first round. Second round we raced Deric Kramer and I just missed the Tree. It was pretty much driver error. First race out we’ll get better, and I’ll get better as a driver. We’ll move on.”
TROY COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM/ELITE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in final): “You have to have a little bit of excitement here for Gainesville. We were fortunate enough to race most of the events last year with another team car but now the spotlight is directly on me. It’s a real challenge and very exciting at the same time. I’ll be happy if I continue to get better and limit my mistakes.”
