Said Hight after the session, “We’re learning a lot of new things. We got new clutch disks and we’re starting to get a handle on it. This run tonight was probably going to be right along with Beckman’s .03 (4.037 ET) from earlier. It put a cylinder out down there and it moved me over to the inside, but still was good enough to run an .05 (4.056 ET”.

Hight was paired with Jack Beckman in the Funny Car finale and Hight’s Mustang flew down the all concrete track recording the Friday session’s best ET a 4.056 seconds.

Beckman was also on a solid run and the 2012 NHRA championship runner-up tried to leg it out but was forced to lift at the top end as his Valvoline NextGen Dodge Charger made a strong move to the centerline.

Mike Neff (Steve Gruenwald photo)

Another Team Force driver Mike Neff was paired with the newest JFR F/C shoe, Courtney Force, in the second session. The teammates launched at the same time and Neff drove away from the youngest Force daughter when her Traxxas-backed Mustang flopper shook the tires.

Tire shake was a persistent problem for a number of Funny Car teams in both the sessions of the Winter Warm-Up as track conditions were in flux throughout the evening.

JFR Team leader John Force executed a masterful pedal job in the second Friday session racing alongside reigning Funny Car champion Matt Hagan. After rattling the tires early, Force was able to gather up his Castrol GTX Mustang and try to chase down Hagan with no success.

Antron Brown  (Adam Cranmer photo)

The Top Fuelers were also present at PBIR for testing and they didn’t disappoint the SRO crowd. The first pairing found Clay Millican, who reportedly will be racing on the NHRA circuit full time in 2012 thanks to sponsorship from the Parts Plus Auto Store chain, against the Amalie Oil-backed Terry McMillen. Millican legged it to a 3.98/302 lap while McMillen shut his car off early and ran a 4.187 at just 2210.98.