Editor's note: Updating with fresh quotes.
POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 8) – Past Funny Car champion Robert Hight, the Auto Club of Southern California and the California Highway Patrol introduced a special CHP paint scheme Wednesday that will adorn Hight’s Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car at the season-opening NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series race.
The CHP scheme will run in the Circle K NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona this weekend, as well as the Auto Club NHRA Finals here in November. The unveiling was made at the NHRA press conference.
The CHP scheme celebrates Auto Club of Southern California’s long relationship with the California Highway Patrol and also helps kick off the new NHRA Salutes First Responders program.
“I am honored to be driving the Auto Club/CHP Chevrolet Camaro SS to kick off the 2017 NHRA season,” Hight said. “This car makes sense on so many levels. First, this car helps kick off the NHRA’s Salutes First Responders program. And second, the Auto Club and the CHP are very close partners in keeping the California highways safe for all of the motorists. My race team is very excited after our testing in Phoenix and will be very motivated to get this car in the winner’s circle.”
The black-and-white Chevrolet is designed to look like a CHP cruiser and will help bring awareness to California’s Move Over law.
The Move Over law, passed in 2007 and amended in 2009 to include tow trucks and construction vehicles, requires drivers to move over a lane to the left when safe to do so and/or slow down if they see a stationary emergency vehicle displaying flashing lights.
“If you’ve driven on a California freeway, you’ve seen the message on illuminated signs all over the Southland: ‘Move Over or Slow for Workers. It’s the Law,’” said Kathy Sieck, Auto Club Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Publications. “California, like every state in the union, has a move-over law designed to protect first responders, and these laws can literally be life-saving. We want to make California drivers more aware of their responsibility so we can keep our roads safe and help protect those who protect us.”
The NHRA Salutes First Responders program will highlight police, fire, medical and recovery services and the military during the 24 races on the 2017 schedule.
“It was Auto Club who decided years ago to help stranded motorists on the road,” 16-time Funny car champion John Force said. “They said, ‘We’re going out to get them.’ There was no one to protect them back then, so Auto Club stepped up with the ‘Highway Patrol Service.’ Then the CHP was founded, so Auto Club and CHP work hand-in-hand. Robert’s CHP car is really cool-looking, and we can’t wait for everyone to see it.”
Editors Note: Besides the very cool Wrap on the JFR TF/FC Driven by Robert Hight, the real hero of the event was Andrew Tachias (pronounced: Tack-E-Us).
From KABC's Rob Mc Millan. "It was four years ago this week that Riverside officer Andrew Tachias was shot nine times by rogue ex-LAPD cop Christopher Dorner.
Tachias didn't know at the time if he'd survive that day, much less return to the force.
He had been with the department less than three months that night of Feb. 7, 2013 when he and his training officer, Michael Crain, were ambushed as they sat in their patrol car at a Riverside intersection.
Crain did not survive the attack.
But now after a long recovery, Tachias is slowly getting back to work.
And the experience hasn't soured him on law enforcement. The college track star has been visiting his alma mater, the University of California at Riverside, to help inspire students to follow his own career path.
The Riverside Police Officers Association has sponsored a scholarship in his name for student athletes who are interested in law enforcement careers".
"I want them to understand the will to survive and how to fight through it," Tachias said.
Editor's Note: It was my honor to talk to Andrew this week, and with a lump in my throat, I got to give him a hug. I cannot imagine what he went through, but as all of my family that is not in Motorsports, is in Law Enforcement, I have a better understanding of what goes on having been on the job as a Range Officer for many years. Dicken Wear, Editor-in-Chief.
Robert Hight CHP TF/FC Photo by: Dicken Wear
Leah Pritchett, Andrew Tachias, Tony Schumacher. Photo by: Dicken Wear
Jeffrey Spring, Robert Hight and CHP Officers. Photo by: Dicken Wear
JFR, Robert Hight TF/FC with CHP Wrap. Photo by: Dicken Wear.
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