Inside Hurco blog: news and events from CNC machine company

COURTNEY FORCE ANNOUNCES SPONSORSHIP RELATIONSHIP WITH ADVANCE AUTO PARTS STARTING IN 2017

The chase for the 17^th NHRA Funny Car championship may have come up short for John Force, but the 147-time winner won four races, made a run at sweeping the Western Swing and was in half of the final rounds of the Countdown to the Championship. The winningest driver in NHRA history wrapped up the season in 4^th place in the Mello Yello Funny Car point standings. Force’s teammate and JFR president Robert Hight powered the Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS team to his third win at the Gatornationals and his third consecutive Traxxas Shootout Final round during the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals before racing to a Top Ten finish. Hight continued his streak of winning at least one race, qualifying No. 1 and setting Top Speed every year of his professional career with his 2016 performance.

We have many employees and customers who are veterans and we are so thankful for their service.

ENNIS, TX --- The AAA Texas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team and driver Robert Hight qualified No. 1 and continued a dominant day at the 31st annual AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals racing to the semifinals before falling to eventual winner Matt Hagan. Hight made six consecutive 3.8 second runs including the quickest runs of the first two rounds of eliminations today. No driver has started a race with six consecutive elapsed times in the 3.8 range and his qualifying time was the third quickest Funny Car time in NHRA history.

CHAMPIONSHIP WITHIN REACH FOR BRITTANY FORCE AND MONSTER ENERGY

READING, PA --- For the second time in three years Brittany Force raced to the final round at the Dodge NHRA Nationals. Today she was facing the two-time world champion Antron Brown in a rematch of the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. It was one of the closest final rounds so far in the Countdown as both dragsters ran identical elapsed times of 3.721 seconds. Force came up .003 of a second short to Brown after both drivers had nearly equal reaction times with Brown slightly edging Force, a three-time winner this season at the stripe.

MILWAUKEE, WI (September 27, 2016) --- The entire contingent of John Force Racing drivers as well as the crew of the PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team spent the day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, participating in two rewarding and exciting events in conjunction with Old World Industries, the parent company of team sponsors PEAK and Blue Def. The team, led by 16-time Funny Car champion John Force, were the featured speakers at the Al Hurvis/ADAMM Education Foundation, Inc. luncheon and then in the afternoon Force fired up his 10,000 horsepower Funny Car for over 100 students at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC). 

HIGHT EAGER TO ARRIVE AT RECORD SETTING MAPLE GROVE RACEWAY

Rob Schonegg is a machinist for Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company based here in Indianapolis (home of Hurco, too). As part of our sponsorship with the Indianapolis Colts, we have great seats to the game that we like to share with our customers. Rob was the winner of the drawing and stopped by today to pick up the tickets to the game and passes to the VIP Colts Tailgate party that's before the game.

He's been running Hurcos at Lilly for more than 20 years. He told me this is the second time he's won a prize from Hurco. The first time was when he attended an open house on a Friday evening back in 1997 when Lilly just had a Hurco KMB1 (they still have it and it still makes chips, but they've added a VM30 and a VMX30i to the Hurco collection) . He and his wife were leaving the event and he saw that Hurco was giving away calculators. "Even back then, you didn't need a calculator when you were running the Hurco, but I decided to get one anyway," said Rob. He filled out a form to get the calculator, but was shocked when he was notified that he had won a trip to Disney World. "I didn't even know there was a drawing for a trip," Rob told me.

At the Lilly machine shop, he makes a lot of prototype parts, lab equipment, and parts for plants around the world.

Congratulations Rob! Hopefully, you'll bring some good luck to the Colts on Sunday.