Baytown: Rod Fuller final report

FULLER SUFFERS RARE EARLY DEFEAT AT HOUSTON

BAYTOWN, Texas (March 30, 2008) --Rod Fuller and his David Powers-owned Mustang Cat dragster fell in the opening round of eliminations for the first time this season Sunday afternoon at Houston Raceway Park. Fuller and the Caterpillar team now rank sixth in the NHRA Top Fuel standings.

The six-time NHRA winner qualified his Mustang Cat/Direct Energy rail in the No. 13 position on Saturday with a pass of 4.684 seconds. The Las Vegas racer was matched up against No. 4 qualifier and 29-time NHRA Top Fuel winner Cory McClenathan in the opening round. As the seventh pair of racers to do battle at the Baytown track, Fuller's dragster spun the tires early as the Mustang Cat/Valvoline rail slowed to a pass of 11.374 seconds at 75.39 mph. McClenathan drove away and clocked a performance of 4.614 at 320.13 to earn the trip to the quarterfinals.

"We just struggled all weekend along," Fuller said. "We only made one decent lap down the track all weekend. For some reason, our tune-up just doesn't like this track. It's fine. It's a long season; we're still in the top 10. I'm not panicking. We're going to (Las) Vegas in two weeks and we always run well there."

-credit: dpm