Bristol: Rod Fuller Friday notes

FULLER RACES CAT DRAGSTER TO NO. 9 SPOT FRIDAY AT BRISTOL

BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 16, 2008) -- Rod Fuller, a seven-time NHRA Top Fuel winner, raced his David Powers-owned Caterpillar dragster to the provisional No. 9 qualifying position Friday evening at Bristol Dragway.

Fuller, the most recent winner on the NHRA tour, he scored the win at the St. Louis race two weeks ago, opened qualifying at Thunder Valley by racing the CAT rail to a pass of 5.214 seconds at 185.24 mph. The Caterpillar/Valvoline dragster clocked the second quickest half-track pass of the session, but broke a rocker arm on the pass. Friday evening under the lights at the scenic Bristol quarter mile, Fuller used a Rob Flynn tune-up to race the Caterpillar/Matco Tools rail to a performance of 4.584 at 316.23 to finish ninth in the 16-car order. Fuller qualified fourth at the Bristol race last July.

"The CAT car is still running well," Fuller said. "We were on a good opening run, but it broke a rocker arm and I had to shut off. We were early in the order on the night run and had to be a little bit conservative. It was a decent pass, but it dropped a hole (cylinder). We'll come back on Saturday and tune the CAT car up."

-credit: dpm