Commerce: Rod Fuller final results

FULLER RACES CATERPILLAR DRAGSTER TO SEMIFINALS AT ATLANTA DRAGWAY

COMMERCE, Ga. (April 27, 2008) -- Rod Fuller drove his David Powers-owned Caterpillar dragster to a semifinal finish Sunday at Atlanta Dragway. The six-time Top Fuel winner moved to sixth place in the NHRA standings after posting his best finish of the young 2008 season.

Fuller, who carded his best qualifying position of the season, second, with a 4.572-second elapsed time on Friday evening, defeated Terry McMillen and Doug Herbert before losing a close match to five-time series champion Tony Schumacher in the semifinals. It was Fuller's second semifinal appearance of the season.

Fuller earned the win light in the right lane when McMillen fouled at the start. The Las Vegas racer used Rob Flynn horsepower to clock low elapsed time of the round in the Caterpillar dragster. Fuller powered to a run of 4.542 seconds at 323.04 mph following a rain delay before his dragster was started. Competing in his first NHRA race, McMillen posted a time of 4.674 at 315.86. It was Fuller's first round win since the Gainesville, Fla. race in March.

Fuller advanced to the semifinals for the second time this season after knocking off Herbert in round two. Herbert used a starting line advantage, but the Caterpillar/Matco Tools car used Flynn horsepower to score the win light. Fuller clocked a pass of 4.556 at 324.44 to again record low E.T. of the round. Herbert raced to a pass of 4.754 at 265.33 in his red and white dragster.

Competing in his 15th career semifinal round, Fuller used a slight starting line advantage and a Flynn tune-up to clock his quickest pass of the weekend, 4.539 at 325.53, in the Caterpillar rail. The Alan Johnson-tuned rail posted low elapsed time of the day at 4.511, 325.45 to earn the win light in the left lane at Atlanta Dragway.

"I'm very proud of our weekend," Fuller said. "It's been a long time since we made six consecutive great runs. We had low E.T. of the first two rounds and made a great run in the semis. We just lost a close race. We have a fast car and we were consistent, that's important. We also learned a lot this weekend. We came in here in a danger zone of slipping in the top 10. It's very important to go rounds for the Countdown (to the Championship)."

-credit: dpm