Englishtown: Rod Fuller final report

FULLER DRIVES H.O. PENN DRAGSTER TO SEMIFINALS AT ENGLISHTOWN

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 22, 2008) -- Rod Fuller powered his David Powers-owned H.O. Penn CAT dragster to a semifinal finish Sunday afternoon at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Fuller moved to fourth place in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel standings to equal his highest ranking in the points race this season.

After starting from the No. 6 spot for the sixth time in his professional career with a 4.551-second qualifying elapsed time, Fuller defeated Morgan Lucas and veteran racer Doug Herbert before falling to Brandon Bernstein in the semifinals.

Facing off against Lucas for the third time this season, Fuller labored to his 100th career round win. The Las Vegas racer powered the H.O. Penn CAT dragster to a performance of 4.963 seconds at 245.23 mph after suffering a malfunction with the fuel system. Lucas' red and white rail dropped cylinders and carded a pass of 5.245 at 209.49. Fuller earned his 100th round win in his 76th Top Fuel start.

Matched up against Herbert for the 14th time during eliminations, Fuller used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn to notch the wire-to-wire win. The 13-time NHRA sportsmen winner (Super Comp/Gas), carded the quickest and fastest pass of the round, 4.594 at 319.75, to earn the trip to the semifinals. Herbert raced his red and white dragster to a run of 4.691 at 309.84. Fuller is now 11-3 versus Herbert during eliminations.

Competing in the semifinals for the fifth time this season, Fuller raced the Caterpillar/Matco Tools rail to a pass of 4.813 at 256.84. The H.O. Penn dragster dropped a cylinder causing the slower elapsed time. Bernstein clocked a run of 4.616 at 319.22 in his bright red dragster to advance to his second final round of the season.

"All things considered, it was a good weekend for our team," Fuller said. "We raced with heavy hearts today. We were pitted directly across from Scott (Kalitta) and the RFC church service in our pit was a somber one. Our CAT team did a great job this weekend. We were consistent and qualified well. Rob Flynn always says if you go to the semis at each race, you'll win the championship. We've been the final round and semis at our last two races and now we're going to Norwalk where we hold the track record and went the final round last year."

The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the Second annual Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, June 26-29, at Summit Racing Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. Fuller raced to a runner-up finish at the inaugural Norwalk NHRA race last June. He holds the track E.T. record at 4.533-seconds.

-credit: dpm