Pomona: Rod Fuller Thursday summary

FULLER OPENS 2007 NHRA SEASON WITH SECOND QUICKEST PASS OF CAREER, SITS THIRD AT WINTERNATIONALS

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 8, 2007) -- Rod Fuller made quite a name for himself last season racing to two victories and a fifth-place finish in the tough Top Fuel division. The rising Top Fuel star can no long fly under the radar, as "Hot" Rod Fuller is now a household name to drag racing fans across the land. Fuller didn't disappoint as he powered his Valvoline dragster to a run of 4.497 seconds at 329.34 mph to open the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

The David Powers-owned team, led by veteran crew chief Rob Flynn, faced a bit of adversity as they struggled with a mechanical gremlin during the pre-run warm-up procedure. However, when the Valvoline-backed rail hit the always-fast Pomona quarter-mile, Fuller blasted to the second quickest pass of his short professional driving career, 4.497 at 329.34. His career-best E.T. is 4.493-seconds (Dallas 2005). He did not record one 4.4-second elapsed time last season.

"Not only did we have a problem during the warm-up, but we spent most of our testing with the monostrut wing," Fuller said. "We didn't have one full lap at testing with the setup we ran today. We had an ignition failure during the warm-up and our backs were against the wall. We've got a new pit crew and it showed where this team is headed. I was confident in Rob Flynn and my crew guys. We felt it could run a 4.40 and it did. Now, we've run back-to-back 4.49s with two different setups. That's kind of cool. It really takes the pressure off and now we can try and run a mid-4.40."

With a solid first pass, Fuller and the Valvoline team aim to improve when qualifying continues on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. (PT). The final two qualifying sessions are scheduled for 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Pomona.

-credit: dpm