Rod Fuller raced his David Powers-owned N C Machinery dragster back into fourth place in the NHRA Top Fuel standings after his semifinal finish Sunday afternoon at Pacific Raceways. It is his fifth semifinal finish of the season.
Racing out of the No. 4 spot for the first time this season, Fuller defeated young Top Fuel racer Steve Torrence, and five-time Top Fuel finalist Morgan Lucas, before falling to five-time series champion Tony Schumacher in the semifinals.
In the opening round, Fuller faced off against the former Top Alcohol dragster champion for the first time. The drivers used nearly identical reaction times as Fuller sped the N C Machinery car to a run of 3.922 seconds at 300.13 mph to advance to the quarterfinals. Torrence’s red dragster overpowered the track and slowed to a run of 8.167 at 102.15.
Fuller advanced to the semifinals at Pacific Raceways for the third straight season by outrunning Lucas in the second round. Fuller used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn to race the N C Machinery car to low elapsed time of the round at 3.924 at 306.46. Lucas trailed with a pass of 4.021 at 293.60. It was Fuller’s 105th career professional round win.
Squaring off against the Alan Johnson-tuned dragster for the fifth time in 14 races, the drivers used nearly identical reaction times, but the N C Machinery/Caterpillar car dropped a cylinder as Fuller raced to a run of 4.316 at 224.58. The U.S. Army dragster powered to a lap of 3.978 at 287.90 to advance to the final round. Fuller is now 2-3 against Schumacher this season.
“We had a decent weekend,” Fuller said. “Usually I’m happy after going to the semis, but we really wanted to win that race. Our car was strong on Sunday. We had low E.T. of the second round, but still haven’t overcome that problem of dropped cylinders. That’s what got us against (Tony) Schumacher. We moved up a spot in the standings and we’re creeping closer towards third place.”
The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the 21st annual FRAM-Autolite Nationals, July 25-27, at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. Fuller raced his Peterson CAT dragster to a semifinal finish at the Sonoma NHRA race last July. Fuller’s teammate, Antron Brown, fell in the opening round Sunday at Seattle and remains second in the standings.
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