SONOMA, Calif. – Hot Rod Fuller and his David Powers-owned Caterpillar team remained fourth in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel standings at Infineon Raceway. Fuller raced the Peterson Cat dragster to a second-round finish on Sunday afternoon at the 21st annual FRAM-Autolite Nationals.
Squaring off against Morgan Lucas for the fifth time this season, Fuller used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn to clock the third quickest pass of the round. The Peterson Cat car raced to a run of 4.868 at 313.07 to advance to the quarterfinals and a sixth 2008 meeting with Tony Schumacher. Lucas used a stellar. 027 of-a-second reaction time, but his rail lost traction early and slowed to a run of 5.988-seconds. Fuller is now 4-1 against the rival oil car this season. It was his 20th round win of the season.
Fuller was paired up against the hottest driver on the NHRA tour for the second straight race. Racing out of the right lane, the Peterson Cat rail posted solid early numbers, but lost traction as Fuller slowed to a run of 4.500 at 189.82. The Alan Johnson-tuned dragster cruised to a lap of 3.921 at 292.77 to advance to the semifinals. Fuller is now 2-4 against the U. S. Army team this season.
“We had a bit of luck today to go out early and stay fourth in the points,” Fuller said. “Our objective is to head into the Countdown (to the Championship) in third place and we’re less than three rounds from third. Our car ran on all eight cylinders for three straight runs and that’s something we can build on.”
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