Hot Rod Fuller raced his David Powers-owned Caterpillar dragster to the No. 8 qualifying position Saturday afternoon at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final race on the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series schedule. Fuller posted a qualifying-best elapsed time of 3.862-seconds on his final qualifying attempt.
Fuller entered the final day of qualifying on the outside of the provisional 12-car order with a lap of 3.944 seconds at 302.28 mph on Thursday afternoon at the historic Pomona track. He used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn move to the No. 14 qualifying position by racing the Hastings Deering/WesTrac Cat dragster to a lap of 3.939 at 281.01. Heading into his final qualifying pass, the Caterpillar car was not in the 16-car field. Fuller and the Caterpillar team responded to the pressure and clocked a run of 3.862 at 310.34 to finish in the No. 8 qualifying position. He has now qualified for 85 consecutive races.
“We stepped up when the pressure was on,” Fuller said. “Rob (Flynn) made a good tune-up and we laid down a good pass. The car was really hard to drive on that run. It shook me pretty hard, but we got it through there. We’re in the show and gonna try and win this race on Sunday.”
Fuller will have lane choice against No. 9 qualifier and former NHRA Top Alcohol dragster champion Steve Torrence in the first round of Top Fuel eliminations at 11 a.m. (PT) on Sunday. Fuller is 1-0 in his career against Torrence.
| 
|