Hot Rod Fuller drove his David Powers-owned Ransome CAT dragster to a second-round finish Sunday afternoon at Maple Grove Raceway. Fuller and the Caterpillar Top Fuel team continue to rank fifth in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel standings with one race remaining until the Countdown to the Championship begins at Concord, N.C. next month. He trails fourth-place driver Cory McClenathan by four points in the rankings.
A year after earning the pole at Maple Grove Raceway, Fuller qualified his Ransome CAT dragster second at 3.861-seconds on Saturday afternoon at the Reading NHRA race. Fuller knocked off 30-time Top Fuel winner Doug Kalitta in round one before falling to teammate Antron Brown in the quarterfinals.
Fuller was facing off against Kalitta for the fourth time this season. Two of the best drivers in the class used solid reaction times as Fuller used a tune-up from crew chief Rob Flynn to power the Ransome CAT dragster to the opening round win with a pass of 3.934 seconds at 304.87 mph. Kalitta trailed slightly at 3.987 at 302.21. Fuller is now 10-7 in his career against Kalitta.
Matched against his teammate and the Matco Tools team for the second time this season, Fuller used the jump at the start to race to the early lead. The Ransome CAT car was slightly ahead at the 330-foot mark until it overpowered the hot Maple Grove Raceway drag strip and spun the tires. That allowed Brown to drive away and score the win with a pass of 3.943 at 305.49. Fuller carded a run of 4.308 at 247.38. He is now 22-16 in 38 elimination rounds this season with one win (St. Louis).
“That was a tough round,” Fuller said. “You never want to lose, but if you have to lose, it’s best to lose to your teammate. We made some changes this weekend and we’re still adapting a little bit. With this 1,000-foot racing, we need to be more aggressive. We really feel it’s going to benefit us on the cooler tracks at the end of the season. We gained some ground on Cory Mac (McClenathan) and we know (Rob) Flynn will have this CAT car flying at Indy.”
The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series is the 54th annual U.S. Nationals, Aug. 27-Sept. 1, at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Fuller drove his MacAllister CAT dragster to a semifinal finish at the U.S. Nationals last year.
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