July 15, 2007
Rod Fuller raced to his fifth career Top Fuel victory Sunday at Bandimere Speedway. The rising Top Fuel star extended his lead in the NHRA Top Fuel standings at the 28th running of the Mopar Mile-High Nationals.

Fuller continued to qualify his David Powers-owned car near the top of the 16-car order after earning the No. 3 starting spot with a pass of 4.615 seconds on Friday afternoon. In the opening round, Fuller raced to victory over Morgan Lucas, second-year starlet Hillary Will, and two-time champion Larry Dixon, before edging teammate Whit Bazemore in the first all-David Powers Motorsports final round.

Fuller and Lucas were the fifth pair of cars to compete on the hot Bandimere Speedway quarter mile. Lucas got the jump at the start, but Fuller drove away using Rob Flynn horsepower to clock the second quickest pass of the round, 4.781 seconds at 310.91 mph. Lucas trailed with a run of 4.941-seconds. Fuller is now 2-2 versus Lucas.

In round two, Fuller and Will battled for the third time this season. The sophomore racer got a slight starting line advantage, but her rail lost traction, while Fuller blazed to a run of 4.951 at 247.61 to advance to the semifinal round for the ninth time this season. His dragster lost the blower belt on the run. It is the third time that his car has made it to the semifinals when flying the Caterpillar colors.

Facing off for the third time this year, Dixon got a slight advantage at the start, but the Wagner CAT car posted the second quickest elapsed time of the day to earn the trip to the final round. Fuller blasted his Wagner CAT/Valvoline rail to a performance of 4.762 at 299.93 to advance to the final round for the fourth time this season. Fuller advanced to meet Bazemore in the final round.

Competing in his fourth final round of the season, Bazemore edged Fuller on the starting line, but Flynn’s “Canadian Horsepower” propelled Fuller to his fifth career Top Fuel victory. Hot Rod blasted to low E.T. of the day, 4.683 at 312.93, to collect the “Wally” trophy. Bazemore trailed with a run of 4.770 at 308.58. It was his quickest pass of the day and 18th career NHRA national event victory (five Top Fuel, 13 sportsmen).

“There’s just something about this win,” Fuller said. “For some reason this win makes me feel legit. We’re racing without a primary sponsor and we’re down a few guys. To win this for Caterpillar and Wagner CAT is great. This is the fourth race of this swing and we dominated all weekend long. We had a few gremlins in qualifying, but we were the quickest of most sessions. David Powers and Tim Buckley have given us the opportunity to do this and keep racing and I thank them for that.

“This is just unbelievable. To give Caterpillar its first win in racing in a long time is special. This is huge. My team is amazing and Rob Flynn continues to do just a great job.”

The next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event is the 19th annual Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals, July 20-22, at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Wash. Fuller leads Dixon by 144 points in the POWERade standings. He also leads the Technicoat Shootout standings.

R1       FULLER (.076) 4.781 ET, 310.91 MPH def. Lucas (.037) 4.941 ET, 304.87 MPH
R2       FULLER (.078) 4.951 ET, 247.61 MPH def. Will (.053) 7.462 ET, 110.52 MPH
R3       FULLER (.062) 4.762 ET, 299.93 MPH def. Dixon (.041) 4.924 ET, 262.74 MPH
R4       FULLER (.106) 4.683 ET, 312.93 MPH def. Bazemore (.077) 4.770 ET, 308.58 MPH

Other Denver Winners
FC: Jack Beckman def. Ron Capps
PS: Allen Johnson def. Ron Krisher
PMS: Matt Smith def. Angelle Sampey

Photos taken by Auto Imagery courtesy of David Powers Motorsports