By Rick Sheek (rsheek@starhq.com)
The inaugural Countdown to the Championship format likely cost Rod Fuller his first NHRA Top Fuel championship, but instead of being bitter the David Powers Motorsports driver is focused on regaining another shot.
“It was really hard to swallow,” Fuller said by phone earlier this week. “They changed the format last year, and now they’ve changed it again this year. But that’s part of it.
“It’s good for racing, so that’s what helps the sport grow. I feel we’re going to be around awhile.”
Fuller led the points at the close of the regular season and was on top of the championship race heading in the final round at Pomona. He was defeated by Tony Schumacher, the reigning and five-time POWERade Drag Racing Series champion.
“We’re in striking distance of third,” Fuller, currently fourth in the standings, said. “Also, about the Countdown deal last year
– I don’t think it’s an advantage to be No. 1 going into the Countdown. Last year we had a 160-point lead, and watched it all go away.”My goal is to be No. 2 going in the Countdown.”
The eighth stop of the 24-event schedule hits Bristol Dragway this weekend for the eighth-annual O’Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. In his three races on the quarter-mile strip, Fuller has reached the semifinals on three occasions
– including the final round twice.”When you do that well at a race track, you’ve got a lot of confidence,” Fuller, 37, said. “We seem to do really well at Bruton Smith’s tracks.”
The Countdown To One will include the top 10 drives shooting it out in the final six events. Schumacher leads Antron Brown, Fuller’s teammate, 608-540 atop the points.
“I think either me or my teammate can catch Schumacher,” Fuller said. “I had a better car last year than Schumacher top to bottom. I just lost the last race in the shootout.
“That gives us a lot of confidence. Look at the last four rounds. My teammate’s won two and I’ve won one. That’s pretty dang powerful, so there’s no doubt in my mind me or Antron can win it this year. But Schumacher comes in real powerful, with (teammate) CoryMac over there.”
Fuller won the tour’s last event, at St. Louis, earlier this month. That was his fourth trip to the winner’s circle since joining the Top Fuel class in 2005.
He was a 13-time winner in the sportsmen ranks previously. So it was no surprise to him that Brown such a tremendous splash in Top Fuel after a winning career in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
“When I came in the sport it was a bigger move with what I did,” Fuller, who pilots the Caterpillar dragster, said. “I was just Super Gas and Super Comp, and I went right there to Top Fuel. I think the biggest change to Top Fuel is no so much the driving but the pressure from the media and sponsors.”
Fuller believes it should be no secret why NHRA drag racing is such a drawing card.
“In our sport, it’s like a hidden jewel,” Fuller said. “They (spectators) go and they love it. One thing about our sport, the sanctioning body does a good job
“People see it is exciting. It’s great. We’re so diverse. We’ve got it all. I’ve noticed the influx of the cultures, and think it helps the sport grow.”
Fuller stresses the storied Thunder Valley holds a mystique like no other on the circuit.
“It’s got such a rich history,” Fuller, who holds a master’s degree from the University of Arkansas, said. “And not just the oval, but the dragstrip, too. The people down there go to the facility and tell it’s one of the best facilities on the tour.
“How it’s carved into a mountain, I think about that place and it gives me goose bumps. It’s cool. I’m excited about going to it. Anytime you hear it’s a Bruton Smith race facility, you know it’s a top-notch facility, too.”
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