“Hot Rod” Fuller
is indeed hot!
By Dale Wilson
Photo courtesy DavidPowersRacing.com
6/8/05
he
most obvious question you have to ask bracket and “Super/Rod”
racer Hot Rod Fuller is this: how in the world did you get
a ride in a Top Fueler? His quick answer: “plenty of
hard work. Plus I’ve been there before.”
Before, as in the man who shoed the “Montana Express”
Fueler back in 1994 and 1995. Yes, he’s had some experience
in one of the world’s fastest race cars, a Top Fuel
Dragster.
But there’s more to the Hot Rod Fuller story than a
brief ride in a 280-mph drag car. There’s luck, hard
work, preparation, first impressions and being in the right
place at the right time. Now 34, Fuller has been living in
Las Vegas with wife Tammy --- married to each other for three
and a half years --- and two cats. Originally from Chicago,
then Rogers, Arkansas, Fuller belongs to a racing family,
consisting of bracket and “Super/Rod” racer Bob,
his father, and brothers Tony and Steve; all have won money
along the big-bucks bracket and class racing trail. And Tammy
is also a straightline racer, graduating from Jr. Dragsters,
where she won a national championship, to Super Comp. Tony
recently won Super Street at the Southern Nationals at Atlanta
Dragway, and Bob and Steve have both won NHRA and IHRA national
and divisional races.
“That’s how we met, Tammy and me,” Rod
says. “We were both racing Super Comp, and I was also
in Super Gas, at a divisional race at Firebird Raceway in
Boise. We were parked next to each other in the pits.”
One thing led to another. That was nearly four years ago.
There’s one word that Fuller will use when queried
about how he got his 2005 ride in David Powers’ Top
Fuel Dragster --- “Valvoline.” “I’ve
had a 13-year-relationship with Valvoline, my primary sponsor.
The very first national event that I raced at, I got Valvoline
to sponsor me. I had a very important connection with them,
and that was Wal-Mart,” he says.
Seems that pop Bob had worked at Wal-Mart and he knew some
of the big wigs there, and Rod helped Valvoline get Pyroil,
one of the company’s automotive chemical lines, into
Wal-Mart stores across the country. “I had a friend
who wanted to get Pyroil onto the stores’ shelves, so
I asked. He said, ‘Yeah, Rod, we were interested in
getting it on the shelves anyway.’ Once I did that,
I was a hero to Valvoline.”
Now, get this: up to that time, Fuller had been to only one
Super Comp race, at the 1992 NHRA Gatornationals. Before,
it was at a divisional race at Baton Rouge. His next big class
race was at Memphis, and by then, he had a full Valvoline
deal behind him.
Since that time, Rod has won 89 big-bucks bracket races,
plus 13 national events and 28 divisionals, spread between
nearly all IHRA and NHRA divisions. And don’t forget
the brief stint with John Mitchell’s “Montana
Express” fueler, from 1994 to 1995. Maybe, by 2004,
it was time for Fuller to step into the big leagues.
Fuller thanks fuel racing team owner David Powers of Houston,
Texas, a former UDRA racer and world champion, and the late
Darrell Russell, plus Darrell’s brother Chris, for helping
him get there. Before Darrell was killed at an NHRA race in
St. Louis in the Joe Amato fueler, there were plans afoot
for him to come back to Houston and join up with David Powers.
With the death of Russell, Chris Russell and David Powers
decided that the only thing they could do would be to do what
Darrell would want them to do --- put together a fuel dragster
team. Enter Hot Rod Fuller, plus two other candidates as drivers.
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