“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.