Baton Rouge: Joe Fuentes wins

BATON ROUGE, La. - Just a couple of weeks after reaching his first ever final round, second year Federal Mogul Dragster driver Joe Fuentes dominated his Division 4 competition to pick up his first career win during this past weekend's Division 4 Federal Mogul Drag Racing Series event at State Capitol Dragway in Baton Rouge, La.

Fuentes, from Austin, Texas, lead the event from wire to wire, smashing both ends of the existing track record with an elapsed time of 5.478 seconds at 258.39 mph (the old record was 5.60 and 252 mph) to qualify No. 1 for the eight car field. In round one, he took out rookie driver Erica Walsh-Credeur with a solid 5.525 at 254.09 mph, then took out fellow Division 4 racer Lee Callaway with a 5.575 at 254.59 mph. The final round put him up against No. 3 qualifier, and former teammate Troy Buff. The race was over right off the starting line, as Buff redlighted, and handed the win to Fuentes who motored away to a 5.567 at 253.87 mph to take his first win. The win moves Fuentes into second place in Division 4 standings, who trails Buff by a slim 10 points with three Division 4 races remaining in the series.

"Everything went just as we thought it should," said Fuentes in the winner's circle. "We knew we had a real good shot at winning this weekend after making the finals in Dallas. In Dallas, we kind of gave the race away because we found a bunch of junk in our fuel system, so that took away our chance to win the race there. We came into this race real confident we could win."

With the win in Baton Rouge and runner up finish in Dallas, Fuentes now feels that his team has what it takes to make a run for the Division 4 Championship with the points race being so close.

"I think we really do have a shot at the Division [Championship] this year," commented Fuentes. "We're going to try our best, and we're going to keep after them. My tuner Ora Vasquez really has this car flying, my crew chief Tony Rosillo, Mike Young, Dale Zellenger, and Jaime Garcia have all done a great job. I think this team has what it takes."

With the win in hand, Fuentes and the J&D Racing team will move to Gainesville, Fla., for the Mac Tools Gatornationals this weekend, where Fuentes hopes to pick up his first National event win.

"We're going to go out there and do like we did this weekend: win," stated Fuentes. "We've got the same strategy, same gameplan, and hopefully we can turn that into a win again."

-JoeFuentesRacing.com