Photo by: Michael C. Johnson
YAS MARINA CIRCUIT TOP FUEL DRAGSTER TO HIT PHOENIX FIREBIRD RACEWAY
NHRA Arizona Nationals, October 14-16
CHANDLER, Ariz. (Oct. 9, 2011) – As the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season winds down, Hot Rod Fuller and the Yas Marina Circuit Top Fuel team members find themselves preparing for their 9th stop along a 10-race tour. The team will compete in the 27th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Phoenix Firebird Raceway.
Fuller raced at Phoenix Firebird Raceway as a sportsman racer earlier in his career. >From 2004 to 2007, Fuller drove his car into the winner’s circle three times. He won seven rounds of competition to claim the Super Gas title during the NHRA national event at Phoenix in 2004. He then skipped the 2005 event, but returned in 2006 and 2007 with back-to-back victories in Top Fuel Dragster.
Coming out of the 2011 Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals, Sept. 29-Oct. 2 at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., Fuller is itching to win for the Yas Marina Circuit and new associate sponsor, DIGIORNO® Pizza.
With track temperatures dropping as low as 60 degrees at the 2011 Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals, the harsh weather conditions made set-ups difficult to pin-point for most crew chiefs. Fortunately, Fuller’s fourth and final qualifying shot posted an impressive 3.785 ET at 325.53 mph. This was Fuller’s career quickest and fastest, and shot Fuller up into the no. 5 position.
“Our last event in Reading, well, that was a tough weekend. The track was really cold and conditions weren’t ideal in a sense that we didn’t really have significant data to back-up the decisions we were making on the race car. On the other hand, it was a fast weekend. Records were broken and our team made all the right calls to come really close to breaking a national record. That’s huge,” said Fuller.
“Firebird Raceway in Phoenix is a really great track to me. In the past, I’ve won there in Super Gas and then two consecutive years in Top Fuel Dragster. Conditions in Phoenix are going to be night and day from what they were in Reading, but our crew chiefs will work it out and we’ll see what we can do. I’m just really excited to get back there this week,” said Fuller.
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