Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Beard reunion a brush with the past for Fuller

Thursday, July 14, 2005 | 9:55 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

For Las Vegas resident and NHRA Top Fuel pilot Rod Fuller, his racing life came full circle this week with the announcement that team owner David Powers had hired noted tuner Lee Beard to serve as crew chief on Fuller's Top Fuel dragster.

Before meeting Beard in 1989, during a match race in Topeka, Kan., Fuller said he never even considered pursuing drag racing as an occupation.

"My very first time I had ever seen a nitromethane car was in '89 in Topeka," Fuller said. "Gary Ormsby and Lori Johns were doing a match race there and Lee was the crew chief on (Ormsby's) car. I got to meet him and he was really nice to me.

"I really had no ambitions to drag race for a living and do that for the rest of my life ... but seeing that (race) and meeting him I said, 'Man, that's what I'm going to do.' "

The David Powers Homes/Valvoline Top Fuel team will return to the track in two weeks at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., and continue to run a partial scheduled for the remainder of the season. Next season, however, Fuller said Powers made the commitment when he hired Beard to campaign the entire 23-race schedule.

Beard, who has been tuning Funny Cars for the past five seasons, said he was looking forward to returning to the Top Fuel ranks, where he led Ormsby to the NHRA World Championship in 1989. Beard has earned 52 NHRA national-event victories as a crew chief in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, including two titles this season while with Whit Bazemore at Don Schumacher Racing.

"It's been awhile since I've been involved with a Top Fuel operation, but I'm looking forward to the challenge," Beard said. "David (Powers) has assembled a very good young team and I'm impressed with the way Hot Rod Fuller has performed behind the wheel in what's really his first full season in one of these cars.

"I believe this team has all of the dedication and hardware to get the job done, so my job is pretty simple and that's to make sure that every time we go to the starting line, we're capable of winning."

Fuller said he had no doubts that Beard will be able to make the transition back to the Top Fuel ranks.

"I honestly don't think he's going to have any trouble," Fuller said. "I think Top Fuel is easier to tune than a Funny Car because I think they're a lot more forgiving as far as the track conditions. I've always heard that they're a little more (conservative) on their tuneups than on a Top Fuel car.

"Plus, Lee has been going up against Austin Coil and John Force the last four or five years. That's a juggernaut over there and he's beaten them and given them a run for their money the last few years."

Beard said he was not turned off by the fact that the David Powers Motorsports team would be competing at only about six or seven of the remaining 11 races this season.

"Some people might consider the fact that we're running a limited schedule a problem, but for us it's definitely the right way to go," Beard said. "We've got enough time between outings to make sure that everything we're doing is being done in the proper manner and believe me, I think we're capable of winning a race or two before the season ends in November."

Despite competing at only eight of the first 12 national events this season, Fuller ranks 12th in NHRA Top Fuel points and has advanced to the final round of eliminations twice.