Vegas man comesthisclose to beating Kalitta in final

Monday, May 2, 2005 | 9:22 a.m.

Las Vegas resident Rod Fuller advanced to his first NHRA Top Fuel final round Sunday at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway before narrowly losing to veteran Doug Kalitta, but Fuller said he left the track with mixed emotions.

"Most guys in my position would be as excited as hell -- and I am excited -- but there's a part of me that ... man, it was so close; just to be that close (and lose) is hard," Fuller said.

Fuller, 34, was competing in only his fifth Top Fuel national event in the David Powers Homes dragster, which is running a limited schedule this season. Although he has run only five of the first six events in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series, Fuller is 10th in Top Fuel points.

Fuller turned in the quickest run of his career (4.548 second at 323.97 mph) and defeated Mitch King in the first round of eliminations, and then he dispatched John Smith in the second round with a 4.687-second pass (310.05 mph). Fuller got a free pass into the final when Scott Weis fouled at the start of their semifinal, but Fuller nonetheless turned in an impressive run of 4.607 at 324.75 mph.

In the final, Kalitta ran a 4.593 at 322.50 (to Fuller's 3.588 at 327.35) but used a holeshot start to nip the quicker and faster Fuller by approximately 3 feet. Kalitta's .072-second reaction time at the start overcame Fuller's run.

"I got beat on a holeshot," Fuller said. "A lot of it is the car. My crew chief (Richard Hogan) said it wasn't my fault ... he hasn't got that part of the carburetion down to where my car leaves fast like everybody else's. My driver's reaction time was the quickest it had been all weekend, but the car just didn't respond.

"It's hard because I lost by five-thousandths of a second, so if I could have been just five-thousandths of a second quicker on the tree, I would have had a Top Fuel national-event win. I sure wanted to bring a trophy home to Las Vegas, I can tell you that."

Fuller said he wasn't surprised to reach a final round despite the fact that the first-year team has worked together for only five races.

"In all honesty, it's not a surprise because I felt we should have won Las Vegas two weeks ago; we were the best car there," he said. "It's different if you're in the final and you lucked your way in, but it's kind of cool being a team like us and earning our way there.

"I was pretty upset because I hadn't lost in a final round in a national event since 1998; I had 11 straight national wins in a row (in the Sportsman class). But, like somebody said to me, 'This is Top Fuel, this isn't Sportsman racing -- this is the best of the best and you should be grateful, five races in, being in the finals.' "

The plan was for Fuller and the David Powers Motorsports team to take the next two races off before competing in the O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals from May 26-29 in Topeka, Kan. But Fuller said he wouldn't be surprised if the team showed up at one of the next two events.

"Right now, we've got a two-race layoff, but I wouldn't take that to the bank -- especially after the weekend we had," Fuller said. "We generated a lot of interest this weekend and two weeks ago in Las Vegas and, who knows, something might happen."

David Powers Motorsports is committed to running about 16 of the 23 national events, but Fuller said the team could go fulltime if it lands a major sponsor.

Other winners Sunday in the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals were Gary Scelzi (Funny Car) and Warren Johnson (Pro Stock). It was Scelzi's first title of the season and 30th of his career; Johnson earned his second victory of the season and 94th of his career.