Yas Marina Circuit’s Rod Fuller reached the fastest speed of his career and positioned the Yas Marina Top Fuel team in sixth place leading into the eliminations at the 30th Annual Luca Oil NHRA Nationals, Brainerd, Minnesota.

Fuller rocketed down the drag strip in the qualifying round of the race at an impressive 322.11 mph (518.57 km/hr), setting a new personal best.

Fuller advanced the team to the quarter finals by defeating Shawn Langdon in the opening elimination round.  The second round saw Fuller defeated by Tony Schumacher, due to a loss of traction.

“We are four races into the ten race series and are progressing nicely, meeting expectations,” said Rashed Al Qubaisi, head of the Yas Drag Racing Centre and team manager of the Yas Marina Circuit Top Fuel team.

“Rod’s top speed achievement is definitely a sign that we are on the right track.”

“Rashed came up with some new ideas to make the car go faster so we applied a few of those changes to the car,” Fuller said.

“It was a great race against Langdon and it was really close.  We tuned up the car for the second round against Tony (Schumacher) and just went a little too aggressive.”

Over the four races of the season so far, the Yas Marina Circuit team have continued to fine tune the car, testing new parts and systems.

The team’s next race will be in Indianapolis, Indiana for the 57th Annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, August 31 to September 5, one of the largest race-meets of the NHRA season.

“We know that our car is fast and we know what it is capable of.  We’ll be testing this week and we’re all pumped up to get re-tuned and hit Indy,” Fuller added.
On day three of qualifying at last year’s Indianapolis meet, Fuller recorded the fastest time and highest speed, only to lose in the first round of eliminations. – TradeArabia News Service