David Powers Motorsports
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David Powers Motorsports
Valvoline / Mac Tools/ David Powers Motorsports
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(832) 252-8770 or (713) 539-1533 E-mail:
hburke@DavidPowersMotorsports.com
Powers' Top Fuel Dragster Racing With Valvoline At Thunder Valley
Nationals
BRISTOL, TN 4/24/05 This coming weekend's NHRA O'Reilly Thunder Valley
Nationals at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn. April 29th -May 1st will
mark the first NHRA POWERade Series national event in which the David
Powers Motorsports Top Fuel dragster will compete in full Valvoline
livery.
"I'm pretty thrilled about this one," says Rod Fuller,
13-time NHRA national event champion in the sportsman ranks and now the
driver for the David Powers Motorsports Top Fuel dragster. "I have been
racing with Valvoline for more than a decade, and we have had a very
satisfying relationship because we've won a lot of races together. I'm
really excited to be driving a car that's all red, white and blue in
Valvoline trim, and I'm hoping I can bring them their first Top Fuel
victory in a few years. The level of competition's going to be really
tough in Bristol, but based on the way we've been running in the last
couple of races, I think we've got what it takes to win."
Valvoline became an important Associate Sponsor of the David
Powers Motorsports entry at the beginning of the season. "When
Valvoline asked us to represent them in Top Fuel we were obviously
thrilled," said team owner Powers, a custom home builder in Houston,
Texas. "But, as excited as we were to be affiliated with Valvoline, to
have them ask us to run both this race and the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
in Indianapolis over Labor Day weekend in complete Valvoline livery was
a real honor."
"I think the team is really getting anxious to get out on
the track," said Richard Hogan, Crew Chief for Powers Motorsports.
"We've been running better than expected but we would like to get out
there and really make something great happen, particularly for
Valvoline. They've been providing us with the finest lubricants, and
believe me, lubrication in one of these 7,000 or 8,000 horsepower
engines is absolutely critical. These engines are on the edge of
failure on every run just because of the horsepower we generate, and
Valvoline oil helps us make smooth, trouble-free runs, time after time.
"Every race we go out to do our best and nothing less, but this time we
are going out with the mind set to bring home the team's first win. Rod
did a great job in the last two races, putting together personal bests
in elapsed times and speeds, so if we give him a good car to drive in
eliminations, I think we can come home with our first national event
victory, and this is the race to do it at!"
David Powers Motorsports has been running well since they
made their debut in February at the Winternationals, where they
qualified for the quickest Top Fuel field in NHRA history. The team has
qualified for eliminations at every NHRA POWERade Series race they've
entered this season, and two weeks ago at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway
won the prestigious Full Throttle Top Fuel Pit Crew Challenge at the
NHRA Summitracing.com Nationals for producing the best average elapsed
times through four rounds of qualifying. That's also where Fuller
notched his career best elapsed time of 4.557 seconds.
"Everyone at Valvoline is really proud of Rod and David
Powers Motorsports for the strides they've made thus far this year in
Top Fuel," said Mike Gruber, Racing Representative for Valvoline
Motorsports. "This is a brand new team, and we know it takes time for
things to jell, but clearly, this team is beginning to catch a lot of
people's attention. We know they're going to be great representatives
for Valvoline not only this weekend, but for the balance of the season.
We're just hoping that when everything's settled on Sunday afternoon
there's going to be a red, white and blue Valvoline machine sitting in
the Top Fuel winner's circle!"
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