Hot Rod Fuller crossed the Atlantic Ocean more times than Christopher Columbus, and in some ways he, like Columbus, didn’t discover exactly what he was looking for.
 
The NHRA Top Fuel driver had hoped to lay a foundation for NHRA’s global reach when he took over in 2010 as Chief Instructor at the Yas Drag Racing Centre at Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Management at the sparkling, upscale Yas Marina Circuit quickly tired of drag racing, clearly preferring the Formula 1 clientele, and last year disbanded its once-grandiose plan for NHRA-sanctioned racing.
 
Fuller returned to the United States for good, grateful for his education as dragstrip manager and for the unique chance to put his MBA and Bachelors in marketing from the University of Arkansas to proper use. He teamed with Dexter Tuttle a year ago in February to compete at the Winternationals at Pomona, Calif. And hardly anyone in drag racing has heard from him since.
 
But he told Competition Plus this week in a telephone interview from his Rogers, Ark., home that he’s closing in on a deal to race again in the Top Fuel class where he won seven of his 20 NHRA Wally trophies.

Hot Rod Fuller crossed the Atlantic Ocean more times than Christopher Columbus, and in some ways he, like Columbus, didn’t discover exactly what he was looking for.
 
The NHRA Top Fuel driver had hoped to lay a foundation for NHRA’s global reach when he took over in 2010 as Chief Instructor at the Yas Drag Racing Centre at Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Management at the sparkling, upscale Yas Marina Circuit quickly tired of drag racing, clearly preferring the Formula 1 clientele, and last year disbanded its once-grandiose plan for NHRA-sanctioned racing.
 
Fuller returned to the United States for good, grateful for his education as dragstrip manager and for the unique chance to put his MBA and Bachelors in marketing from the University of Arkansas to proper use. He teamed with Dexter Tuttle a year ago in February to compete at the Winternationals at Pomona, Calif. And hardly anyone in drag racing has heard from him since.
 
But he told Competition Plus this week in a telephone interview from his Rogers, Ark., home that he’s closing in on a deal to race again in the Top Fuel class where he won seven of his 20 NHRA Wally trophies.
 
“I’m trying hard. You know me — I’m a little fighter. I never give up,” he said.
 
“I’m still 100-percent full-bore” in pursuing a driving career, Fuller said. “I still feel like I’m in my prime, my driving prime. I have a great program. I’m working on my “retailtainment” [efforts]. I have two or three companies that really want to do this. And I would be really surprised if I don’t pull something off.”
 
However, he said he was surprised when he tried to find a job in the overall workplace back here at home after the Yas Marina program folded. His resume shone with achievement: an established professional career and successful sportsman track record in the NHRA ranks, management at Yas Drag Racing Centre with experience in every facet of the business, a Masters degree.
 
He found out that his success scared off potential employers.
 
“You’re kind of famous,” one said.
 
“You’ve made a lot of money,” another pointed out.
 
And on it went: “People treat you different. We should give you a higher-paying job”  . . . “We can’t see you sitting here. You’d be bored” . . . “You’re at half the salary you were at your last job.”
 
Said Fuller, “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. I’m just driving a race car. People tend to think it’s an obstacle. One company asked me for my last three years’ salary statements, and you’ve got to produce them. They saw them and said, ‘Oh my gosh — we can’t match this.’ And I said, ‘I’m not asking you to.’ But I was working in one of the richest countries in the world and making a great salary.
 
“I can’t hide who I am or what I’ve done,” he said. “That’s really made it hard for me, because what do I do if I’m not in the drag-racing field? I’m good with cars — I could be a crew chief on these cars, but it’s not something I aspire to do. I like to be more on the business side of it, because I love that kind of stuff.”
 
Of sitting out and being second-guessed when applying for employment, Fuller said, “This kind of sucks.”
 
But he hasn’t let that stop him from continuing his role as deal-maker, even if his risk-taking made one of his colleagues upset with him. Rumors were that he and pal Bob Vandergriff Jr. were at odds. But Fuller, though acknowledging Vandergriff definitely was annoyed with him for some time, said the two have worked through their frustrations.
 
“I didn’t get released out of my Abu Dhabi contract until late.  I was there until January of last year. By that time companies had their budgets made,” he said.
 
“What happened between us was nothing personal between us,” Fuller said. “Abu Dhabi, they wanted to stop running and sponsorship stopped. I didn’t have anything put together to run the season with Bob.  Bob’s smart — he’s not going to do something for nothing, for free. He’s got to have sponsorship for those cars. I totally understand that. He was a little perturbed with me at first, and I was a little perturbed at him. I was trying to put something together, and it didn’t work.
 
“It wasn’t like we were mad at each other. We just were bummed that we couldn’t keep it going. Bob’s really hard on me. I’m like a little brother to him. He was mad at me last year, 100-percent mad, because he thinks I could have got that deal,” Fuller said. “I tried. I tried hard, but it just didn’t happen.”
 
Today they are friends: “We’re on the phone all the time,” he said.
 
Fuller said he’s hoping to be able to announce his full-time return to Top Fuel in a couple of weeks. I f he can secure the deal in time, he said, he could race at Pomona for the Feb. 14-17 Winternationals that will kick off the NHRA’s Mello Yello-sponsored era.
 
“Vandergriff still has my old equipment and cars and everything. So that’s an easy transition,” he said. “Bob bought both of the Yas Marina Circuit [teams’ equipment].”
 
Just how he might be associated, if at all, with the new Vandergriff- Clay Millican alliance that somehow presumably will continue to include part-time driver J.R. Todd, is unclear at this point.
 
What still is a bit unclear to Fuller is exactly why the drag-racing set-up at Abu Dhabi dissolved into what’s now just a local program there.
 
“I hate to say it, but we were kind of forced out of there. People who ran the racetrack [overall facility] were all F1 guys. They all were British. They hated drag racing. They didn’t understand it. They thought it was stupid, thought it was a waste of time.
But the Emiratis, the people there, loved it,” he said, knowing he made a positive impact in his three seasons abroad.
 
“So it was kind of an internal battle, but at the end of the day, the people who run it gave us loss reports and showed that we were losing tons of money. They were piling all the bills on us,” he said. “It just wasn’t a fair deal.”
 
However, he said he isn’t sorry he took the chance, because he loaded his skills toolbox.
 
“It’s been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life — unbelievable. I’m so thankful for them and for them giving me that opportunity. What it taught me how to do was something outside of drag racing, that I can do something more than just drive,” Fuller said.
 
“I was running that facility. I had 30 employees I was in charge of. I had to run a racetrack and track maintenance and track prep, deal with rules, and teach everybody. I had to start from scratch. Nobody knew the rules and how to stage [a race car] or what ‘a breakout’ means. It was really difficult, but it was an awesome experience,” he said.
 
“When my drag-racing career is over for driving, I now can go run a racetrack and do a lot more. I had to do sponsorship. I worked with F1. During the F1 race, I worked with those guys. I did some presenting. I did some TV stuff, a realty show. It was unbelievable the amount of stuff I got to do there,” Fuller said. “I’m very grateful for that. I don’t think I could have gotten that experience anywhere [else] in that short of time.”
 
He has had time to reflect about the direction of the sport and about his role in it. And he said he has realized from his unique perspective that also in a relatively short period of time, the sport is out-pricing itself.
 
The going asking rate for a primary marketing partner in a Top Fuel operation, he said, is $2.5 million.
 
“Honestly, I don’t think a sponsorship’s worth two-and-a-half-million dollars anymore to go Top Fuel racing.  I don’t think it’s worth it to a company to do it.  I think it’s around $1.5 million to $1.8 max,” he said. “That’s what it’s worth to a sponsor. Now, if it’s costing us $2.2, 2.5 million to run, we’ve got to figure out how to make that or cut expenses down.
 
“I think drivers’ salaries got out of control. Crew chiefs’ salaries got out of control. The abundance of parts and pieces — and hospitality — we got a little too big for our britches,” Fuller said. “I think that’s part of the problem with the sport. It’s not their [sponsors’] responsibility to pay for something like that, and they’re not getting their return on it.”
 
He said in a sense, and with no disrespect to his former boss, he was part of a team that was part of the problem.
 
” It’s part of my team’s fault, back when I was with David Powers and how we grew this sport. We were the first ones with that big huge hospitality and all that cool stuff and paying drivers $200,000 a year to drive these things,” Fuller said.
 
He said other team owners “looked at that and said to themselves,’ ‘D***, David — now I’ve got to buy one of these now.”
 
Fuller said, “The cost just escalated so much, and the economy’s gone the exact opposite way. And I don’t think drag racing’s really adjusted its costs and prices yet.”        
     
So that makes David Powers and other rival team owners the George Steinbrenners of drag racing?
 
“Yeah, 100 percent,” Fuller said.
 
But just like the New York Yankees didn’t ruin baseball, at least not entirely, neither did Powers or the other big-spending, big-investing team owners cause drag racing to go away. The sport is alive and arguably well in some cases.
 
And so is Hot Rod Fuller. He still feels like he has the drag-racing world within his reach, even if it is from this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
 
“It’s good to let people know I’m alive!” the optimistic Fuller said this week.
 
In a professional sense, that could be unsettling news for some Top Fuel competitors.

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