Friday, April 15, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Chris Russell living dream of late brother Darrell

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

NHRA driver Rod Fuller, right, and team manager Chris Russell check out their car Thursday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Fuller will race in Top Fuel at the SummitRacing.com Nationals. Photo by John Locher.

Darrell Russell had thousands of fans when he was killed last year in a racing accident.

And none was a bigger fan than his brother, Chris Russell.

The two worked closely together when Darrell was winning championships in a Top Alcohol Dragster, but their dream was to have a team in Top Fuel Dragster, the NHRA's premier class.

The success they had in NHRA Sportsman racing led to Darrell getting the opportunity to drive a Top Fueler in 2001 for Joe Amato Racing, where in four seasons he won six races, including the 2001 fall event in Las Vegas.

The team didn't have a role for Chris, who at age 35 was 16 months younger than his brother. But Chris and Darrell never gave up hope they would be together on a race team again. They began plans with Houston home builder David Powers to have a new team ready for the 2007 season.

Instead of those plans stalling or being canceled after Darrell's death from an apparent tire failure in an NHRA race near St. Louis in late June, they accelerated like one of his 330-mph runs down a quarter-mile.

And their dream lives on today when qualifying in pro categories begins in the sixth annual NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with Las Vegas resident Rod Fuller taking what eventually was to be Darrell's spot in the cockpit.

"We can't wait to win our first race so we can dedicate it to Darrell, because his whole family is over here with this team," Chris said. Their father, Burnell, drives the team's transporter, and Gwen, their mother, has resumed attending races.

"I'm not going to a race if I don't think we can win, but I know we have to pay our dues and have a little luck," Chris said.

Fate has played a pivotal and positive role in the racing future of the Russell family, of Hockley, Texas. An apparent sponsorship deal for the team fell through about three weeks before the fatal accident and Chris says he was ready to get out of drag racing.

"Darrell gave me a 30-minute pep talk about how much I loved drag racing after that happened," Chris said. "I had always been the one giving him the pep talks. I think about that conversation all the time and why it came when it did."

It isn't rhetoric when Chris says he's doing what his brother would have wanted.

A key factor for any team to be successful is finding the right driver. And as important as it was to find someone who was a winner with Top Fuel experience was finding someone whose personality would meld into a role meant for Darrell.

Who better than Fuller, 34, an Arkansas native who has won 13 NHRA national titles in Sportsman categories and drove the low-budget "Montana Express" Top Fuel dragster about 10 years ago.

Now, Fuller is driving for a well-funded team and, more importantly, carrying on a dream of a highly popular driver.

"Darrell was a great person, too, not just a great driver," Fuller said. "It's not like I'm replacing him; no one could. He was such a wonderful person."

The team has qualified for three of the four races it has entered this year, but none was more important than the one last weekend near Houston, about 45 miles from the Russell's home.

"Going to Houston last week put an unbelievable amount of pressure on us," Fuller said.

But with guidance from crew chief Richard Hogan, the team responded by qualifying eighth and winning in the first round before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by two-time reigning world champ Tony Schumacher, who won the event title.

No one in the Powers pits was content with that effort, but they were pleased. The team chemistry seems to have the right formula.

"Rod and I hit it off real quickly," said Chris, the team's manager. "All the guys we interviewed were top-notch, good race-car drivers, but after two minutes of being with Rod, it felt like he was my best friend."

Powers drove Top Fuel Dragsters in the 1960s and won the United Drag Racing Association championship in 1969. But he parked his racing hobby when he began to focus on building custom homes and developed into one of Houston's top builders.

That success has afforded the team the best available parts and equipment, but Powers will not commit to a full-time effort in NHRA until a major sponsor is signed.

This weekend, Las Vegan Ken Black's KB Framing will provide the team with financial support. Black also operates a two-car Pro Stock team that includes two-time reigning NHRA champion Greg Anderson and Jason Line, last year's rookie of the year.

Adding to the new-home atmosphere of the team's pit area is Fuller's wife, Tammy, a Prudential Realtor who was dashing through the pits talking with racers about the high-rising housing boom in Las Vegas.

The real estate business was a major factor in the Fuller's move to Las Vegas.

"After we got married (in 2001), I got Tammy to move to Rogers, Ark., where I grew up," said Fuller, a high school All-America soccer player. "She just hated it. Small town, hot, humid, bugs, snakes. She couldn't understand what people were saying. We moved to Vegas after six months."

Tammy was an accomplished amateur drag racer, but now focuses on reaping the rewards of the valley's housing market and encouraging her husband.

"She knows this is my dream, and it's her dream, too," Rod said of driving in Top Fuel.

And it also was Darrell Russell's dream for his family to be united again in drag racing.

He can rest knowing he contributed to making that happen.