PETERSON SPONSORS TOP FUEL’S HOT ROD FULLER AT INFINEON RACEWAY
 
Dateline: July 2007
In 2006, Caterpillar decided to look at sponsoring the NHRA drag racing 2007 series. And on July 29, 2007, Peterson got its chance, as the local CAT dealer, to sponsor Hot Rod Fuller at Sonoma’s Infineon Raceway for the 20th annual Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals. A few days before the race, Hot Rod Fuller came to Peterson to tour the facilities, shake hands, sign autographs and generally be the friendly, gracious gentlemen that he is. On a tour through Power’s truck shop, he told the techs a story that really impressed them:
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“One of his old racecar haul trucks developed a misfire and a failed injector on the road,” retells Ted Fleming, Power’s Truck Shop Manager, who hosted the tour. “He pulled into the local CAT dealer for repairs, but they couldn’t get to it. So he bought the part and a service manual and did it himself and it ran fine. These guys know how hard it is to work on a CAT 3116. A lot of our bay area dealers won’t even work on them because they’re so hard, so they send them here to us. And here you have a customer that took it upon himself and did a good job.” And ... beat the “standards” (time requirement) clock doing it. “I grew up doing this stuff,” explained Rod. “I’ve been working on cars and engines for years. When you’re racing, you’re the crew, the driver, the promoter, and the go-fer, all in one. You do what has to get done.” |
“Peterson and Caterpillar have used NASCAR events in the past as a marketing venue but never as a recruiting tool,” explains Rich Hasper, Peterson’s Director of Human Resources. “This is a technician-rich environment that draws mechanically-minded individuals every weekend.
. With a constant need for qualified, interested technicians, the industry is scrambling to figure out how to fill those positions. Until recently, dealers were left pretty much on their own to figure out how to draw in new talent. “There are only so many technicians out there and we don’t believe in taking from our customers, so we have to develop our own. But first we have to find them,” concludes Hasper. That’s where CAT’s idea of recruiting at racetracks across America is coming in a big winner.
Hot Rod Fuller’s story goes all the way back to the cradle when his mom (also a racer) actually named him Hot Rod. He began his racing career at age 12 as a crew-member and worked his way up to driver. His whole family – grandfather, father, mother, brothers and uncles are all into drag racing as well. After earning both a Bachelors and Masters at the University of Arkansas, Fuller entered NHRA competition full time in 1994. In the summer of 2005, he joined the David Powers MotorSports team and captured his first career Top Fuel victory in Memphis. To date (8.07) he leads the pack in Top Fuel with 1,157 points. Here at Peterson, we look forward to sponsoring Rod Fuller again in 2008. He’s not only a winner ... he’s a class act as well.
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