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For Immediate Release
Contact: Joe Sherk, jlsherk@aol.com/360-981-4806, mobile

 

TORRENCE READY TO DUKE IT OUT FOR FIRST PLACE IN MELLO YELLO TITLE RUN

Pre Season TestingFebruary 11, 2013 -- He weighs in at 150 pounds on a 5-foot 7-inch frame, certainly not the size or weight of a guy who would go looking for a fight. 

But Steve Torrence isn’t just any guy.  He’s a cancer survivor, has an Associate Degree from Kilgore (Texas) College, and is one heck of a Top Fuel driver who grew up in drag racing and aspires to one day wrap his arms around the Mello Yello NHRA Series championship trophy.

To do so, he must slug it out round by demanding round against the category’s elite heavyweights in a 24-race season that begins with the tradition-laced 53rd O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals, Feb. 14-17 at historic Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif.

Torrence will be at the controls of his family’s black Capco Contractors Inc., Brad Hadman-built land rocket that reached speeds in excess of 326 mph in the team’s very successful 2012 inaugural season.

“We tried to establish ourselves as a professional top-notch team that races to have fun,” he told Joe Castello on his NHRA Nitro WFO radio program recently.  “We are out here to take winner’s circle pictures at the end of the day and win trophies.  Everyone likes to go home with a Wally, and that’s what we’re racing for.”

This was a new team, but it flourished with a talented, battle-tested crew, led by Richard Hogan, and Torrence’s confident driving.  He raced throttle pedal to throttle pedal with any challenger and ended the year with an inspiring three victories in five final rounds and a ninth-place finish.  He also was the only single-car team driver to crack the top 10. 

“The most-important thing is the data we get at each track, and the multi-car teams can simply collect more than we can,” Torrence pointed out.  “We now have a pretty good statistical book on the all the tracks we raced on last year, and that will definitely be a plus for us this time around.

“We are still a one-car team, and will stay that way.  The multi-car teams do benefit, but we will work around it.  It can be done; it just takes a lot of dedication and hard work from our crew.

“My guys are well-prepared. They worked hard during the offseason.  We will be ready to go when we get to Pomona.”

They can begin to prove their point Thursday when the Winternationals race gets underway. 

Torrence can mix it up with his rivals on the race track because he won his most important battle . . .  against Hodgkins lymphoma.  H e contracted the disease in 2000 and fought it for one agonizing year before he was lymphoma free

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