Torrence Aims for Two-In-A-Row

Having extended Top Fuel drag racing’s longest active winning streak, Steve Torrence moves on to a new challenge this week when he sends his CAPCO Contractors Toyota back to work in the only two-day event on the NHRA calendar, the 15th American Rebel Light Beer Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.

The new challenge for the four-time Top Fuel World Champion is winning back-to-back events in the Mission Foods series for the first time since his last championship season (2021).

“We don’t have the race car we had when we won all those championships,” he said, “but we’ve been working hard to get it back and Bristol (Tenn.) was a good step in that direction.”

The 42-year-old Texan’s victory two weeks ago in the Thunder Valley Nationals ran to 11 the number of consecutive seasons in which he has won at least one NHRA tour event and ended a winless streak at Bristol Dragway that had reached 11 seasons.

It was an emotional triumph for the 56-time tour winner who, by his high standards, has struggled the last four seasons, and it validated his confidence in crew chiefs Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana Jr. 

“We’ve changed a lot of stuff and are working hard to turn it into something we can work with,” he said.  “The thing is, you need laps; you need more information that backs up what you’re doing.

“If this thing goes out and goes 3.63 on one lap and you don’t make it down the track the other three runs, you really haven’t accomplished anything,” he said.  “Consistency is the key to being successful.  That’s what we had (when we were dominant) and that’s what we’re looking for again.  

“We had a lot of success,” said the only driver to have swept the races in the NHRA Countdown (2018).  “Four, five years ago, we were winning eight, nine, 11 races a season.  “We made it look easy, but it wasn’t.  This is much more difficult than what it seems from the outside.  

“The last couple years the car has been inconsistent, and I’ve been inconsistent,” he continued.  “It seems like the weekends I was good, the car was not, and the weekend the car was good, I was not.  It all has to come together at one time like it did at Bristol, but it doesn’t mean anything if we can’t build on that and get that consistency back.”

The former Top Alcohol Dragster World Champion (2005) and only driver to win NHRA championships in both the Alcohol and Fuel classes returns this week to a track on which he has a higher winning percentage than any other in the series.  In his last four appearances at VMP, he's raced in three final rounds, twice hoisted the trophy and compiled a 12-2 elimination record.  

His bid for a second straight 2025 tour victory begins with three Saturday qualifying sessions, two of them in conjunction with the Mission Foods 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge featuring semifinalists from the most recent event in a do-over that awards points and cash bonuses to those who are most successful.  

The first qualifying session is set for 10:30 a.m., Texas time, with the final two, including the 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge rounds, at 1 and 3:30 p.m., Texas time.  Sunday eliminations begin at 10 a.m., Texas time.