Torrence Pursues Another Title

In a season in which he opted to sit out four events including the three immediately prior to the Labor Day U.S. Nationals, Steve Torrence sends his CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota into this week’s 40th Reading Nationals, the first of six events in the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship, as the No. 9 qualifier.  

It’s the first time in 11 years the future Hall of Famer will start the playoffs from outside the top five and it means he’ll put his hot rod on the starting line Friday at Maple Grove Raceway trailing regular season champion Tony Stewart by 99 points, the equivalent of five racing rounds. 

Since no one in the 17-year history of the Countdown, regardless of category, has won a championship from a number nine start, the 42-year-old Texan’s odds of winning a fifth World Championship are exceedingly long.  

However, Torrence and his CAPCO boys see their situation from a different perspective.

“Being the first to do anything is a great motivator,” Torrence said.  “We know what we can do.  We know we have a car that can win, a driver who can win, a crew that can win.”

In point of fact, winning the championship from an unfavorable starting position pales in comparison to what Torrence and his team did in 2018 when, in defiance of conventional wisdom, they swept the six races comprising the Countdown.

Furthermore, since the team’s makeup now is not much different than it was then with Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana Jr. making the tune-up decisions, the family business providing all the mechanical essentials and the only driver ever to win NHRA championships in both the Top Fuel and Top Alcohol divisions still in the harnesses, the potential for an historic run remains.

“We raced full-time for 13 years,” Torrence said, “but we still had to run the pipeline business (founded by his dad, Billy, in 1995), which means back to work on Mondays.  Plus, Natalie and I have started a family. You know, priorities change.  

“That doesn’t mean we don’t still love racing, because we do,” said the 56-time tour winner, “and when we race, we always expect to win.”

In fact, the childhood cancer survivor has won at least one tour event in each of the last 11 seasons, the longest active streak in Top Fuel, one he extended last June when he won the Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol, Tenn.  

Finally, while the No. 8 an No. 9 starting positions have not yielded a champion in the Countdown Era, Torrence derives motivation from the fact that one of his racing contemporaries, the now retired Robert Hight, won the Funny Car Championship in 2009 after starting dead last.    

“That shows you that anything is possible,” he said.   

Torrence will begin his latest championship pursuit in qualifying sessions at 2:30 and 5:30 p.m., Texas time, on Friday.  Qualifying continues Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., Texas time, setting the pro lineups for Sunday’s eliminations beginning at 10 a.m., Texas time.