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TEXAN TORRENCE EYES TOP 5 FINISH
CAPCO Driver Hopes to Reverse Pomona Fortunes

November 11, 2015 -- With his eye on a Top 5 finish and his heart with military veterans like the late Chris Kyle, Steve Torrence tries to reverse his fortunes in the Auto Club Finals this week when the NHRA’s traditional season-ender is contested for the 51st time at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. 

Although he has won only one round in seven previous Top Fuel appearances in the Finals, the talented Texan hopes to channel 2005, the year in which he was runner-up at Pomona en route to a world championship in the Top Alcohol Dragster division.

“My guys have put together a great race car,” Torrence said.  “We had new pipe at Dallas (for the AAA Texas Fall Nationals) so everything’s fresh and ready to go for Pomona.  The championship may not be in play (since Antron Brown has clinched the 2015 title), but there’s still a lot of motivation to finish up in the points, put the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation in the winners’ circle on Veterans Day weekend and carry some momentum into the off-season.”

The 32-year-old cancer survivor is a proud supporter of the foundation that honors the memory of the late “American Sniper” through its support of the families of first responders and soldiers returning from high stress deployments.

A tour winner earlier this year at Denver, Colo., Torrence was the runner-up in Dallas in a Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster in which he has qualified fourth or better in eight of the last 11 events and in which he started No. 1 at the AAA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis.

Torrence, who has won five Top Fuel events since founding Torrence Racing in 2011, will start qualifying seventh in the Mello Yello driver standings, just 42 points behind fifth place Brittany Force. 

“Fifth, I think, is do-able,” Torrence said, “and fourth isn’t impossible.  Either one would be better than last year (when he finished a career-best sixth without winning a single tour event).  Our first goal every year is to win the championship.  After that, you always want to do a little better than you did before.”

The Kilgore College graduate will be joined at Pomona Raceway by his dad, Billy Torrence, who for the fifth time this year will drive a second Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster in support of his son.  The elder Torrence, an NHRA national tour winner in Super Comp, has made the most of his limited schedule with a pair of No. 2 starts, a No. 3 start and a semifinals finish at St. Louis.

“Racing with my dad would be special even if he didn’t get us a lot of extra data with the second car,” Torrence laughed.  “We started racing together in Super Comp and now here we are racing in Top Fuel with (crew chief) Richard Hogan and (car chief) Bobby (Lagana) and the guys.  What could be better?”

Nothing, apparently, except maybe a season-ending victory.

 

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