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For Immediate Release
Contact: Dave Densmore, denswood@aol.com / 214-244-0008, mobile

 

TORRENCE OUSTED BY .0007 OF A SECOND
CAPCO CAPCO Contractors Driver Loses a Dead Heat at Topeka

May 24, 2015 -- It was impossible for Steve Torrence not to feel frustrated Sunday after a second straight first round exit left him and his Capco Contractors dragster facing a long, uphill climb not just to move into contention for the Mello Yello Top Fuel Championship but simply to make the playoffs.

            After losing to Brittany Force in the opening round of the 27th annual Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park-Topeka, Torrence fell back to 10th place nearing the halfway point in a regular season that will determine which 10 drivers contest the $500,000 title.

            That said, it was tough for the talented Texan to be too disappointed.  After struggling in qualifying and losing the lane choice option, he made his best run of the weekend before ultimately losing a 320 mile-an-hour shootout by a margin indiscernible to the naked eye.

            In essence, it was a dead heat. 

            Torrence had a solid .063 reaction time and covered the 1,000 feet in 3.773 seconds.  Force had a .056 reaction time and was clocked at 3.780 seconds.  The cumulative number for both was 3.836.  It took the CompuLink timing system to confirm Force’s win by .0007 of a second. 

            “I thought we’d won,” Torrence said, “but I’m sure Brittany thought the same thing.  It was a helluva drag race.  I could see that Monster car beside me all the way down the track.  I don’t think I’ve ever been in a race that close, but we’ve been in some tough ones lately.  It’s like one-run games in baseball.  Those are the ones you have to win and we haven’t been winning the close ones this year.”

            The 32-year-old cancer survivor admitted, though, that while he was excited about his team’s Sunday response to a weekend of water and worries, the eventual result is probably is going to be a source of anguish right up until the engine fires for the first qualifying session at the 46th annual Toyota Summernationals at Englishtown, N.J., two weeks hence.

            “That’s drag racing,” Torrence said. “It’s a challenging and humbling sport.  It tests more than your skill.  It tests your character and I think that’s always been an attraction for me.  I think this team has great people and great resilience, which is something we’re going to put the test this next month because we’ve got three races in three weeks coming up.  That (stretch) will separate the contenders from the pretenders, I can promise you that.”

            A four-time Top Fuel winner and a former Top Alcohol World Champion (2005), Torrence is encouraged by the fact that he has won pro races at two of the next three stops on the circuit – Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey and a Bristol Dragway in Tennessee.

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