>>BACK

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

 

TORRENCE GEARING UP FOR HOLIDAY FIREWORKS
CAPCO Contractors Driver Races with Kyle Foundation

July 2, 2015 -- Steve Torrence has faced down bigger obstacles in his life, but there’s no doubt that the challenge immediately ahead of the young Texas touring pro is a formidable one.

            With only seven races remaining before the start of the NHRA playoffs, Torrence will fire the engine on his 10,000 horsepower Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster this in the knowledge that if he doesn’t turn his season around, and quickly, he may find himself locked out of the chase for the $500,000 Mello Yello championship.

            Five consecutive first round losses, the most recent two weeks ago at Bristol, Tenn., have put the 32-year-old cancer survivor into a freefall that sends him into this week’s ninth annual Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park one position outside the Top 10 and one position removed from a playoff berth.

            Coming off his best season as a pro (three round wins shy of a No. 2 finish), it’s not where the former Top Alcohol Dragster world champion (2005) expected to find himself at this point in the current campaign.

            It would be much easier to fix the problem if Torrence could first identify it.

            His car has been performing at a high level and, except for a rare foul start at Bristol, his driving has been solid.  The devil, it seems, is in the intangibles.  The close races Torrence was winning a year ago, he’s losing this year, a situation exacerbated by the fact that he regularly seems to pull to the starting line against the wrong rival at the wrong time.

            Nevertheless, as the avid bow hunter fully understands, that’s what makes drag racing unique.  A team has only one chance to get it right and if one element is out of balance, it makes for an early day.  Torrence has had too many early days this year.

            “All you can do is just keep taking your swings,” said the four-time Top Fuel winner who, on this holiday weekend, is hoping to win for the first time with the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation logo prominently positioned on the sides of one of the world’s fastest billboards.

            “It’s a great cause,” he said, “and we wanted to help raise awareness of the good work they do.  Chris Kyle was a fellow Texan and a fellow outdoorsman and shooting enthusiast who we lost too soon.   He’ll be riding with me this week.“

 

# # #