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TORRENCE BID FALLS SHORT AT CHICAGO
Four-Time Top Fuel World Champ Maintains Top Fuel Point Lead

May 21, 2023 -- Steve Torrence’s return to Route 66 Raceway didn’t go according to plan Sunday but, on a day in which the No. 11 and No. 12 qualifiers raced for the championship, the four-time Top Fuel World Champion still managed to leave with the point lead.

In a first round full of upsets at the 23rd Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 Nationals, nothing went right for Torrence after he grabbed a .038 of a second starting line advantage. 

Soon thereafter, the massive rear tires on his 11,000 horsepower CAPCO Contractors entry began to lose traction and the 53-time tour winner could do nothing but watch Leah Pruett drive away for the win.

Although he left Sunday with his track record (3.677 seconds) still intact, the 40-year-old Texan never found the performance that carried him to victories here in 2017 and 2019.

In fact, his No. 8 starting position was his worst of the season and second worst in the last four years.  Moreover, he failed to grab a single qualifying bonus point for just the seventh time in his last 51 starts.

Nevertheless, he will begin the qualifying process at the 10th NHRA New England Nationals two weeks hence leading reigning series champ Brittany Force by 17 points and her teammate, Austin Prock, by 27. 

The fact that he has led the points after all but one race this year is the more remarkable considering the fact that he has not yet reached the winners’ circle.  He’ll get his next chance to rectify that situation in a New England Nationals event he won in 2018 and 2019 contested on a track on which he set the record just a year ago (3.664 seconds).

“It’s been a frustrating season,” he said, “because we’re so close to being where we want to be but we just haven’t been able to put everything together.  The good part is that we know it’s coming if we keep working at it and you know these CAPCO boys are gonna keep working.”

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