By Mike Haag

ENNIS, Texas – Steve Torrence is on a roll on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Top Fuel dragster circuit.

The 34-year old Kilgore, Texas resident and driver of the Capco Contractors / Torrence Racing dragster will return to Texas to compete on October 12-15 at the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas.

Steve Torrence. NHRA photo

Torrence enters the event with a 42-point lead over Doug Kalitta in the championship standings.  Brittany Force is 41 points back in third, followed by Antron Brown and Clay Millican.  Rounding out the top 10 in the Countdown to the Championships is Tony Schumacher, Leah Pritchett, Terry McMillen, Scott Palmer and Shawn Langdon.

Last week at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis, Mo., Torrence notched his eighth win of the season in 11 final round appearances.  It was his 16th career victory.

“We needed this win,” Torrence said after a post-race interview.  “You need to win every round and every point that you can possibly get because it is going to be crucial at the end of this deal.  When you have points and a half at Pomona you are just going to have to come in here and do everything you can to get every point. It’s possible that this thing could come down to one or two points at the end of the season.”

Steve Torrence. NHRA photo

Last weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park Torrence qualified seventh at 3.696 seconds, 329.58 mph and then capped off a stellar performance on the dragstrip on Sunday.  He defeated four drivers from two of the sport’s premier Top Fuel teams – two Don Schumacher Racing cars and two Kalitta Motorsports entries.

“We got here by doing what we do all year long and doing it ourselves,” Torrence said.  “We went out and just took those guys out and sent them back to the trailer and we are leaving here with the points, a bigger points and another trophy.  We have three more of these things (races).  I’m not a fan of this Countdown but hell you beat everybody every time no matter what.”

Torrence started the opening round by defeating Langdon in the first round by taking him out with a 3.675 second, 329.58mph pass.  In round two, he outraced Pritchett with a strong 3.678 run and then took out Brown with a 3.689 pass in the semifinals.

Steve Torrence. NHRA photo

“Defeating Leah was a huge run not only for her but for us,” Torrence said.  “I think taking her out probably took her out of the championship chase but us going out us against her might have revived her chances and shot ours.”

Torrence also said that his win in the semifinals over Brown was crucial to his success at Gateway.  Coming into the 2017 season he was only 1-20 against the three-time champion.  With Torrence’s latest win, he improved to 5-3 on the season and 6-23 overall.

“I enjoy racing those Schumacher cars and it’s fun to beat those guys,” Torrence said.  “Those guys are the bar. That’s the racing factory.  They have everything and it’s not that we don’t.  They’ve got a lot of people and a lot of technology and a lot of data.  Collectively it’s just hard to beat those guys.”

Torrence added, “When you can not only go out and lead on somebody like Antron and outrun them then you’ve got to be pretty jacked up about it.  It’s like David and Goliath.  Heck we are swinging hard and taking them down, so I was really excited about that.  Every round is huge.  You have to take out those guys because you know that they are the ones you have to beat to win.”

In the final, Torrence ran a 3.684 that barely was enough to top Kalitta’s 3.698 pass.  Kalitta qualified in the No. 2 position and marched to the finals by defeating Palmer, B. Force and Dom Lagana.

Steve Torrence. NHRA photo

“With Doug going to the finals if that happens to us then that guy goes way ahead of us,” Torrence said.  “That was a huge round for us.  You can’t take the whole team lightly.”

Torrence said he is surprised that he has won eight times this season, especially after it took him five seasons to win his first eight career victories.

“It’s unbelievable and if I stop and only look at what we’ve accomplished, there is no way a single car team can go out there and go to 11 finals and win eight of them,” Torrence said.  “There’s been 21 races and we’ve been to more than half of them.”

Torrence added, “You don’t want to get too caught up in that right now.  We’ll look back at our season and evaluate it after Pomona.  That’s where we can say we won the championship or we almost won the championship but it was a good year.  Up until this point it’s kind of a storybook season.”

Torrence said that with three races remaining in the Countdown to the Championship he must continue to work even harder in order to win his first Top Fuel championship.

“The good Lord has definitely blessed us,” Torrence said.  “I tell the guys all of the time that we just have to keep going and grinding on it.  God already knows what is going to happen.  He’s just watching us fight it out and if it’s going to happen then nobody can beat us anyway.  We are going to do everything that we possibly can.”