{"id":48485,"date":"2024-10-08T16:11:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T21:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=48485"},"modified":"2024-10-10T16:18:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T21:18:55","slug":"torrences-title-bid-brings-him-home-four-time-world-champ-returns-to-texas-motorplex-as-track-record-holder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/08\/torrences-title-bid-brings-him-home-four-time-world-champ-returns-to-texas-motorplex-as-track-record-holder\/","title":{"rendered":"Torrence’s title bid brings him home; Four-time World Champ returns to Texas Motorplex as track record holder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of David Densmore<\/em><\/p>\n

DALLAS, Texas \u2013 A race in which he has reached the finals six times in the last nine years, a track on which he lowered the record to 3.636 seconds just a year ago, and a crowd comprised largely of family, friends and fellow Texans could constitute the perfect storm for Steve Torrence and his CAPCO boys this week as they resume their quest for their fifth Top Fuel World Championship in the last seven years.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Steve Torrence is back home in Texas this week where he will drive his CAPCO Contractors Toyota in pursuit of the Top Fuel Championship in the 39th annual Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. Photo by Mark Rebilas<\/p><\/div>\n

Currently occupying the No. 5 position in the Mission Foods driver standings, the 41-year-old Torrence is well aware of his need to gain ground in this week\u2019s 39th Texas Fall Nationals, the centerpiece of the 10-day Stampede of Speed at the Texas Motorplex, the all-concrete track he calls home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve dug ourselves a pretty good hole,\u201d he said of the 88 points by which he trails current leader Antron Brown, \u201cbut we\u2019re coming off a good race at St. Louis (runner-up to Tony Schumacher) and the big thing, for me, is that these CAPCO boys have been here before.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The scoreboard showed the record-setting result of Steve Torrence\u2019s No. 1 qualifying run during last year\u2019s Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex.  Torrence will drive his CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota in pursuit of a third win at his home track starting Friday. Photo by Mark Rebilas<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201c(The pressure of the playoffs) is nothing new to them but it\u2019s always good to come back home,\u201d said the 55-time tour winner, the only driver ever to have swept the races in the NHRA\u2019s Countdown to the Championship (2018).  \u201cWe\u2019ll have a lot of friends and a lot of support from our extended family at CAPCO.\u201d<\/p>\n

          In addition, he\u2019ll have the support of a CAPCO wingman who is equally comfortable at the Motorplex.  Dad Billy won the Texas Fall Nationals in 2019, was runner-up to his son the following year and last fall lost an all-CAPCO, all-Toyota, all-Torrence semifinal by a scant .009 of a second.<\/p>\n

          Not that he really needs further motivation, but the younger Torrence also is anxious to put last year\u2019s narrow, .007 of a second final round loss to Leah Pruett far behind him in an event in which he has compiled a 22-7 elimination record since 2014.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The family that races together!  Four-time Top Fuel World Champion Steve Torrence will have the support of wife Natalie and daughters Haven Charli, left, and Harper Sloan as he pursues his third victory this week in the Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. Photo by Mark Rebilas<\/p><\/div>\n

 \u201cThe opportunity\u2019s there,\u201d said the former Top Alcohol Dragster World Champion (2005).  \u201cWe just have to do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

A member of drag racing\u2019s 500 Club, reserved for pro drivers who have won at least that many competitive rounds, Torrence celebrated Fall Nationals victories in 2018 and 2020 and has started from either the No. 1 or No. 2 qualifying position five of the last seven years.<\/p>\n

The feature event begins with two rounds of nitro qualifying on Friday, the first at 5:15 p.m. and the second, under the lights, at 8 p.m. with a $15,000 Motorplex cash bonus to the driver putting up the best numbers.   <\/p>\n

Pro qualifying continues with sessions at 1 and 4 p.m. Saturday that will establish the starting lineups and first round pairings for single elimination finals on Sunday beginning at 12 noon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of David Densmore DALLAS, Texas \u2013 A race in which he has reached the finals six times in the last nine years, a track on which he lowered the record to 3.636 seconds just a year ago, and a crowd comprised largely of family, friends and fellow Texans could constitute the perfect storm for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":48489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,841,50,851,328],"class_list":["post-48485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhra","tag-nhra","tag-stampede-of-speed","tag-steve-torrence","tag-texas-fall-nationals","tag-texas-motorplex"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/tra10R_0647A.jpg?fit=2000%2C1400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-cC1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48485"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48491,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48485\/revisions\/48491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}