{"id":5703,"date":"2016-10-10T19:57:28","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T00:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=5703"},"modified":"2016-10-10T19:57:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T00:57:28","slug":"texas-steve-torrence-hopes-for-career-first-at-aaa-texas-nhra-fall-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/10\/texas-steve-torrence-hopes-for-career-first-at-aaa-texas-nhra-fall-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas’ Steve Torrence hopes for career first at AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

ENNIS, Texas \u2013 It is easy for Steve Torrence<\/strong> to reminisce when he is in the staging lanes at the Texas Motorplex, the site of the 31st annual AAA Texas NHRA<\/a> FallNationals, Oct. 13-16. The Top Fuel standout and Kilgore, Texas native grew up racing at the track just two hours from his house and every time he returns it is an opportunity to look back on his rise through the drag racing ranks at the famed facility.<\/p>\n

\"221-stevetorrence-friday-denver\"<\/p>\n

After advancing to the final round at the race last year, Torrence\u2019s next step is his first Top Fuel win at the track, something that would add another memorable accomplishment to his impressive 2016 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a few years ago you\u2019re pulling into the water box in your Super Comp car, just aspiring to be in this position,\u201d said Torrence, who is currently sixth in Top Fuel points and has two wins in 2016. \u201cIt\u2019s just an unbelievable feeling to accomplish those goals and be at the pinnacle of the sport you love. It holds all the more meaning to say I grew up here and every aspect of my racing career took place here. It\u2019s always been a special place to me and where I grew up racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richie Crampton (Top Fuel), Del Worsham (Funny Car), Erica Enders (Pro Stock) and Jerry Savoie (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were winners of last year\u2019s event that will air on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) for the first time.\u00a0 On Oct. 16th, FS1 will televise three hours of live finals coverage starting at 2 p.m. (ET).<\/p>\n

\"2016_steve_torrence\"<\/p>\n

The race marks the fourth of six events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship playoffs. The first half of the playoffs haven\u2019t gone quite as planned for Torrence and his team. He started in third but had a first-round loss sandwiched around two quarterfinal appearances.<\/p>\n

Torrence has dropped to sixth while points leader and defending world champion Antron Brown has posted Countdown victories in Charlotte and at Maple Grove in Reading, Penn. Torrence had a strong run of 3.691 in a first-round win against eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher at Maple Grove, but consistency has been an issue in the playoffs. Despite that, a strong finish remains at the forefront of Torrence\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately the Countdown has not been favorable for us this year,\u201d said Torrence, who has seven career wins. \u201cWe\u2019ve just had small mistakes that have really cost us a lot and it\u2019s compounded. But we\u2019re still marching forward and we\u2019re going to do the best we can to finish strong in what has been our best season as a team and my best season as a driver. We\u2019re trying to finish out this season as strong as possible. We are out here to win and there\u2019s three races left to try to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last stretch of 2016 starts in Dallas and nothing would erase the Countdown slump more than a victory at the Texas Motorplex. Torrence\u2019s last win at the facility came in 2005 in a Top Alcohol Dragster, it was a victory that clinched him a championship. Trailing Brown by 163 points, a world title may not happen this year but a Dallas winner\u2019s circle celebration after his Top Fuel victory would be a strong consolation for Torrence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther than winning Indy, winning your home races are probably the highest on anybody\u2019s list, so it would be really special,\u201d Torrence said. \u201cYou get to see a lot of friends and family at this race and it would be incredible to win in front of them. I dang sure want to win and get one of those cowboy hats.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Funny Car, Worsham\u2019s win a year ago helped propel him to his first Funny Car world title. This year, Worsham currently sits in fifth with Capps in the points lead and Tommy Johnson Jr. just 24 points back in second after his victory at Maple Grove Raceway.<\/p>\n

Dominating the new era of Pro Stock are points leader Jason Line and his teammate Greg Anderson. Line has eight wins, including the Countdown opener, and Anderson has seven victories.<\/p>\n

Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Andrew Hines is after his third straight world title and has five wins in 2016, but teammate Eddie Krawiec has closed the gap to 38 points.<\/p>\n

The AAA Texas NHRA Nationals will also feature thrilling competition in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. As always, fans will have the opportunity to interact with their favorite drivers as they\u2019re granted an exclusive pit pass to the most powerful and sensory-filled motorsports attraction on the planet.<\/p>\n

Mello Yello Drag Racing Series qualifying will feature two rounds at 4:15 and 7:15 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14, and the final two rounds of qualifying on Saturday, Oct. 15, at 12:45 and 3:45 p.m. Final eliminations are scheduled for 11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 16.<\/p>\n

To purchase general-admission or reserved seats, call 800-668-6775. Tickets also are available online at www.texasmotorplex.com.\u00a0<\/a>; Kids 12 and under are free in general admission areas with a paid adult. For more info, visit www.NHRA.com.\u00a0<\/a>;<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

AAA TEXAS NHRA FALLNATIONALS<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

WHAT:<\/strong> 31st annual AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals, the 22nd of 24 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and the fourth of six races in the NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Drivers in four categories – Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle – earn points leading to 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world championships.<\/p>\n

WHERE:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Texas Motorplex, Ennis, Texas. The track is located at 7500 W. Highway 287.<\/p>\n

COURSE:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Championship drag strip; Track elevation is 500 feet above sea level; Track direction is southwest to northeast.<\/p>\n

WHEN:<\/strong> Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 13-16<\/p>\n

SCHEDULE:<\/strong>
\nTHURSDAY, Oct. 13 – LUCAS OIL SERIES qualifying<\/p>\n

FRIDAY, Oct. 14 – LUCAS OIL SERIES qualifying<\/p>\n

MELLO YELLO SERIES qualifying at 4:15 and 7:15 p.m.<\/p>\n

SATURDAY, Oct. 15 – LUCAS OIL SERIES eliminations<\/p>\n

MELLO YELLO SERIES qualifying at 12:45 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

SUNDAY, Oct. 16 – Pre-race ceremonies, 10 a.m.<\/p>\n

MELLO YELLO SERIES eliminations begin at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

TELEVISION:<\/strong>
\nFriday Oct. 14, FS1 will televise one hour of live qualifying coverage at 7:30 p.m. (ET).<\/p>\n

Saturday Oct. 15, FS1 will televise one hour of qualifying coverage at 8 p.m. (ET).<\/p>\n

Sunday, Oct. 16, FS1 will televise three hours of live finals coverage starting at 2 p.m. (ET).<\/p>\n

2015 EVENT WINNERS:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richie Crampton, Top Fuel; Del Worsham, Funny Car; Erica Enders, Pro Stock; Jerry Savoie, Pro Stock Motorcycle.<\/p>\n

MOST VICTORIES:<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Force, FC, 7; Tony Schumacher, TF, 6; Warren Johnson, PS, 5; Cruz Pedregon, FC, 4; Greg Anderson, PS, 4.<\/p>\n

TRACK RECORDS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top Fuel – 3.705 sec. by Richie Crampton, Oct. \u201915; 329.18 mph by Dave Connolly, Oct. \u201915<\/p>\n

Funny Car – 3.909 sec. and 326.32 mph by Jack Beckman, Oct. \u201915<\/p>\n

Pro Stock – 6.457 sec. and 214.59 mph by Greg Anderson, Oct. \u201915<\/p>\n

Pro Stock Motorcycle – 6.744 sec. and 198.99 mph by Jerry Savoie, Oct. \u201915<\/p>\n

NATIONAL RECORDS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top Fuel – 3.671 sec. by Steve Torrence, July \u201916, Sonoma, Calif.; 332.75 mph by Spencer Massey, Aug. \u201915, Brainerd, Minn.<\/p>\n

Funny Car – 3.822 by Matt Hagan, Aug. \u201916, Brainerd, Minn.; 335.57 mph by Hagan, May \u201916, Topeka, Kan.<\/p>\n

Pro Stock – 6.455 sec. by Jason Line, March ’15, Charlotte, N.C.;\u00a0 215.55 mph by Erica Enders, May \u201814, Englishtown N.J.<\/p>\n

PS Motorcycle – 6.728 sec. by Andrew Hines, Oct. \u201912, Reading, Pa.; 199.88 mph by Hector Arana Jr., March \u201915, Charlotte, N.C.<\/p>\n

TICKETS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

For tickets call (800) 668-6775. Tickets are also available at www.texasmotorplex.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

GLENDORA, Calif. \u2014 Points standings (top 10) following the 32nd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, the 21st of 24 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series –<\/p>\n

Top Fuel<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Antron Brown, 2,377; 2.\u00a0 Doug Kalitta, 2,300; 3.\u00a0 Brittany Force, 2,259; 4.\u00a0 Shawn Langdon, 2,258; 5.\u00a0 Tony Schumacher, 2,236; 6.\u00a0 Steve Torrence, 2,214; 7.\u00a0 Leah Pritchett, 2,188; 8.\u00a0 J.R. Todd, 2,183; 9.\u00a0 Richie Crampton, 2,159; 10.\u00a0 Clay Millican, 2,136.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Funny Car<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Ron Capps, 2,368; 2.\u00a0 Tommy Johnson Jr., 2,344; 3.\u00a0 Jack Beckman, 2,275; 4.\u00a0 Matt Hagan, 2,258; 5.\u00a0 Del Worsham, 2,246; 6.\u00a0 John Force, 2,230; 7.\u00a0 Tim Wilkerson, 2,196; 8.\u00a0 Robert Hight, 2,193; 9.\u00a0 Courtney Force, 2,182; 10.\u00a0 Alexis DeJoria, 2,099.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Pro Stock<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Jason Line, 2,389; 2.\u00a0 Greg Anderson, 2,344; 3.\u00a0 Vincent Nobile, 2,306; 4.\u00a0 Bo Butner, 2,256; 5.\u00a0 Shane Gray, 2,242; 6.\u00a0 Chris McGaha, 2,189; 7.\u00a0 Allen Johnson, 2,160; 8.\u00a0 Drew Skillman, 2,157; 9.\u00a0 Jeg Coughlin, 2,115; 10.\u00a0 Erica Enders, 2,104.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Pro Stock Motorcycle<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Andrew Hines, 2,341; 2.\u00a0 Eddie Krawiec, 2,303; 3.\u00a0 Angelle Sampey, 2,289; 4.\u00a0 Chip Ellis, 2,274; 5.\u00a0 Jerry Savoie, 2,271; 6.\u00a0 LE Tonglet, 2,215; 7.\u00a0 Cory Reed, 2,196; 8.\u00a0 Hector Arana, 2,159; 9.\u00a0 Matt Smith, 2,150; 10.\u00a0 Hector Arana Jr, 2,149.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Story and photos courtesy of the NHRA<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          ENNIS, Texas \u2013 It is easy for Steve Torrence to reminisce when he is in the staging lanes at the Texas Motorplex, the site of the 31st annual AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals, Oct. 13-16. The Top Fuel standout and Kilgore, Texas native grew up racing at the track just two hours from his house and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[4],"tags":[329,6,328],"class_list":["post-5703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhra","tag-aaa-texas-nhra-fall-nationals","tag-nhra","tag-texas-motorplex"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/221-SteveTorrence-Friday-Denver.jpg?fit=2200%2C1464&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-1tZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5707,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703\/revisions\/5707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}