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<\/p>\nThere\u2019s a mythical Statute of Limitations that\u2019s about to run out on Steve Torrence\u2019s lone victory in the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, and before that happens, the 42-year-old Texan wants to flip the script and make his CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota relevant once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of times we\u2019ve had a car that could win the thing,\u201d Torrence said, \u201cbut it just didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most recent of those times was 2021 when he qualified No. 1, set the current Bristol Dragway track record (3.667 seconds) and reached the finals.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he lost to Mike Salinas, just as he had two years earlier.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s qualified at the top of the order three times in his last eight appearances, and his 20-12 elimination record suggests a far more extensive resume than what he has.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To put his frustration in perspective, consider that since he celebrated his only win at Thunder Valley, Torrence has won 51 times on other tracks in the Mission Food Series.\u00a0 Moreover, in the interim, he won four series titles and made drag racing history by becoming the only driver, regardless of category, to sweep the events in the NHRA\u2019s Countdown to the Championship (2018).<\/p>\n
The reality is that at no other track has he gone longer without a win than he has at Bristol.\u00a0 That might make it hard to remain optimistic, but not when you\u2019ve overcome as much as Torrence has, including childhood cancer and, in 2016, a mild heart attack.<\/p>\n
This year, his Bristol mantra is unchanged: \u201cIf we keep putting ourselves in position to win, we will.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The former Top Alcohol Dragster World Champion (2005) and only driver to win NHRA championships in both the Alcohol and Fuel classes returns to the track that has been his nemesis, trying to extend the longest active win streak in the Top Fuel class to 11 consecutive years.<\/p>\n
His latest Bristol bid will begin with nitro qualifying sessions at 5 and 7:30 p.m., Texas time, on Friday.\u00a0 Qualifying continues Saturday with sessions at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., Texas time.\u00a0Eliminations begin Sunday at 11 a.m., Texas time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on June 5, 2025. <\/p>\n
The post Torrence Ready to Flip the Script in Bristol<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a mythical Statute of Limitations that\u2019s about to run out on Steve Torrence\u2019s lone victory in the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, and before that happens, the 42-year-old Texan wants to flip the script and make his CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota relevant once again.\u00a0 \u201cLots of times we\u2019ve had a car that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}