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<\/p>\nAlthough it\u2019s been three years since Steve Torrence last raised the trophy as World Champion, the 40-year-old driver of the CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota still believes he and his CAPCO boys have the wherewithal to add a few more titles to an already bulging trophy case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese CAPCO boys are still the best in the business,\u201d Torrence said on the eve of this week\u2019s 56th annual Amalie Gatornationals, the opening event in the 2025 Mission Foods Series. \u201cThey haven\u2019t lost anything. It\u2019s just that the competition is so much better than it was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had eight different winners last year and seven different No. 1 qualifiers,\u201d noted the man who seven years ago defied conventional wisdom when he swept the six races in the NHRA\u2019s Countdown to the Championship on the way to the first of four straight series titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no easy rounds,\u201d he said. \u201cOn race day, everybody has to be perfect and, even then, there\u2019s no guarantee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some disappointments over the last couple of seasons and we\u2019re coming off a seventh place finish,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I still feel like we\u2019ve got a lot of wins left in us and, after a couple months away, I think all of us are ready to get back after it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Gatornationals is a tough opener for the former Top Alcohol Dragster Champion, the only driver ever to win NHRA series titles in both Top Alcohol and Top Fuel. Notably, it is one of only three events in the series he has won but a single time in his pro career.<\/p>\n
That lone victory, in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, came at the wheel of a one-off \u201cBig Daddy\u201d Don Garlits tribute car, a win made the more special because Garlits was in the tow vehicle when Torrence beat his dad Billy in an all-CAPCO final round.<\/p>\n
Minus the Garlits\u2019 magic, Torrence was 8-10 in his first 10 appearances in the Florida classic and has gone 7-4 since his breakthrough, his best result a runner-up finish to Mike Salinas in 2023.<\/p>\n
Although he hasn\u2019t been as productive the last three seasons as he would\u2019ve liked, Torrence enters the current campaign having won at least one tour event for 10 straight years. That\u2019s the longest active streak in Top Fuel and second longest overall.<\/p>\n
Since the start of the 2017 season, no one has won more races (47) or appeared in more final rounds (66) than the man who, as a teenager, overcame Hodgkins lymphoma, and who, as an adult, battled back from a heart attack suffered after a particularly strenuous workout in 2016.<\/p>\n
Qualifying sessions for the Gatornationals are scheduled at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., Texas time, Friday. Torrence will open his bid for a second trophy in the Right Trailers All-Star Callout in a first round beginning at 11:15 a.m., Texas time, on Saturday. Subsequent rounds are scheduled for 1:20 and 2:30 p.m., Texas time. Sunday\u2019s single elimination finals in the Mission Foods series opener begin at 9:30 a.m., Texas time.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on March 5, 2025. ![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
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The post Steve Torrence Eyes Another Championship as 2025 Season Begins<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although it\u2019s been three years since Steve Torrence last raised the trophy as World Champion, the 40-year-old driver of the CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota still believes he and his CAPCO boys have the wherewithal to add a few more titles to an already bulging trophy case. \u201cThese CAPCO boys are still the best in […]<\/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-99296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99296","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=99296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}