CLOSE-UP
Steve Torrence
I
One for the
Record Books
n becoming just the fifth driver in the 1,000-foot era of
NHRA Championship Drag Racing to eclipse the 3.70-second barrier, Steve Torrence set the national record with a monumental
3.671-second blast in front of a sellout crowd during Friday night qualifying at the 29th annual Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals. “You gotta
really hit the nail on the head to make a run like that,” says Torrence of
the record-setting effort produced by his Capco Contractors/Rio Ammunition Dragster tuned by Richard Hogan and Alan Johnson, which
included a .812-second sixty-foot and 2.937-second, 291.70mph eighth-
mile clocking. “When we made it to half-track I did the best I could to
keep it in the groove. When I looked up going through the lights and
pulled the ‘chutes and saw that sixty-something come on the board, I
just started hollering because I knew it was fast. It was the quickest I’ve
ever been. I jumped out of the car and I don’t even know what I said
down there.” Only one driver has gone quicker and that is Shawn Langdon who ran 3.662 on August 23rd, 2015 in Brainerd, but was unable to
provide a back-up run within one percent that would have secured the
record, a step no longer required for certification. – DAV E D E N S M O RDIE DI DI
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P H O T O G R A P H B Y N H R A / N AT I O N A L D R A G S T E R
98 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 112