Steve Torrence Battles to the Win in a Loaded 4-Wide Final

In 2017, Steve Torrence made a strong run at the NHRA Top Fuel world championship, ultimately falling just short of the title over the course of the Countdown to the Championship. His CAPCO-sponsored dragster found its way to the winner’s circle at 1/3rd of the season’s events, and so far this year he’s looking to pick up right where he left off, becoming the first repeat winner in the young 2018 season at the first ever 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas.

Torrence, who made waves and built a legion of fans by competing against the large corporate teams as a single-car operation did add a second car for the 2018 season. However, the other team car is also fly the CAPCO colors and will be driven on a limited schedule by Steve’s father, Billy Torrence, a longtime racer himself, which means the cars are still self-funded by the Torrence family’s contracting service.

Steve’s team, which consists of some of the most talented mechanics – and drivers, should Steve ever have to step out of the cockpit – pulled together and fought hard to get the car to go down the relatively hot Vegas track, finding their stride on Sunday to march through eliminations and face off with a trio of legitimate badasses in the final quad. Alongside Torrence in the final group to go down the newly-expanded track on Sunday was Doug Kalitta, who already has a win in 2018 as well, three time world champion Antron Brown, and the winningest driver in class history, Tony Schumacher. And the final quad proved to be exactly what the fans hoped for, with Torrence and Schumacher crossing the stripe just .008 of a second apart. Another tenth of a second saw Kalitta cross, then Brown, who’d driven into tiresmoke downtrack, followed another two tenths of a second later. It was a great win for the CAPCO team, who built on their points lead as the tour heads to their home state of Texas.