Steve Torrence, Dexter Tuttle geared up for NHRA’s season opener

Steve Torrence admitted to being a little apprehensive Thursday before he made his first Top Fuel run in 102 days, but it didn’t last long. 

When he hammered the throttle on the new Capco Racing/Torrence Motorsports dragster, it sped down the 1,000-foot track in 3.871 seconds at 315.12 mph, putting him No. 8 after the opening day of NHRA’s Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals at Pomona, Calif.

“I didn’t even sit in the car until this morning,” said a smiling Torrence.  “The run was perfect.  I had faith in my (crew) guys and they did great job getting everything to work well.

“Getting a new race car is a lot like getting a new car.  The new car is always different.  We have three more runs for me to get comfortable in the car and the guys will be tweaking the tune-up to make us run better.”

His second qualifying run comes Friday afternoon.