Capco Racing/Tuttle Motorsports Top Fuel team

Torrence pleased with car’s performance despite

Close loss in first round of Winternationals     

Steve Torrence came oh, so close Sunday to starting NHRA’s Full Throttle Drag Racing Series with a round win.  He was a miniscule .005-second behind Doug Kalitta when his Capco Racing/Tuttle Motorsports Top Fuel dragster hit the finish line in the Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.

“I’ll take races like that any day,” said Torrence, “as long as I get to win sometime along the way.  We didn’t give it away . . . we just got outrun.”  His time was 3.831 seconds at 317.42 mph to Kalitta’s 3.830 at 318.92 and was the quickest of the round in the left (less preferred) lane.

“This was a good weekend considering we had a new car, I hadn’t been in the car since November, and we had to deal with cold, wet qualifying conditions.  The car ran very well and we got down the track on three of our four runs.”

Tuttle said the car was third-quickest in one of Saturday’s sessions and turned in the team’s quickest time to half-track and 1,000 feet.

“We’re looking forward to going to Gainesville (Fla., March 10-13) in a few weeks,” Torrence added, “and picking up where we left off.”