Steve Torrence, the independent top fuel owner/driver from Kilgore, Texas, is the defending division winner at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals, and suspects he’ll be fast in Friday’s first qualifying session at Bandimere Speedway.
“It gives you confidence coming back into this race, knowing you nailed the tune-up pretty good last year,” Torrence said Wednesday from the National Hot Rod Association news conference at Elway’s in Cherry Creek. “This place is so drastically different than anywhere else we go throughout the season. So once you figure out that tune-up out in these conditions it makes you feel good. I know we’ll have a good handle on it.”
Torrence has two event wins this season and stands third in the points behind Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta. Torrence, 33, won his only race in 2015 at Bandimere, but was runner-up twice.
Footnotes. Fox’s national broadcast of Sunday’s eliminations begins at 1 p.m., the same time NBC Sports Network airs NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fox’s effort will be the first live NHRA national broadcast in series history. … The Mile-High Nationals begins the three-race, consecutive weekend stretch known as the “Western Swing,” with team haulers traveling from race to race without returning home for supplies. After Bandimere, the series heads to Sonoma, Calif., then Seattle. Only seven drivers have swept the swing. John Force is the lone one in Funny Car, back in 1994. The others: pro stock’s Greg Anderson (2004) and top fuel’s Joe Amato (1991), Cory McClenathan (1997), Larry Dixon (2003), Tony Schumacher (2008) and Brown (2009).
