Qualifying promise gave way to race day pain Sunday for four-time World Champion Steve Torrence who couldn’t capitalize on a No.1 start and fell to debuting rookie Ida Zetterstrom in the opening round of the 42nd Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.
It was a major disappointment for the 41-year-old Texan who, had he won the round, would have advanced to the semifinals unopposed due to a short field of dragsters.
“We had a big opportunity there to gain some ground and get some momentum, and we didn’t get it done,” said the 55-time tour winner and the only driver ever to have swept the races in the NHRA’s Countdown, which is upcoming after one more event.
“The car came back from the broken rear end in good shape, but the driver didn’t.”
The reference was to a rear end failure suffered by the CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel Toyota in the final round of Saturday’s Mission Food #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, a catastrophic event that necessitated a one-and-a-half hour clean-up operation by the NHRA Safety Safari and earned Torrence a points penalty.
“Just go back home with the girls and get ready for Indy (and the 70th Toyota U.S. Nationals),” he said of his plans. “I know these CAPCO boys will give me a car that can win. I think they’ve got a good handle on it, and I’ll fix the driver.”
It was a similarly disappointing day for Billy Torrence, who made four solid qualifying runs in the other CAPCO dragster, none worse than 3.777 seconds, only to lose traction in round one and slow to 8.055 seconds in a loss to eventual race winner Justin Ashley.
This story was originally published on August 19, 2024. 
