BAYTOWN, TX – April 24, 2022 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Four-time defending Top Fuel world champion Steve Torrence closed out qualifying in style on Saturday at Houston Raceway Park, vaulting past Brittany Force to claim the No. 1 spot at the final NHRA SpringNationals.
Ron Capps (Funny Car), Camrie Caruso (Pro Stock) and Karen Stoffer (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also qualified No. 1 at the fifth of 22 races during the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season and the final appearance at Houston Raceway Park.
The Texan powered his way to the top with an impressive run of 3.693-seconds at 323.66 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Capco Contractors dragster, handing the points leader his first No. 1 of the season and 32nd in his career. With four different Top Fuel winners through four races, Torrence will try to become the fifth on Sunday to close out NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series action at Houston Raceway Park. He’ll open eliminations against Buddy Hull, feeling good about his chances after a pair of strong runs in front of a huge crowd on Saturday.
“To go low E.T. of the round on that first run of the day was a huge confidence-booster,” Torrence said. “Only a couple of cars went down the track, so when you can do that, that’s a confidence booster. Going into the final session, (crew chiefs) Bobby (Lagana) and Richard (Hogan) said they were going to try to step it up a little bit. It went out and ran well. I knew we could have a good pass, but I didn’t know if it would be enough to go to the top. To go No. 1, that was great for us. Tomorrow is anyone’s game, but I think we’ve got a pretty good shot at it.”
Friday’s provisional No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force, who ran 3.695 at a track-record 333.58 a night ago, got bumped to the second spot after Torrence’s impressive blast, while Doug Kalitta took the third position thanks to his 3.696 at 328.70. In all, 14 dragsters ran in the 3.60s or 3.70s during qualifying in…
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