Thursday, January 26, 2012

Steve Torrence, Hogan accomplish testing goals; get ready for new season


January in Palm Beach, Fla. is a time when the warm weather lures many visitors who have escaped the much colder temperatures in the Northern states.

Basking in the sun, however, wasn’t on the minds of Steve Torrence and the Torrence Racing/Capco Contractors Inc. Top Fuel team on their recent trip to Palm Beach International Raceway. This visit was strictly for business.

Torrence joined many of his peers for the only pre-season test and tune. While some of them were concentrating on going quicker and faster during the sessions, Torrence and crew chief Richard Hogan preferred to use the track time more as an important rehearsal for the fast-approaching O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, Calif.

It will be the fourth race for the Torrence Racing/Capco Contractors Inc. team since its September debut at Dallas and the first for the full crew.

“We wanted to concentrate on getting the new guys working well together under race-track conditions,” said Torrence. “Richard had the car running well, and overall, everything went fairly well.

“I have confidence in the car, Richard, and the crew. We started slowly but things got better with each run, and we were able to collect a lot of data during testing.”

Hogan, meanwhile, said it was “business as usual. We got our new car ready to race and the guys did a good job. They headed back to Brownsburg (Ind., to their shop) to get ready for the Pomona trip.”

Torrence used his seat time to get reacquainted with driving the 8,000-horsepower racing machine. “It felt good,” he reported. “I was glad to be back in the car. It had been a while since I was in it.”

The next time will be Feb. 9 when the curtain goes up for the 23-race 2012 Full Throttle Racing Series.

No comments:

Post a Comment