Photos by Mike Burghardt, NHRA
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – TORRENCE KEEPS IT REAL, PAUL LEE CONTINUES TO MAKE HIS MARK
1 – THE DEFINITION OF FUN – Steve Torrence didn’t sound like himself when he exited his CAPCO dragster after driving to the provisional No. 1 spot in Friday’s qualifying.
Torrence, who declared he wasn’t running a full schedule after sitting out the NHRA Arizona Nationals, made an impactful statement after running 3.840 seconds at 320.81 mph. He was one of just two drivers to run in the 3.80s on the first day of qualifying.
“Yeah, the car’s running good,” Torrence said in his top-end interview. “The car ran good in Pomona, the driver did terrible, but we got to get back to zero where we’re enjoying what we’re doing. And this is fun again because when you come out here and you don’t have a good time and you argue with this guy and you argue with that guy and it’s just an uphill battle to put on a good show for all these great fans and you have such a good team like what we have, we need to readjust and make this fun and try to put on a good show.
“And that’s what we’re working on. So we’ll continue to come and hang out and have a good time racing as long as we’re enjoying it. And if not, we’ll stay at home. And I got two little girls and a whole business to take care of.”
Torrence, who has accomplished admittedly more than he believed he ever would in drag racing, clarified his statement further in Friday’s press conference.
“Winning is by far the most fun,” Torrence was asked of his definition of fun. “Sometimes even when you’re winning, it isn’t fun, you know? You got other things that are going on and … The inside of me is still the same, but I’m a different guy. I got a family. I got two little girls that I really enjoy hanging out with, my wife I really enjoy hanging out with. And sometimes you just don’t want to get on that airplane and go to the racetrack because it’s more fun to be at home with your family.
“And I think that’s just part of growing up and being a little more mature and realizing the priorities in your life are not exactly the same as they were four years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, whatever.
“Because there was one point in my life where nothing mattered other than winning a championship. And when you get there, it’s like, ‘Okay, well, we’re here, so we got to do it again.’
“And when you get in the mindset of winning the round, winning the race, it’s, ‘Okay, well, we just did that, but that’s what we were supposed to do. And now it’s not about that anymore.’
“When you cross the finish line in the final, you’re thinking about the next race. That’s what drove me, you know? And I still enjoy that. I still enjoy the thrill of competition and everything that comes along with it, because it makes you get up. But it also kind of changes that … I don’t want to go there every weekend and do that every weekend. I’d rather watch my little girl grow up. Because I read a quote the other day and it said, ‘You will know your children as adults much more of your life than you know them as kids.’
“And so you need to enjoy that. So it just kind of struck a note with me. I have a hard time adjusting to not getting in the race car every single weekend – which, we’ve only skipped one race, but I know at some point I’ll have a hard time adjusting to that. Because … that’s what I’ve done forever. Maybe that’s not the answer, but right now I just want to enjoy all the time that I can with them, with my family, and make this fun again. Because if this is too much of a job, it’s not fun. I have a job at home every day. You know, I go to work, go racing on Friday, I’m back at work on Monday.
“So no complaints, just kind of priorities changing a little bit.”
2 – PAUL LEE CONTINUES TO SHINE – News flash: Paul Lee is no longer one of the best-kept secrets in drag racing.
Lee showed his team is more than capable of running in the heat, pulling off a strong run of 3.940 at 326.08 in his McLeod/FTI Performance Dodge Charger SRT. Lee continues to perform at a high level, in line for his second career No. 1 qualifier just two races after winning his first career Funny Car race in Phoenix.
“I was pretty impressed,” Lee said. “I mean 135 degrees (track temp). We were hoping to run like a high 3.93. Jonnie, he’s an aggressive guy, and I think he thought it could hold a little bit more and he put some extra nuts on the clutch and it went and it helped the motor. … It was close to the limit because it chattered pretty good. It tried to break the tires loose, but it chattered a little bit, and it just didn’t get off of it, it just kept going and it cleared.”
Lee is off to his best start since entering the fuel Funny Car division, and those who know his drive and determination to succeed shouldn’t be surprised with his early season success.
“It’s been my plan since the beginning,” Lee said. “Since I started this team, the goal was to be a top-five car and compete for a championship. Whether we win or not, that’s out of my control, but the goal was to be a top-five car, and it’s taken five years and it takes the right people, the parts, pieces, people and the budget. And this year we have all of it, so, yes, we’re all in this here.”
3 – GREG ANDERSON’S WORLD – It’s good to be Greg Anderson these days.
Anderson scored the No. 1 position Friday with a 6.637 at 205.32 mph in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro. Anderson is after his third No. 1 qualifier in four races and has won two consecutive races. He’s on track to contend for a third as he’s enjoying one of the best recent stretches in his standout career.
Even Anderson had to admit it is good to be the winningest driver in the class.
“I’m a fortunate man,” Anderson said. “I surrounded myself with great people, and they make me look good. I try not to screw it up every time I get in that car, but they make me look good. And the team is great right now. The team is absolutely operating at a very high level. And very proud of them top to bottom, from the engine guys to the car guys, to shop guys that work at the shop. Everybody’s doing a great job. It’s fun racing right now. We’re having a lot of fun.”
As much fun as he’s having, Anderson had to chuckle a bit in the Q2 session when his team got a tad bit too aggressive, and he rattled the tires and aborted the run.
“It was being too aggressive with the clutch,” Anderson said. “Having too much clutch and heavy gear. You have to run a lot of gear ratio here because you have a horrible correction run … today. So you really don’t have any power. The racetrack is a little bit uphill. You got a hot racetrack, so you have to give it as much gear to make the motor think it’s got power. We just missed on the clutch. You got to get the clutch right. If you miss the clutch, you’ll do what I just did.”
4 – IT GETS REAL FOR GORDON – If it wasn’t apparent just how volatile of a racing world Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Maddi Gordon was about to enter as the newly announced Top Fuel driver for Ron Capps, it became real when she warmed up her new boss’ car Friday in Vegas.
“That was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” Gordon said, with a look on her face that she had just strapped herself to a rocket and flown to the moon.
“The cackle just rumbles. I don’t even know how to explain it. And it was cool because the cockpit is always similar to my car. So the brakes are in the same spot, clutch, all that stuff. So I can feel a difference. The clutch has a long throw on it compared to my car. The brake is a push brake instead of a pull. So, some small differences there, but it is just amazing. It’s the coolest thing. I could get used to that for sure.”
Gordon admits her first fuel warm-up was much better than the initial time she warmed up her dad Doug’s alcohol car.
“I warmed up the alcohol car for the first time in 2023 at the Phoenix Regional,” she said. “I’ll tell you what, it didn’t really go as smooth as I was hoping for. I had trouble getting in reverse. Actually, my papa wasn’t really impressed with my performance. He just expected me to get in and just do perfect, and I didn’t. But I learned and they taught me and I got better.”
So how did she do this time?
“You’ll have to ask Guido about that,” she said of the team’s crew chief.
5 – A WIN OF DESTINY – Clay Millican admits his Pomona win wasn’t the prettiest one he’s ever had, but it was awesome. As he sees it, there are no ugly wins, just wins.
“Looking back on it, it was an awesome day,” Millican said. “For me, behind the wheel, I had a day. I had a day. I put it in golf terms several times. That’s like winning a major. But let’s put it in terms of people that can’t play golf like you and me, but you go to the golf course one day, and it’s like, ‘Dang, I hit the ball, and it went straight. Dang, I made a putt, and it went in.’
“That’s what happened. I mean, I killed the tree. We won on a holeshot, we went on a pedal job, and I had a day. I wish I had them all the time.”
If Millican had his druthers, every race win would be like Pomona. His new teammate, Tony Schumacher, the winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history, offered Millican sage advice.
“I told him that’s how I’d like to win every race, and he responded, ‘That’s what makes those days special when you made a difference for the team.’
“Typically, a driver obviously wants to do his job, but typically, it’s because you did something wrong, and people may not even know it. You might’ve got a half a tire out of the groove, and it smoked the tires, so it’s your fault. So, a lot of times, it’s just low ET gets the win. But it’s fun for a driver when you can look at it and go, ‘Hey, I had something to do with it today.’”
6 – ALL IN THE FAMILY – The Force and Rahal brands represent a motorsports powerhouse, and they will be displayed on two of the three John Force Racing cars this weekend. Brittany Force and Jack Beckman are decked out in the red, white, and black branding of Graham Rahal Performance [GRP], a custom-tuning and performance parts shop catering to cars and owners of every shape, size, and interest.
Well, it doesn’t hurt that the Rahal and Force names are related. Force’s daughter Courtney is married to Rahal.
“I’m excited about the partnership with GRP as a primary sponsor in Las Vegas and as an associate sponsor for the remainder of the season,” Brittany Force said. “Graham Rahal is my brother-in-law, so to be teamed up with family is very meaningful to me. This is a unique way to connect IndyCar with drag racing; two motorsports that are different but similar at the same time.”
Rahal, who competes in the NTT Indy Car Series for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, founded GRP in 2017 and has expanded its scope each year.
“This partnership fires me up,” said John Force, winner of a record 157 NHRA tour events and 16 championships. “Graham’s not just family, he’s a racer, a businessman, and someone who lives and breathes performance.”
7 – THE LESSONS OF HUNTER GREEN – Hunter Green, son of NHRA Gatornationals Funny Car champion Chad Green, admitted one of the most interesting things of his three-second run in Friday’s Q1 session was not ending up fourth-quickest provisionally in his professional debut. It was the amount of clutch dust swirling around inside the cockpit.
Lesson No. 1 for the rookie Funny Car driver: clutch dust is normal for floppers and not A/Fuel Dragsters.
“That’s not something I’m used to,” Green admitted. “And according to my dad and Blake, it’s inconsistent. Sometimes, it can throw a lot of clutch dust, sometimes, it won’t. Most of the test runs I made didn’t put out a lot of clutch dust, but here I am in my first round of competition, and it was an absurd amount that I had to look through while I was driving, which is something I’ll adapt to. It’s no big deal.”
Lesson No. 2: There’s a reason why most Funny Car drivers don’t have a white firesuit like the one he brought with him from Top Alcohol Dragster.
“It’s already not white anymore,” Green said. “They warned me. I just haven’t gotten around to getting a new suit yet.”
Lesson No. 3: The first run in a Funny Car, especially in a four-wide configuration, can go beyond being a rush.
“Extremely intimidating,” Green said. “Just to be in this category at the professional level, a lot more eyeballs on you – at least it feels like there is. And driving one of the most violent cars in the world, one of the fastest cars in the world, it’s intimidating. It’s still going to be intimidating. It’s probably going to be that way for a while. I mean, in Top Alcohol, I didn’t really feel like I was one with the car and comfortable with the car until two-and-a-half years in. I don’t think it’ll take that long for this since I’ve been driving Top Alcohol for the last three years, so that’s still 280 miles-an-hour car. So I don’t know. We’ll see. That definitely gave me confidence that first run, though.”
8 – NEW GIG, NEW ROLE — Blake Alexander is in Las Vegas but not getting himself covered in clutch dust … at least not from inside the car.
Alexander is splitting time this year with Hunter Green, racing the second Mustang Funny Car for Chad Green Motorsports. In just his fourth race as a member of the team, Alexander says he’s having a good time.
“I enjoy working here a lot,” Alexander said. “It’s a lot of fun to work with a 32-year-old crew chief, and I feel like Matt (Bynum) and I get along well and work well together, and all the guys work really well together, and that’s all that really matters.”
When picking which race he runs and when Hunter drives, it’s a strategic schedule to benefit Pronto Auto Parts, Schaeffler, and his myriad associate sponsors. Right now, his schedule is 15 races.
“That was always kind of the plan when we built this team, which was to provide value to Chad’s investment into the sport as he takes the next step,” Alexander said. “I feel like he’s pretty happy with it, and I’m pretty happy with it. And Hunter’s also enjoying working with us and learning a lot on the fly.”
Alexander is perfectly fine with holding the role of mentor/advisor, although that’s not exactly what he describes himself as doing.
“I try to keep everyone together, working and pulling the rope in the same direction,” Alexander explained. If I titled myself, I would say I’m an associate crew chief, but really, I’m trying to learn as much as I can from Matt and all the guys out here. Every year I come out here, I try to learn as much as possible.”
Hunter did just fine, running one of the few three-second passes in the heat of a challenging Q1 session.
“I didn’t need to help him too much because he knows what he’s doing, but simultaneously, whenever you make your first run in competition, there’s some stuff you tell people right before they hit the gas, so I was proud of him. I knew he was going to do okay, and he and his dad and I are close, and we talked this week about it. It was a good convo. We were confident coming in here that it would go okay.
“I always tell my wife that I was more excited standing out of the car watching him than I’ve made a lot of runs, kind of get the picture, and I never really did this to have people know who I am or any of that. I just liked the cars and thought they were cool, so this is an extension of that. And I really kind of enjoy getting to understand the way the guys on the crew. I don’t know, I can just be with them more and ask more questions and be more ied when I’m not doing the other stuff.”
9 – BEATING UP ON DAD, LATINO STYLE – Matt Latino chuckles at the notion that beating his much more experienced drag racing father, Eric Latino, at Pomona two weeks ago amounted to elder abuse. He not only left on Eric, but also beat him to the finish line.
“Well, that’s an interesting way to put it,” Latino said with a laugh. “I knew that it was going to have to be on a holeshot if I was going to take my dad down, so that’s exactly what happened. I went .018 to his .052 (reaction time), which was a decent light for him as well. I put .04 in the bank on the starting line. He had .03 in ET and it just wasn’t enough. There’s no favorite. Obviously, it was unfortunate that one of us had to go home following round one, but if anyone was going to win, I was going to make sure it was me.”
As far as Latino sees it, racing against his dad in his first-ever race was a dream come true.
“I think it’s the coolest thing ever,” Latino said. “Some people were disappointed about it, mostly my mom. What lane do I stand in? Who should I watch? It was, of course, like I said, disappointing that one of us had to go home. But it’s a story that I can tell forever, and it’s a moment that I will never forget. My first-ever round of competition, and it was against my dad. I’ve looked at my dad as a role model growing up all my life, and here I am racing him and then also getting to the end first. That’s pretty cool.”
So, who did his mother Sue cheer for? As Latino described it, both.
“Mom stood right in the middle,” Latino said. “(NHRA) let her stand in the middle. They made an exception. She was shocked (I won). I actually have a video of my mom just with her hand over her mouth, just in awe about the results.”
Knowing her son, the win might not have been much of a total surprise considering how focused he can get in tasks. It was something ingrained in him since childhood.
“How do I stay focused in Vegas?” Latino offered. “We avoid distractions. I got my own hotel away from all the other guys I know. If I saw a group of guys at the tables, I’d probably want to join them and hang out with them. So I got my own hotel at Fremont, which is closer to the strip. I decided to play some dollar blackjack, keep it safe. I told the dealer, I said, ‘At 8:45, you let me know what time it is because that’s when I’m going to get up and leave. I’ve got to be fed and in bed by 10:30.’
“And that’s exactly what I did. I left, got some $15.99 prime rib, and I was in bed by 10:30. Lights out.”
10 – BRANDON FOSTER: THE SMOOTH OPERATOR – Pro Stock racer Brandon Foster admits he had the best training vehicle for racing, which is one of the most competitive professional categories. He laughs but is very serious that driving a Caterpillar 600 with an 18-speed transmission, was all he needed to prepare for a five-speed Liberty in his Chevrolet Camaro.
“You got to actually have technique and know how to drive,” Foster admitted. “It took me about 20 runs in a Pro Stocker to feel like I had the hang of it.”
The hang of it came from hundreds of thousands of miles in a big truck and a season of racing in Super Gas, neither of which are natural progressions to Pro Stock.
“It’s a challenging class to race,” said Foster, who runs Elite horsepower tuned by Jim and Jamie Yates. “You just don’t point and hold on. You got to actually have a reaction time and be on your toes.”
Foster believes that when drag racing fans get caught up in the criticism of the class being dominated by Camaros, they miss out on the significant aspect of the class; the difficulty in racing Pro Stock.
“I challenge them to get in it. Try it out,” Foster said.
Jim Yates, a past NHRA Pro Stock champion, says to throw out his role as a crew chief and take his word as someone who raced Pro Stock.
As Yates sees it, Foster is the real deal.
“He’s come on so quickly, but I tell him, I said, ‘You’re an athlete,’ when you watch him drive the car, and I tell him he’s an athlete,” Yates said. “You got to be an athlete. You got to take it like an athlete. We talked about that several years ago when he was talking about doing this. You have to be in shape, you have to work out, and you have your mind focused. And when he gets in the car, he’s a rookie … but he’s so focused in the car. When he drives, it looks really nice on the (computer) graph, and he doesn’t lose his cool.
“That’s the good part because it’s frustrating sometimes when you’re just starting off, and when you make a mistake, you just got to take a deep breath and go back at it again. … He’s got a good reset button. If something goes wrong, just resets, he goes right back out and does it right the next time.”
