Torrence, Capps, Anderson, Gadson Conquer Thunder Valley
Some races are really worth the wait. This past weekend’s 24th annual Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals on the Bristol Dragway dragstrip had its share of postponements, cancellations and downtime to frustrate anyone in the pits and the stands, but in the end, history was made for four winners: Top Fuel’s four-time champ Steve Torrence, three-time champ Ron Capps’ Funny Car, six-time Pro Stock champ Greg Anderson and Pro Stock Motorcycle’s previous designated runner-up, Richard Gadson.
For the Vance & Hines Motorsports Pro Stock Motorcycle (PSM) team, it was a weekend filled with highs. After a year and nearly half-season of racing, Richard Gadson finally took his Suzuki Hayabusa3 motorcycle to the Winner’s Circle. Gadson has a pair of Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victories to his credit but until the rain subsided Sunday evening and allowed the finals for all four categories to be run, he had not visited the Winner Circle.
Defeating teammate and two-time reigning titleholder Gaige Herrera with his magic .014 reaction time (Herrera’s hit was a none-too-shabby .032) on the quarter mile with a hole-shot 6.884/196.30 to Herrera’s 6.882/196.24 was an emotional trip for the second-year pro. “The first thing is, I’m exhausted,” Gadson revealed following his win. “This has been, hands down, the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done. I always knew I could do it. I really needed to win this for me. I had to dig deep and remind myself of what I’m capable of.
“In some ways, I feel like ‘Mr. Almost.’ I almost win. I almost won the Rookie of the Year… . I just needed to make sure I did everything right on my end. Today, the motorcycle is not an excuse. We have three of them. And they’re all really good!” Before this victory, Richard Gadson had four previous final round losses, and that had to bother him. Those included the four-wide race at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte earlier this season, but on Sunday, Gadson marched to the final round by beating Charles Poskey and Chase Van Sant; he had a bye in the quarterfinals.
Gadson’s victory complemented Herrera’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory on Saturday afternoon – his second of the season – and Brayden Davis, riding a V&H Suzuki that is a lease bike earned the No. 1 qualifier in just his second start in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Davis was class of the class on Friday night, was challenged by the usual suspects on Saturday and responded by lowering his ET on Saturday to run 6.834/197.59. Davis had a first-round bye, beat Matt Smith Racing’s Jianna Evaristo in the quarterfinals yet succumbed to Herrera in the semifinal match-up.
Despite a second-round loss, Matt Smith (Buell) is still second to Gaige Herrera in the points tally, with Gadson third, followed by Chase Van Sant’s WAR Suzuki, with Angie Smith (Buell), Steve Johnson (Suzuki), Jianna Evaristo and John Hall’s Buells, Chris Bostick’s Suzuki ad Marc Ingwersen’s Buell completing the t Pro Stock Motorcycle top 10.
In Pro Stock, the most successful racer in the door slammer class made some history of his own, as KB Titan Racing’s lead driver Greg Anderson became only the second drag racer in NHRA history to achieve 1,000 round wins, defeating Elite Motorsports’ David Cuadra in the third round of play. He now has 1,001 round wins after easily knocking out his teammate and regular foil Dallas Glenn, who fouled out on the Christmas Tree after winning the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge Saturday afternoon. There was some magic to Anderson’s achievement as Thunder Valley is the site of his first Pro Stock victory in 2001!
Celebrating his fourth victory of the 2025 campaign and 110th overall in Pro Stock, Anderson recorded his best run of the weekend at 6.623/205.91 in his Chevrolet Camaro. To meet Glenn in the finals, Anderson raced past Kenny Delco, Erica Enders and David Cuadra. “This is pretty magical. I think I could call it a day and ride off into the sunset,” he threatened, “but I’m having too much damn fun right now. Our team is firing on all eight cylinders and it’s been fun. I had no idea we were [approaching 1,000 round-wins]. I had no earthly idea. That’s a crazy number but I don’t think that way. I just think about that race,” which is likely why he’s such a prolific victor.
“I don’t plan for the future. I just want to win that race. Getting 1,000 round wins is big, but if I had lost the final this would have lost a bit of luster. I guess I’m overachieving because this is beyond everything I could ever imagine. I also love racing in Bristol,” Anderson confirmed. “Thunder Valley is so much fun. This track has a lot of personality. The bottom line is, you need challenges. My team seems to love them. The taller the challenge, the more they rise.”
As NHRA takes the Father’s Day weekend off, Greg Anderson has a yawing 67 points on Dallas Glenn, with KB Titan teammates, Matt Hartford, Cory Reed and Eric Latino third through fifth. Elite Motosports’ Aaron Stanfield is sixth, followed by KB Titan’s Deric Kramer, Elite’s Erica Enders and Jeg Coughlin, who’s tied for tenth with independent driver Mason McGaha, all driving Chevy Camaros.
The challenge of winning any race is huge, especially when it’s necessary to be the best motorcycle or car four times on Sunday. It’s been “close but no cigar” for three-time Funny Car titleholder Ron Capps and his Ron Capps Motorsports’ Toyota GR Supra team over the past couple of years, as it took Capps 33 races to snap a winless streak. He’s now the most successful NHRA racer at Bristol Dragway with eight victories, surpassing Top Fuel’s eight-time champ Tony Schumacher for the most wins in track history and joining 16-time Flopper champ John Force with eight wins at a single track.
Capps’ most recent victory before Sunday’s triumph came at the 2023 U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, where he and fellow single-car team owner Antron Brown collected the vaunted trophies. Capps and his Dean “Guido” Antonelli-led squad found their way to the Winner’s Circle Sunday night by defeating a former Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Matt Hagan driving a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for Tony Stewart Racing, Epping victor J.R. Todd’s Toyota GR Supra from Kalitta Motosports and SCAG Racing’s Dave Richards’ Ford Mustang.
In the rain-delayed final round, Capps achieved his best run of the weekend at 3.95/328.06 to defeat Phoenix first-time winner Paul Lee’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, who ran a close 3.96/306.88. “Any time you win, it feels good,” Capps acknowledged. “We were set back pretty good with the Phoenix ordeal,” where an engine explosion ruined his primary Supra. “A new car’s being built, but what I love about Guido is, he had our backup car ready to run. We pulled it out four days later in Pomona and went to No. 1 qualifier. I love how organized he is and how much he looks ahead. I love that he can throw down that 3.95 after the rain, not having lane choice.”
In 2022, Ron Capps and his eponymous team earned Toyota’s first-ever Funny Car victory at Bristol. “We want to give them as many wins as we can going out this year. They’ve been an unbelievable partner. We doubled up for Toyota [today] with Steve (Torrence, the Top Fuel victor). So we will celebrate for a couple of days, then put it away because we’ve got to get ready” for Richmond, the halfway mark in this year’s 20-race calendar. Sunday was Dean “Guido” Antonelli’s wedding anniversary, making the win doubly satisfying for Capps’ crew chief. The California racer hasn’t been driving under the radar, as Sunday was his ninth final-round appearance since that Indy win in 2023.
With his Sunday win, Ron Capps moved one spot in the standings from fifth to fourth. He’s still 100 points behind leader Austin Prock in his John Force Racing Chevrolet SS, who’s hounded by Paul Lee’s Charger, teammate Jack Beckman in his Chevy SS, Capps, Matt Hagan, J.R. Todd, Daniel Wikerson’s and Chad Green’s Ford Mustangs, Alexis DeJoria’s and Cruz Pedregon’s Chargers.
While two-time 2025 Top Fuel winner Tony Stewart pretty much owned Bristol Dragway on Friday and Saturday, earning his first No. 1 qualifier and the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory for the first time, the multi-series champion came back to Earth on Sunday, when he was defeated in the third round of play by eventual race winner Steve Torrence. The four-time dragster champ, who isn’t racing every contest on the tour this year, used the left lane to his advantage Sunday night to take a relatively easy win over Justin Ashley. Ashley was first off the line but went up in smoke even before the 60-foot mark. While Torrence lost traction down the 1,000-foot track, he was able to hold on for his 56th Wally in the class.
Torrence, too has been on the wrong side of the win column for nearly a year; his most recent victory came last July in Seattle. While he’s been competitive to this point, finding the big W hasn’t been easy of the Texan and his team. On Sunday Torrence swept past Dan Mercier, local Clay Millican and Stewart to meet Ashley in the final round. “First and foremost,” he said after hoisting his trophy, “this is the week before Father’s Day and I have two beautiful girls, so that’s really special to me. My little girl was born in 2021 and that was kind of the end of our reign,” atop the Top Fuel standings, “and I didn’t want her to think that I used to be good.
“This was a tough day,” Torrence noted. “The conditions were really tricky and I knew I had to be consistent and do my job. I haven’t won since Seattle. We’re trying to get better and make a better mouse trap, but you stay with the girl you brought to the dance. That’s the deal with [crew chiefs] Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana. That’s a testament to their ability to read the track.” With his Sunday victory, Torrence became a two-time Bristol winner; he earned his first Wally trophy at the track in 2013!
Tony Stewart remains atop the dragster points tally, followed by Kalitta Motorsports’ Shawn Langdon, Antron Brown, Ashley, Doug Kalitta, John Force Racing’s Brittany Force, Torrence, Clay Millican, Josh Hart (who snagged a needed round win in Bristol) and Shawn Reed.
In other news, Julie Nataas’ Funny Car debut was a grand success as she became the 11th woman in NHRA history to qualify for a Funny Car field and then turned on her first win light against John Force Racing’s Jack Beckman, who lost traction early in their first-round matchup, while Nataas kept her DC Motorsports Toyota GR Supra straight down the groove. “Getting that first round win in my first race was huge for us, and I know there’s more to come.” Nataas will be back in Del and Connie Worsham’s Toyota at Norwalk the end of June.
NHRA takes the Father’s Day weekend off before traveling to Richmond, Virginia for the newly named fifth annual American Rebel Light Virginia NHRA Nationals, which will take place June 20-22.