{"id":23957,"date":"2016-02-16T10:06:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T18:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=23957"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:37:46","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:37:46","slug":"2016-nhra-winternationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/2016-nhra-winternationals\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 NHRA Winternationals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2016<\/a>
Photos: NHRA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You could feel the excitement building up to this year\u2019s 56th<\/sup> annual Circle K Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. Besides the great sunny weather and a capacity crowd, this season is bringing with it a new TV package with FOX Sports, giving the sport of drag racing an all-time important optimism that hasn\u2019t been felt in years.<\/p>\n

The race saw some familiar faces in the winner\u2019s circle with Steve Torrence kicking off the Top Fuel season with a win.\u00a0 Ron Capps was smiling all the way to the winner\u2019s circle, adding to his impressive win list in the Funny Car category and Greg Anderson led the pack in the all KB Racing Pro Stock finals against his teammate on this Valentine\u2019s Day Sunday.<\/p>\n

TOP FUEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a Texas-sized celebration for Steve Torrence at a track on which he has had little previous success. Torrence ended up winning the Winternationals on Sunday for the sixth victory of his professional career, dedicating the win to his mom and girlfriend from Sunday\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day victory podium at Pomona.<\/p>\n

Torrence started the race from the No. 1 spot, setting a personal best time of 3.703 seconds in qualifying, his sixth pole of his career, taking down Steve Faria, Morgan Lucas, and Richie Crampton is a close race in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

It was in the championship round against Doug Kalitta that gave the Capco driver a winning margin of .004 of a second by outdistancing his opponent with a time of 3.735 seconds, 326.48 mph to Kalitta\u2019s time of 3.753 seconds, 324.36 mph narrowly taking the win.<\/p>\n

It marked the first time that Torrence\u2019s mom, Kay, was at a race that he won and on this Valentine\u2019s Day couldn\u2019t imagine a better gift than a Pomona \u2018Wally\u2019 for his sweethearts.<\/p>\n

As the winner of the race, Torrence is now the current Top Fuel points leader for the first time in his career leading Kalitta by 32 points with the next race in two weeks in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy guys worked their butts off all winter to get us ready and all weekend they were perfect,\u201d Torrence said driving a newly engineered Morgan Lucas Racing chassis.\u00a0 \u201cI just tried to do my job and not screw it up.\u00a0 They deserve all the credit but I\u2019ll tell you, it was a good weekend to be Steve Torrence and a great way to start our new marketing relationship with Rio Ammunition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2005 Alcohol Dragster World champion also gave credit to his crew chief, Richard Hogan, car chief Bobby Lagana and their performance consultant, Alan Johnson on winning in their 2016 initial outing.\u00a0 Under bright sunny California skies, it was their job to negotiate Torrence through the Top Fuel maize and onto victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlan and Richard have worked really well together,\u201d said Torrence. \u00a0\u201cAlan is that thorn who keeps poking Richard to tune it just a little bit farther. \u00a0It feels good. \u00a0I wish the season was over already. \u00a0We are going to do what we can to keep the momentum going and go on to Phoenix and try to write a story just like this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about his new informal alliance he has with the team of rival Brittany Force, for whom Alan Johnson is also a consultant.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you can go to a track and get twice as much data, that\u2019s a big advantage,\u201d said the 32-year old Torrence. \u00a0\u201cEspecially when you\u2019re racing against all these multi-car teams.\u00a0 I think sharing data with Brittany is going to mutually beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

FUNNY CAR<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Ron<\/a><\/p>\n

In the 2016 version of legendary Southern California Funny Car drag racers that are quickly becoming household names like their predecessors before them of Don Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein, Ron Capps of nearby Vista squared off with defending Funny Car champ, Del Worsham of Chino Hills in the finals of Sunday\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day Circle K Winternationals at Pomona Raceway.<\/p>\n

Cruising in his NAPA Dodge to his 45th<\/sup> career victory on his own driving ability, Capps mastered the 1,000 feet distance in the finals.\u00a0 He won with a slower time, but better reaction driving to 3.981 seconds, 324.28 mph in winning on the slightest of hole shots, beating Worsham at the line by .0008\u2013ten thousandths of a second (5 inches) to Worsham\u2019s time of 3.962 seconds, 324.36 mph.<\/p>\n

Capps grabbed the No. 2 starting position and was consistent all weekend, putting together a string of seven of their eight runs in the 3-second zone including all four in qualifying.<\/p>\n

“I have the best team in the business, and they gave me a great racecar,” said a grinning Capps in the press box. \u00a0\u201cAll four runs in the 3s in qualifying, I don’t think anyone else did that. \u00a0I knew we had a good race car. \u00a0Tobler and I have grown so much together. \u00a0It’s like a marriage. \u00a0He really keeps me in line on race day. \u00a0We had a heckuva day. \u00a0This is the most fabled track we go to and it\u2019s the birthplace of drag racing; it is unbelievable to win here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He marched through eliminations defeating Jeff Diehl, Chad Head, and had to escape the strong run of Robert Hight\u2019s Chevy in a tight race of 3.938 seconds to a time of 3.949 seconds to avoid getting beat in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Capps wasn\u2019t the only one in the NAPA camp with something to say on this Sunday.\u00a0\u00a0 As a tremendous NASCAR fan he discovered, his NAPA teammate over there, Chase Elliott, now the driver of the famed No. 24 Chevrolet, had won the pole position for next weekend\u2019s Daytona 500.\u00a0 That was all the inspiration Capps needed to get his crew chief, Rahn Tobler, his 50th<\/sup> win behind the wrenches grabbing his own headlines on the opposite coast taking drag racing\u2019s season opener.<\/p>\n

PRO STOCK<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/a><\/p>\n

In the most anticipated professional category to be witnessed in the season opening Circle K Winternationals, the Pro Stock division didn\u2019t disappoint, seeing KB Racing\u2019s Greg Anderson capturing the historic first win of the electronic fuel injection (EFI) era of the NHRA\u2019s new look and approach to an otherwise named category as the \u2018Factory Hot Rods\u2019.<\/p>\n

Anderson led the way from start to finish, taking the No. 1 low ET qualifier with a run of 6.585 seconds, which led to him defeating Matt Hartford, a red-lighting Jeg Coughlin and Drew Skillman before looking across the lane only to find his own KB Racing teammate Jason Line against him in the finals.\u00a0 It signified the 25th<\/sup> time the Summit Racing teammates have met in the final round of competition, marking Anderson\u2019s 79th<\/sup> overall Pro Stock win.<\/p>\n

On this day, it was Anderson scoring the win on a holeshot against Line\u2019s time of 6.609 seconds to Anderson\u2019s 6.617 pass with a margin of victory of only .0101 of a second earning KB Racing\u2019s third consecutive Winternationals win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels awesome,\u201d said Anderson, who recorded his sixth career victory at Auto Club Raceway. \u00a0\u201cIt was a fantastic team effort. \u00a0Things just went so well all weekend and I felt so confident all day until the final round. \u00a0I felt like the underdog there in the final. \u00a0Apparently, it was my day; the sun is shining on me.<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is on a steep learning curve right now and we got the jump on everybody, but I can guarantee that all the competitors in our class are not happy.\u00a0 They are going home and going to work hard, and it will be a new ballgame at Phoenix. \u00a0We’re also going to have to buckle down and find something better again. \u00a0That’s the beauty of a new challenge. There is room to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues Feb. 26-28 at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2016 NHRA Winternationals got the season off to a great start.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,17,3470,3399,22],"tags":[3815,4063,606,79,511,1972,887,512,4065,83,4066,179,608,440,4064,1942],"class_list":["post-23957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-guest-column","category-news","category-nhra","category-event-coverage","tag-2016-nhra-mello-yello-drag-racing-series","tag-2016-nhra-winternationals","tag-chad-head","tag-del-worsham","tag-doug-kalitta","tag-drew-skillman","tag-greg-anderson","tag-jason-line","tag-jeff-diehl","tag-jeg-coughlin","tag-matt-hartford","tag-morgan-lucas","tag-richie-crampton","tag-robert-hight","tag-steve-faria","tag-steve-torrence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/featuredimage2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-6ep","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23957"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23980,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23957\/revisions\/23980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}