(Ron Lewis photo)

The former Top Alcohol Dragster World Champion (2005) credited Morgan Lucas Racing, which built the new chassis, for the win along with his Capco crew, especially crew chief Richard Hogan, car chief Bobby Lagana and performance consultant Alan Johnson.

“My guys worked their butts off all winter to get us ready and all weekend they were perfect,” Torrence said. “I just tried to do my job and not screw it up. They deserve all the credit but I’ll tell you, it was a good weekend to be Steve Torrence and a great way to start our new marketing relationship with Rio Ammunition.”

Before Sunday, Torrence had not qualified better than fifth and had reached the semifinal round just one time in 14 previous Pomona appearances without a win or a runner-up finish.

Torrence also praised the new informal alliance he has with the team of rival Brittany Force, for whom Alan Johnson also is a consultant.

“Anytime you can go to a track and get twice as much data, that’s a big advantage,” Torrence said, “especially when you’re racing against all these multi-car teams. I think sharing data with Brittany is going to be mutually beneficial.”

Doug Kalitta (Ron Lewis photo)

Doug Kalitta, driver of the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, was able to achieve a top-12 starting spot on day one, but crew chief Jim Oberhofer was not going to stop there. In the late session, Kalitta ran straight from the 11th spot to the top with a 3.713-second run. He stayed at the top until a late run by Torrence pushed Kalitta to the number-two spot for the first round.

Kalitta’s first pairing put him against Scott Palmer, but Palmer proved no match as Kalitta drove his dragster to a weekend best 328.22 mph for the win.

Antron Brown was Kalitta’s victim in the second round, setting up a semifinal match-up against teammate J.R. Todd in the Seal Master machine. (A trivia note: Kalitta and Todd were the first pair shown live on the new Fox Sports broadcast.)

Despite having the starting line advantage in the final, Kalitta couldn’t hold on to the lead.

“We brought out a new Mac Tools chassis this weekend and we are pleased with the results,” Kalitta said. “However, when you get that close, you always want to win and we came up short today.”

The final round between Kalitta and Torrence was the second time in NHRA history that the number-one and number-two qualifiers met in the final round [In 2004, Tony Schumacher defeated Kalitta]. At this race Kalitta left first with a .060 RT but couldn’t hold the lead and Torrence and his Alan Johnson power ran down Kalitta ,overcoming a .074 RT with a 3.735/326.48 lap to Kalitta's 3.753/324.36 effort. Kalitta's incremental times versus Torrence's incrementals tell the tale.  Kalitta:  60ft-0.855 sec., 330ft-2.139, 660ft-3.014/288.70 mph. Torrence: 60ft-0.844 sec., 330ft-2.132, 660ft-3.001/291.19 mph. Torrence's  MOV: 0.0044 seconds (approximately 2 feet).