Steve Torrence is going to Las Vegas for his 27th birthday.

He didn’t plan it that way, but NHRA scheduled the 11th annual Summitracing.com Nationals for April 16-18, so the driver of the Torrence Racing/Tuttle Motorsports Top Fuel dragster will already be there . . . and he might as well take advantage of it.

“My birthday is Saturday and we hope to finish the weekend with a race win on Sunday,” said Torrence.  “That would be a good reason to have a big celebration.  This is the first time I’ve raced at Las Vegas in the spring.  I have been at the last two fall races and have done fairly well.

Steve Torrence is going to Las Vegas for his 27th birthday.

He didn’t plan it that way, but NHRA scheduled the 11th annual Summitracing.com Nationals for April 16-18, so the driver of the Torrence Racing/Tuttle Motorsports Top Fuel dragster will already be there . . . and he might as well take advantage of it.

“My birthday is Saturday and we hope to finish the weekend with a race win on Sunday,” said Torrence.  “That would be a good reason to have a big celebration.  This is the first time I’ve raced at Las Vegas in the spring.  I have been at the last two fall races and have done fairly well.

“I hope we have better success at Las Vegas than we did last weekend at Houston,” he continued.   “We lost in the first round.  That was disappointing because the car ran well, but you never know what’s going to happen.”

Last fall at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Torrence qualified second in the 16-car field and advanced to the quarterfinals.

“We need to pick up some points this weekend,” he said.  “We are still in the top 10 (eighth, 228 points) and hanging in there, but we want to step up the car’s performance and win some rounds.  We need some good luck in Las Vegas.”

This is the sixth of 18 regular Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events that will decide the top 10 drivers who advance to the six-race Countdown to the Championship.  This also is Torrence’s first full season of Top Fuel competition.  He now has 21 Top Fuel career starts.