Amidst a long-awaited victory celebration after winning the Mile-High Nationals July 26 in Denver, Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence confirmed to Competition Plus, his father, Billy Torrence will once again compete in a limited Top Fuel schedule later this season.

Steve, who was celebrating his first win since Bristol (Tenn.) 2013, said his father is going to run Indianapolis (Sept. 2-7), Dallas (Oct. 15-18), Las Vegas (Oct. 29-Nov. 1), and Pomona, Calif. (Nov. 12-15). Billy will be competing in a Capco Racing/Torrence Motorsports dragster like his son.

“That’s what we have on the schedule right now, and we may add more or not run some of them, but that’s kind of the forecast we see for right now,” Steve said. “We are getting that ready. Walt Przybyl will be the crew chief for my dad, the same guy who was the chief at the end of last year. Walt brings a lot to the table and he gets along really well with Richard (Hogan, Steve’s crew chief). It’s not something you have to babysit, we give him the tune-up and tell him this is what we are doing, and they (Richard and Walt) work really well together. Billy goes out there last year and goes (3)76 and beats Schumacher and opens the door for us to do some good in the points and we kicked that door shut right behind him and didn’t take advantage of it.”

In 2014, Billy competed in eight NHRA national events, the last one being the season finale at Pomona, and he finished 18th in the point standings. A year earlier, Billy made his Top Fuel driving debut competing in seven races and finishing 18th in the points standings as well.

As for the present, Steve is thoroughly enjoying working with his 2015 team.

“I’ve had an opportunity to work with a lot of good people, Lee Beard, the guy is legend out here, and he’s done a lot of good stuff and so has Richard (Hogan),” Torrence said. “At the end of the year (2013) we wanted to go a little bit different route with Lee, and went back with Richard. Then, bringing Bobby Lagana and some of those guys in, I would go as far as to say, not taking away from any other team, but this is the best team I’ve ever been part of. We’ve got a lot of top-notch guys who are very knowledgeable about what’s going on. Our team is really a group effort. We all work together and have input. It’s very, very gratifying.”

With his stellar performance at Bandimere Speedway, Torrence moved from 10th to ninth in the point standings, just 34 points behind seventh-place Brittany Force.

Torrence narrowly beat eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher world champion in the finals. Torrence clocked a 3.925-second time to edge Schumacher’s 3.940-second lap.

“Every round was not only a confidence builder for not only myself, but also the guys,” Torrence said. “The car was performing well and I’m getting more and more confident in my driving. Schumacher left on, but it wasn’t too bad and it was close at the end, and Richard had me a race car. It was repetitive every lap it did the same thing, it did exactly what it’s supposed to do, and if I’m doing my job then things come together. We have a good team, we have a good car right now and I hope we can carry this momentum we have into the Countdown because years past we’ve had a pretty good race car at the first of the year and the middle of the year, and we’ve tailed off. I hope our momentum is picking up at the right time.”