LAS VEGAS -- After an impressive semi-final finish in Memphis, Dexter Tuttle’s Colorfast team with Steve Torrence at the controls had another great weekend this time at the Ninth annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals.

In the opening stanza of qualifying, Torrence qualified in the number one position with an impressive 3.83 at 314 MPH. Torrence however would have to settle for second as Larry Dixon took the top qualifying spot by just 300ths of a second. Torrence was impressive never the less as 26 Top Fuel Dragsters tried to qualify for the stout 16 car field.

In the first round Torrence drew Terry McMillen. McMillen got out of the gate first with an 0.078 reaction time to Torrence’s 0.078. But the Colorfast car was too much for McMillen as he began to haze the tires right off the starting line. Torrence meanwhile exhibited a clean, straight pass down the race track to advance to the second round with a 3.90 at 305 MPH to McMillen’s 5.97 at 105 MPH.

In round two, Torrence was matched up with Spencer Massey driving for Don Prudhomme. At the hit Massey got a slight advantage off the starting line with a 0.060 to Torrence’s 0.067. Unfortunately, Torrence went up in smoke and that was all she wrote as Massey was long gone.

In spite of the quarter final loss the team has reason to be optimistic as they had a very good qualifying effort and went a couple of rounds. The team now heads to Pomona for the NHRA Auto Club Finals being contested in just two weeks.