LIKE SON, LIKE FATHER: TORRENCE FAMILY SHARES UNIQUE BOND

by Larry Crum    Wed, 2019-02-27 23:40

Billy Torrence can still vividly recall the first time he ever sat in a Top Fuel dragster. 

It was a warm afternoon nearly six years ago. Billy’s son, Steve Torrence, had been driving in the class for nearly a decade and had even earned a couple of Wallys up to that point. Steve was the star. He was the risk taker who had shaken hands with fate and decided to dance with the big boys in the class of kings.

Billy Torrence, up to that point in his life, was perfectly fine on the sidelines. Yet here he was.

“I’m sitting (in the car) thinking, ‘good lord, I have worked like a dog all my life to provide for my family and be financially secure and now I’m going to kill myself,’” Torrence recalled. “It was a trauma. Truthfully and honestly, I was sitting in that thing thinking, ‘you know, maybe the damn thing won’t crank and I can get out gracefully.’”

At the time, it wasn’t the ideal situation for the elder Torrence. But fate had forced his hand.

With nitro racing in NHRA’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series requiring more and more data, track time and personnel, Steve Torrence’s one-man-band was no longer cutting it. He needed another body and another dragster to pull information from if he was to be successful. And that is where dad stepped in.

“He told me before the first time I ever got in (the car), he said, ‘dad, this is kind of a two-car game out here. We really need another car. We need to do something, team up with somebody or something, to gather more information,’” Torrence said. “And I told him, ‘if you are sure, I’ll do it.’ And you know, he just led me and guided me through the process and showed me the ropes.”

And that decision led to a dynamic few had seen before.

Here was a father, who had taught his son everything he knew about the sport of drag racing, now the pupil, learning everything about racing a nitro-powered dragster from his boy.

“I taught Steve how to drag race, but he eclipsed me. He went on to the alcohol ranks and I continued to race in Top Dragster, Super Comp, Super Gas. I have enjoyed watching him have the success he has had. You know, fast is fun. And the faster you go, the more fun it is,” Torrence said. “Now he is teaching me. He’s instructed me how to pedal a car, how to stage the car properly, how to do all of it. I’ve learned everything from him. I do have some natural race abilities from just racing a long time, but this is a different deal.

“I’ve leaned heavily on Steve. On Sundays he will come over and tell me to be calm and what things the next driver may do or if the car does this at this point on the track how to get it back in line and go. He’s got a lot of experience, a lot of laps. I’m content to stay back there, but if I get an opportunity to race him, it’s all out.”

Fast forward to 2019 and the Torrence Motorsports team and their CAPCO dragsters are at the top of the mountain in Top Fuel racing.

Steve is coming off of a championship in 2018 and an unprecedented 19 wins in his last 45 starts, proving the trendsetter in the class for the past two seasons. Billy, meanwhile, is the current Top Fuel points leader, coming off of his second-career win last weekend at the NHRA Arizona Nationals serving in a part-time role behind the wheel.

It is a position that neither father nor son could have ever dreamt of just a few years prior when the team was seen as an occasional pest, not a powerhouse competing equally alongside the biggest teams in the sport.

“It’s a dream come true. I mean, we don’t dream stuff, we do stuff. We love to race and we love to race as a family and to get out there and be able to go and race at the pinnacle of drag racing as a family, as a family team, I’m so humbled and grateful to be able to do that,” Torrence said. “By the grace of the good lord we’ve been successful. I’m so thankful to all those boys. I mean, it’s a true family race team. And to share all that with Steve, he and I are more like two brothers. Some people even think we are brothers. We have fun and if you can’t have fun doing this, you can’t have fun doing anything.”

And that bond is made even more special knowing that, without a little divine intervention, Steve may not even be here. Steve has survived a couple of scares in his life, from cancer as a kid to a heart attack that sidelined him just a few years ago, making each moment shared between the two that much sweeter.

“I was there with Steve in that hospital. He was getting ready to go into his senior year of high school and weighed about 160 pounds. He could run a foot race carrying a roll of barbed wire,” Torrence recalled. “Just 70 days later he weighed 90 pounds. When you are in the heat of battle, you never know how fatigued you are and the toll that it takes on you, but once Steve got good news, I’ll just tell you I’m not qualified to be a priest, but it is by the grace of the good lord that Steve is here with us today.”

And both Billy and his son attribute their faith, and “Mama Kay,” as the one holding it together through the toughest of times.

“His mother is a strong, strong Christian woman. I call her an ol’ bible thumpin’, gun toter. You know, she keeps that young man in line. I think she keeps the whole bunch in line,” Torrence said. “That’s her race team and that’s all of her boys. You can tell it when you get around the team that she rules the roost. And I think he does draw on that. He’s a good young man. He’s no angel, but he is a good young man who has strong ethics. I’m proud of him and I think he got a lot of good characteristics from Kay and I.”

And that family atmosphere extends well beyond the drivers. The Torrence race team is powered by a handful of masterminds behind the scenes, from Richard Hogan to brothers Bobby and Dom Lagana, and it has created an atmosphere in the pit area that few teams can match.

But while the team is a unified presence away from the track, on the track it is a different story. On the few occasions the two Torrence family members have squared off on Sundays, it has been game on.

“I fully intend to whoop him every time I get a chance,” Torrence said. “We’ve been racing each other from our Super Comp days to today. He’s probably ahead on me, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. (In Top Fuel) he’s beat me every time. But every time has been a race. We raced in the semis last year and he beat me by about eight thou at the tree. Then we raced at Vegas and it was another one of those down to the fourth digit deals. We raced again out at Pomona and he just outran me. I went over and told them they better tune that thing up and they did. He’s difficult to deal with. I’ve been trying to beat him.”

While the fortunes have certainly changed for Billy and Steve Torrence, there is still a bigger picture at play. Steve is the star of the operation and Billy remains in a part-time role, even if he is currently leading the points. And that is why the decision to sit out the next race, a decision that was made before the season even began, is not a difficult one to make.

“It’s alright. It is a long way to the end and I think if I can make enough races during the year, maybe I can finish in the top 10. I’m optimistic,” Torrence said. “I have a really good crew and a good car and if things turn out well, maybe I can do that and race all of the Countdown races. Right now I’m only racing four, maybe five. That would be something to get in there and mix it up with all those full-time guys. That would be pretty cool, don’t you think?”

For now, however, Torrence will relish the fact that, at least for the moment, he is the points leader in the class that is considered the pinnacle of the sport. And he will make sure to make that fact known to his son for as long as he can.

“Steve and I have a ritual. We have a good Mexican food joint over in Tyler, Texas, about a 30 or 40 minute ride from here. Every time we win, on Monday, we’ll go over and have lunch at that Mexican place,” Torrence said. “So we pull out from the office (on Monday) around 11 and head that way and I said, ‘have you ever been to lunch with the Top Fuel points champion?’ He says, ‘no.’ So I say, ‘I have lots of times. Now let’s go have a good lunch.’”

 

 

 

 

 

 
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