Steve Torrence has won four NHRA Top Fuel championships facing the best of the best in Top Fuel. However, there was one team he wanted to avoid dealing with either in qualifying or eliminations last weekend in Seattle. 

The BooCrew wanted a piece of the 'ol champion at the NHRA Northwest Nationals..

Last season, they started to give the Kilgore, Texas-based Torrence the business. Well, actually, according to Torrence, it's been a few years running. And this year, they were amped up to give more of the same trash-talking.

"Every round, it was more and more antagonizing," Torrence admitted, trying not to crack a smile during his interview on the CompetitionPlus Power Hour podcast. "And I finally was like, 'You know what? I've been mad about it and kind of waving at them and laughing and just antagonizing him as much as I could."

Torrence said the love/hate relationship, meaning they loved to hate one another, went back a couple of years. The razzing actually started on Friday when Torrence and his team visited the scales, a customary procedure before qualifying. 

"They started booing, and I was already looking for them," Torrence said. "I was scoping them out."

Torrence decided after his final round he'd had enough of the BooCrew and their shenanigans, so he lit out for the grandstands... but not in anger. He figured by winning the event after such a dry spell; he might have earned a mulligan with his antagonists.

Nothing settles an argument better than a cold beer, or at least that's how Torrence saw it. 

"After the final round, I told them, 'Come and have a beer with us in the winner circle," Torrence said, and then he walked away, not expecting anything to transpire. 

Then he turned around, and there they were. Torrence and the proclaimed BooCrew were in the winner's circle having an adult beverage. 

 

 

 

 

"Those suckers showed up," Torrence said. "And man, ended up three of the coolest guys I've met, hung out, BS'ed with them a little bit, had them in the winner circle picture with us, gave them a couple of winner circle hats."

And for at least an hour, all was right in the world, at least Steve Torrence's world. 

"They'll still boo me next year, maybe, but if not, [I'm sure] they're going to pick on somebody else," Torrence said. "I had a good time with them. So it was pretty cool."

Those who know Torrence believe he's probably one of the most misunderstood racers in the Camping World Drag Racing Series pits. Over the years, he's tried to win over the enemies he's never met, one introduction at a time. 

"That's the cool thing about our sport," Torrence said. "You can have some guys and gals that love you, you got to have some guys and gals that hate you, but at least they're rooting for somebody. That's what I told them. I said, 'Hey, I don't care if you like me or not. I would prefer you like me and not boo me. But it was pretty cool, and it makes a dang good story now that you're in the winner circle picture with us."

And Torrence understands why they would want to boo him based on the data they are presented. 

"A lot of those cats that you hear all the trash talk and stuff, they don't know Steve Torrence," he admitted. "They see 15 seconds of wound-up, adrenaline-pumping Steve Torrance hopping off at the mouth down there at the end of a run. They don't know me.

"So if we sit down like we are right now, have a beer, have a glass of whiskey, hang out, talk and cut up and shoot the bull, I'm a lot different guy than I am when I get out of that race car. I'm trying to cut the guy's head off or the girl's head off or try to win. Competition brings out a different person."

With last Sunday's win, Torrence pulled into fourth place in all-time Top Fuel wins, trailing Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon, and Antron Brown. The former Top Alcohol Dragster champion and cancer survivor could never have imagined a career like his when he started back in 2006 when he couldn't even generate a quality boo.

"I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to drive a Top Fuel car, much less have accomplished the things that we've accomplished over the last 17 years," Torrence said. "I didn't get a win with [team owner] Dexter Tuttle. I had an opportunity to win at Sonoma one year and screwed that up as a driver, was late on the tree, and lost on a holeshot in the semis. It's one of those things you never forget because that was the really first legitimate shot at a Wally, and I blew it.

 

 

"Then we started our own race team at the end of '11. I got my first race win in '12 at Atlanta against no other than Tony Schumacher. And the cool thing is, in my house there in the little area, I have just a couple of racing things in there, and I've got Antron Brown's helmet, Tony Schumacher's helmet from that race and a couple of others. But never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that we would be where we're at, accomplish what we've done and be fourth all-time in the NHRA win list."

Torrence appreciates his fans, even the ones who boo him until they know him, because there was a time he was on their side of the rope. 

"I remember being the kid on the other side of the rope, so you don't know how to handle it sometimes," Torrence admitted. 'I'm on that side, and you don't get to everybody, you don't get to see everybody and make everybody happy and talk to them. But I try to spend as much time as I can out there, and I don't want to walk away when somebody's up there because there's a couple of drivers that were really influential in my childhood that did some things that I remember very distinctly about not getting an autograph or something. So I try not to be that way.

"Sometimes you mess up but could've never imagined having one Top Fuel win, much less 54 and have four world championships. I forget I'm 40 years old, and I feel like I'm still 23 and driving this thing for the first time and having to prove something. And I think that's one thing that helps me to stay hungry, to stay driven, to stay focused is you forget about what you've accomplished. You just got to go back and prove something to everybody every day. I think that makes you a better driver."

And as Torrence learned, sometimes it keeps the BooCrew off your back.