Each time one of the Torrence Racing dragsters approaches the starting line at an NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series event, Kay Torrence is there.
“Momma Kay” as she has been known for more than 20 years in the drag-racing world is identifiable by her ever-present hat and bandana to help disperse nitro fumes. She is the mother of three-time defending Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence and the wife of Billy Torrence, a multiple-time Top Fuel winner despite racing a part-time schedule.
However, Momma Kay is also a surrogate mom to every member of the team.
“You don’t have to try to love these guys, they’re my boys,” she said. “Each and every one of them comes to work each day and works hard, they give 100-percent effort. I just know if you do your best at work and you like the people who you’re around, the success comes with it. We just like each other. I’m a mom with about 20 boys now. I love each and every one of them for their own personality.”
That family atmosphere extends to the family business, Texas-based CAPCO Contractors, which Billy Torrence began in 1995. It has since grown into one of the top pipeline companies in the United States with more than 400 employees.
Although father and son have many drag-racing commitments, Billy and Steve Torrence are both in the office throughout the week.
“We bring the same business plan to racing that we have there at CAPCO and it’s been a recipe for success,” Billy Torrence said.
The Torrence family hails from Kilgore, Texas, in the eastern part of the Lone Star State and the team’s Texas roots are readily apparent. They particularly shine through with the mantra, “How ’bout dem CAPCO Boys?”
In addition to his business, Billy Torrence was involved with sportsman drag racing for many years and the Torrence team is still a major part of those classes. In fact, longtime pro and sportsman competitor and tuner Dave Connolly gave Momma Kay her nickname.
It was Steve Torrence, though, who first made the leap into Top Fuel in the mid-2000s after many accomplishments of his own in the sportsman ranks. He ran a primarily part-time schedule with Tuttle Motorsports in Top Fuel for several years before the Torrences decided to take part in the category on a full-time basis with their own team in 2011.
Steve Torrence won his first three Top Fuel races in 2012 and has simply dominated the class the last few seasons, scoring 46 wins through early August. He won all six races in the Countdown to the Championship and 11 events total in 2018, and has taken home Wally trophies from multiple crown-jewel events to go along with his three titles.
Meanwhile, as of the middle of July, Billy Torrence was a seven-time national event winner in Top Fuel. He made his first start in 2013 when the family and team decided it would be beneficial to run a second car for the additional data and resources.
Although their talent behind the wheel is obvious, the Torrences are quick to point to their team members as the reason for their historic run.
“There are really no bosses there,” Steve Torrence said. “Everybody is their own boss, and everybody takes pride and initiative in everything that they do. So, it’s sort of like a self-governed race team. Just the work (ethic) and dedication that each guy has is probably the biggest key to our success.”
Steve Torrence, an only child, and his mother have been close since his childhood, and he refers to her as his lifetime “support system in competition.” She began taking him to taekwondo tournaments when he was 7 years old.
“He’s been competing since he was a little bitty fella, and even back then, if he was not winning, he wasn’t happy,” Momma Kay said.
That fiery competitive spirit has stayed with Steve Torrence through battling Hodgkin lymphoma as a teenager and a heart attack from radiation years later. At 38, he’s now one of the faces of NHRA.
Although polite, humble and thoughtful in conversation, he also at one time developed a reputation as one of drag racing’s brashest competitors, with a bravado in top-end interviews that some felt crossed the line from confidence into occasionally off-putting cockiness.
It would be easy to believe it is a character he created in homage to the sport’s more colorful days, or a result of his Texas personality, but Steve Torrence explains in reality his comments are a result of reaching mind-numbing speeds in less than four seconds.
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