Since 2013, Billy Torrence has dabbled in Top Fuel competition, competing in several races.
 
Normally, Torrence, the father of star Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence, doesn’t compete until later in the season.
 
That will change in 2018 as the elder Torrence is scheduled to compete at the Arizona Nationals Feb. 23-25 at Wild Horse Motorsports Park in Phoenix.
 
“We front-halved his (Billy’s) car over the winter and he actually was running it at the Phoenix test session,” said Dom Lagana, all-purpose crewman for the Torrence team. “We serviced everything after the test session and just left the rig out there. It was always the plan (for Billy) to run in (Phoenix).”
 
NHRA’s Nitro Spring Training was held at Wild Horse Motorsports Park, Jan. 31-Feb. 3. The last race Billy competed in Top Fuel was at the fall race in Dallas a year ago. He lost in the first round to Richie Crampton. Billy has two career semifinal appearances – one each in 2014 and 2015.
 
“We went to the test and Steve drove the car for the first two days and Billy drove it on (Feb. 2-3),” Lagana said. “The car ran good. There were quite a few planned shut-off runs which is normal for testing. Billy ended up running a best of (3) 71 at 332 (mph), I believe. The test session was to get some laps under the car’s belt and get some laps for Billy because he hasn’t made that many laps in a while even though he does great every time, and he did a great job at the test session. I know he will be ready.”
 
Walt Przybyl will serve as crew chief on Billy Torrence’s Capco Racing/Torrence Motorsports Dragster in Phoenix. The Torrence team is based in Kilgore, Texas.
 
“Walt has been the crew chief on it (Billy’s dragster) when it has run in the past,” Lagana said. “He and (Richard Hogan, Steve’s crew chief) are really good friends so it works out well. It always a plus having two cars out there. No two cars are ever identical, but if there is something (Hogan) wanted to try out or a setup you want to try now that Billy’s car is here you can test something on Billy’s car. It is always good to be able to share information between two cars. At Phoenix, with Billy’s car, we would like to pick up where we left off at testing and get some good runs and see if we can’t win a round or two on Sunday. That would be cool for him.”
 
The next scheduled race for Billy Torrence is likely going to be the Spring Nationals April 20-22 at Royal Purple Raceway in Houston, Texas.