Nothing was going to stand in the way of Carter Torrez — not even a released hood — on a quest to honor his late grandfather, Estevan Torrez. Torrez sought a great finish to his heat race at Monarch Motor Speedway in Wichita Falls, Texas, in the car they had built together.
Estevan Torrez, 75, died during the off-season of complications stemming from Covid-19. Estevan worked with Carter to build the USRA factory stock that’s based on a 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Carter completed the project with help from his father, Isaac, and brother, Stephen.
“We finished the car just before opening night this past weekend,” Carter, of Martha, Oklahoma, said. “We call it a ‘Poppy Chassis’ in his honor. This car is very special to us.”
The hood flew open while Carter ran in second in his heat race. It was secured in front only by a metal flap.
“I wasn’t black-flagged and I had a four-inch gap to look through, so I kept on racing,” said Carter.
Carter remained in second when the checkers flew. After securing the front of the hood with screws, Carter competed in the feature. He finished second to his older brother Stephen.
“Stephen beats me a lot —I’ve never finished better than he has, unless he broke down during a race,” Carter said. “My hope is to be good enough to win over him one night.”
Carter Torrez started racing at 12 years old, steering go-karts at the Heart of Oklahoma Expo Center in Shawnee, Oklahoma. He moved up to full-size cars at age 14 when he grew too tall for the karts.
This week, Torrez added two additional hood pins to better secure his hood. For 2021, he looks to race at tracks in Oklahoma and Texas. Torrez hopes to not only one day beat his brother, but also take the Poppy Chassis to victory lane.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
