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Father's Day one of many special days for racing family
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FarkRAPID CITY — Father’s Day will be special this year for the Torres family of Rapid City, but no more, really, than any other day for Mel Torres, who has been battling cancer for more than three years.
“Every day’s a great day,” said Mel.
Mel and his three sons, Dennis, Joe and Toby, and a nephew, Branden, have been involved in local auto racing for more than four decades.
“It’s kept us close together. I stay close to my sons,” said Mel, 77.
This year, both to commemorate the family patriarch, and the family’s 44th anniversary in the sport, Toby and Branden are carrying Mel’s traditional No. 199 on the cars they race at Black Hills Speedway.
Toby races in the super stock division, and Branden has moved up to the limited modified class after racing a motorcycle-engine powered Mini Sprint car for the last six years.
Mel grew up in Caputa and his interest in racing coincided with the early years of Black Hills Speedway.
“When the track first opened in the 1950’s, and before I went into the service, I watched the races,” he said. “I’ve always had a big love for cars anyway.”
Mel first helped out with driver Jim Esmay in 1964. Esmay drove a Studebaker carrying the number 99.
Torres took over the car when Esmay moved to California, added the number 1, and the No. 199 became his trademark.
Torres fielded cars for drivers Bob Mallow and Merlin Olsen in the 1960s and also climbed behind the wheel himself at Black Hills Speedway and at long-closed South 79 Speedway south of Rapid City.
“Oh, I won a couple of them,” he said. “I won the first C-stocker race at 79, but there were only three cars in that one, two Fords and a Chevy.”
“Most of those guys are gone now,” Joe kidded. “You won everything.”
Mel raced Chevys, Plymouths and Buicks, but the family allegiance is with Ford automobiles.
“I just wanted to prove that Fords could do anything that the rest of them could do,” Mel said “I was a low-budget owner but I stayed competitive with the big boys.”
Mel’s driving career ended when he rolled a car at the Sturgis Fairgrounds in 1968.
Joe began driving in the early 1980’s against his father’s wishes — at first.
“When I first started racing, he didn’t want us to have anything to do with it,” Joe said. “I just ending up pulling a car home and it has been game-on ever since.
Mel said he had to think about his son’s ambitions to slide behind the wheel a little.
“I figured, ‘well, here goes all of our weekends,’” Mel said. “I got to thinking about it. Car racing kept us together. I figured we’d try it again.”
Toby took over the driver’s seat when Joe quit racing several years ago.
“I just jumped in,” Toby said. “I kept bugging Dad and Dennis.”
Brendan started racing at his wife’s request, as a safer alternative to rodeo.
“Stacy got tired of me getting hurt,” he said. “I broke my neck in North Dakota and she said you need to find another sport. This is the only other one I knew.”
Mel doesn’t handle much in the way of pit work these days, but he said he’ll be there for youngest son Toby and nephew Branden on Friday nights, doing what he does best — supervising.
“Each one of the boys has a pretty good skill at his own stuff,” Mel said. “I just like to give them heck once in a while. It’s going to be special to get to see these cars race.”
Dennis said the entire family is proud of Mel and what he has accomplished with racing in the Black Hills.
“We’re all proud of him,” Dennis said of his dad. “He’s taught us a lot. We’ve applied it to the cars and they’re just as good as any other cars out there.”
Mel was first diagnosed with stomach cancer three years ago. At that time doctors gave him six months to live.
Joe said his dad is bringing the family tenacity on the racetrack to the battle with the disease.
“Without him we’d have never gotten this far. He’s kept us going,” Joe said. “He’s going to fight this hard.”
Multimedia
Mel Torres watches as his son, Joe, drills holes in the front of Toby Torres' superstock car during warmup laps Friday night at the Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City. (Seth A. McConnell/Journal staff)
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