If you’ve ever been to a race, you’ll know there’s a moment where the cars disappear from view, while the roar of the engines echo through the air. For a few seconds, the race exists somewhere beyond the fence. You’ll wait. Then, it comes back around.

That feeling is why I founded Torquenza. The pull of something you just simply cannot quite leave alone. The machines matter, sure. But even more so are the people who build them, race them, photograph them, and spend their weekends standing in their wake.

The IMSA No. 4 Pratt Miller Corvette Z06 GT3.R flies through qualifying, photographed at Laguna Seca.
Laguna Seca, California · Photograph © Brandon Hu

Let’s look a little closer.

We wanted to make a journal that brings those people into the spotlight. A mechanic’s hands at the end of a session. The small rituals before a driver gets into a car. Stories with a sense of place, told through words and photographs meant to make you feel like you’re in the grandstands.

Races are measured by time or laps. Yet the reasons we come back to them are harder to count.

A wider view of race weekend.

Our starting point spans racing disciplines from Formula 1 to grassroots rally racing, and the culture around it. We’re interested in the supporting paddocks, the independent teams, and the stories that deserve more than a mere passing mention. Series with less attention are the places we want to look closely as the publication develops. A supporting Porsche Cup race at a F1 weekend deserves as much love as the actual F1 race.

Members of the Czabok-Simpson Motorsport IMPC team in the pit box during a race.
In the pitlane at Laguna Seca. Photograph by Brandon Hu.

The upcoming few months should serve as the first sketch of that idea. Some of these photographs are real work from our archive; these words are a draft of the voice we’re building. There is a lot of road ahead. We’re glad you’re here for the beginning.

Torquenza Founder & Editor in Chief, Brandon Hu