Drag Illustrated Issue 136, September 2018 | Page 22
B
obby Lagana Jr. has only
ever known life at the drag-
strip, and he is right at home
as part of the CAPCO Con-
tractors team in NHRA’s
Mello Yello Drag Racing Se-
ries. Though listed as an as-
sistant crew chief to Richard
Hogan in NHRA’s media guide, Lagana is quick
to explain that titles aren’t really a thing in the
Torrence Racing camp.
“We’re a team,” Lagana says. “Richard Hogan is
our leader – he’s the tuner of the car and makes
the final calls – but we’re all on the same level.
Every job is so important, and we’re just fortunate
to have a good group of guys.”
At the core of the team are part-time Top Fuel
racer Billy and his wife, Kay, along with their son,
Steve Torrence, the full-time driver of the primary
CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel dragster. The entire
group is more of a family than anything, and that
formula has worked well as the younger Torrence
has been a serious championship contender in
recent years.
Lagana and his brother, Dom – both experi-
enced nitro pilots on their own merits – came to
the team in late 2013, and they’ve been part of
the fold ever since.
“Our dad had passed away, and we signed up
to come out for the last six races of 2013 to clear
our minds and just help Billy run his car,” Lagana
says. “I never would have thought it would turn
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I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
into this, but the Torrences are so family oriented,
and we had such an instant connection. It was
hard not to want to keep racing with them. This
has probably been the best five or six years of
racing of our lives.”
In 2017, Torrence made a hearty run for the
big trophy, beginning with steady forward mo-
mentum at Bristol’s Thunder Valley Nationals
in June and on through the end of the season at
the NHRA Finals in Pomona. He claimed eight
Wally trophies in 11 final rounds and, for much
of the latter half of the season, had hold of the
No. 1 position in the standings.
In the end, it was Brittany Force who was
awarded the championship following a white-
knuckled battle, but Torrence came back with
fire in his belly in 2018. He snatched the points
lead by race 2 of 24 on the schedule, and by the
conclusion of the Western Swing in mid-summer,
he had yet to forfeit the lofty perch.
Lagana may not be willing to accept the titles
bestowed upon him nor take credit for any of
Torrence’s success, but he and Dom, the sons of
well-known Northeast match racer Bobby Lagana
Sr., have truly rounded out the Torrence Racing
team. The Lagana brothers traveled with their
family from track to track as kids, toting their
Twilight Zone entries on a 1969 Ford ramp truck,
and both seemed to have inherited their father’s
off-the-charts passion for racing.
“We were so fortunate to have grown up the
way we did,” Lagana stresses. “We had really good
parents, and we 100 percent didn’t have the per-
fect lifestyle, but they were really out for our best
interest. They taught us to respect and be good
to people, and that’s how the Torrences live, both
at the racetrack and in regular life.”
Missing the championship by such a narrow
margin and seeing it slip away at the last race of
the season was painful for the team as a whole,
but Lagana has been able to temper the disap-
pointment and focus on each run of each race in
the new season.
“You have to get hot at the right time,” Lagana
admits. “It’s hard because everybody out there
is so competitive, and the teams are so well put
together, starting from the owners on down to the
crew chiefs and everyone on the team who work
so hard. So many things can affect the outcome
and change what you think the results will be.
I might look at it differently than most people,
but for me personally, I just get excited about
each moment.”
The joy of every run, let alone round and race
wins, is supremely evident in Lagana’s body pos-
ture and facial expressions.
“I picture my mom and dad every run we
make,” Lagana says. “Anytime something good
happens, I always remember my dad. He got
excited, no matter what happened. We went five
years and never qualified with our car, and we
still went to the race with the same enthusiasm.
We were born that way, and we wear it on our
sleeves.”
Issue 136
Dirt