Drag Illustrated Issue 148, September 2019 | Page 88
CAPCO BOYS
“It’s great to see how much he means to the
people where he lives,” says Lagana. “We have a
lot of fun. I think the fun is part of our success.”
Hogan, a Florida native who relocated to Ennis
while he was working on the late John Mitch-
ell’s Montana Express dragster in the mid-1990s,
is enjoying the best run of his career during a
string of success with Torrence that included 11
wins and a 6-0 sweep of the Countdown to the
Championship playoff events in 2018. Through
16 races in 2019, Torrence has won eight races
in 11 finals with father Billy claiming two of the
other victories.
With megateams such as John Force Racing,
Don Schumacher Racing, and Kalitta Motor-
sports filling the fields with cars and man-
ufacturing many of their own parts, the
success of the Capco Contractors team
bucks the trend with store-bought parts
and only one car on a full schedule. Hogan
and Lagana provide insight into how they
are able to stand atop the Kings of the
Sport in the modern era.
PEOPLE AND PLANNING
The first thing Hogan mentions when
asked what is behind the success of the
Capco Contractors dragster is his crew.
“The biggest thing is having the same
crew guys for so long now,” says Hogan.
“That, anymore, is huge to have the main-
tenance at the level we keep it at, espe-
cially when we are going so many rounds.
THOUGH STEVE
TORRENCE'S WHITE
CAPCO CAR IS THE
ONLY FULL-TIME
TORRENCE RACING
ENTRY IN A FIELD
FULL OF MULTI-
CAR TEAMS, BILLY
TORRENCE ROLLED
OUT HIS BLACK TOP
FUELER FOR NINE
RACES AS OF PRINT
TIME, WINNING TWO
OF THEM.
Having Billy’s guys at the shop to help work on
our stuff when we get back has helped keep every-
thing up to 100 percent. That is almost impossible
for some teams, some of it because of funding
and some of it because of personnel. How many
teams have 10-12 guys to work on a car when they
get back to the shop if they have to?”
“Honestly, the biggest thing is how close-knit
we are,” Lagana adds. “Some of the guys on the
team have been racing together and close friends
for almost 20 years. Some of us have worked
with ‘Hogie’ before. Being able to work with him
here, he’s so old school and cares about the right
things. There is a lot of respect, honesty and trust.
Everybody has to believe every little thing on the
car — the servicing, the traveling, work dates at
the shop, time off. There is so much that goes
into keeping everybody happy, and when they are
happy they do their best work on the car. Steve
believes in the team and believes in the car. It’s
hard to beat that.”
In addition to the continuity of the Capco Con-
tractors roster, the number of those with crew
chief experience is impressive. Hogan and Lagana
are joined by Justin Crosslin, who had previously
worked his way from the bottom to a co-crew
chief position for Clay Millican’s former team.
The other dragster features Jason McCulloch on
the full-time crew; Walt Przybyl, who relishes
the opportunity to assist a competitive team on a
part-time schedule that works around his
engineering business in upstate New York;
and part-time Top Fuel racer Dom Lagana.
“I always say we have three crew chiefs
on our car and two on Billy’s with ‘Jake’
[McCulloch] and Wally, three if you throw
Dom in the mix,” says Hogan. “Justin is
crew chief quality, and then you have
Bobby and me. That’s pretty good to have
three for each car. We took Justin out of
the loop on cylinder head maintenance so
he can help with everything else to make
sure everything is really what we want
it to be every time we go to the starting
line and oversee all the maintenance. I’m
getting him to make more calls on blower
overdrive and stuff. Sometimes now, he
just knows what we’re going to do and he
doesn’t even have to ask me.”