NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Bobby Lagana Jr. grew up at dragstrips in the Northeast. He and brother Dom joined late father Bobby Sr. and late mother Marie at match races, IHRA events, and annual stops at the Reading and Englishtown NHRA events. The second-oldest of four kids growing up in Scarsdale, N.Y., Lagana became increasingly involved in their father’s Twilight Zone Funny Car entries as he got older and eventually took the wheel after they switched to a Top Fuel dragster.

Bobby Sr. began racing in 1960 and dabbled in Pro Stock, A/Gas, and B/Gas before taking part in the early days of Funny Car racing. He had a Ford Falcon with an altered wheelbase, raised body, and hemi engine that he raced for some time. He bought the former U.S. Marines Funny Car from Bob Pickett in 1977 and ran eight to 15 match race dates a year until the car burned to the ground in Englishtown in 1995. Bobby Sr. bought his first dragster in 1992 after the Funny Car class became defunct in IHRA and began running it exclusively after his fire in 1995. He extended the ramp on his 1969 Ford ramp truck to accommodate the longer wheelbase. He let Bobby earn his license in March 1997 and moved out of the seat shortly thereafter.

The Lagana brothers carried on the family legacy by continuing to race their dragster. Along the way, Bobby Jr. struck up a friendship with Steve Torrence and his parents, Billy and Kay, that led to an assistant crew chief position on the Capco Contractors dragster.

Bobby Jr. works under the leadership of crew chief Richard Hogan and is in charge of the team at its Brownsburg, Ind., facility while Hogan flies to the races from Montana and the Torrences fly from Texas. The tightknit group has already earned two wins and scored eight No. 1 qualifying positions this season, an dmost recently were runners-up at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals.