Top Fuel drag racer Dom Lagana never has won it all, but he has seen it all.
 
At age 25, he's not a "briefcase driver," no buttoned-down corporate marionette. He's a get-your-hands-dirty, work-until-everything-gets-done, go-hungry-but-go-fast kind of kid. He's a second-generation racer, but nobody ever handed anything to him -- except maybe a disaster or two here and there.
 
But at Las Vegas, a city with so much sensory overload even without 7,000-horsepower dragsters and so much "Doesn't-that-beat-everything?!" kind of behavior the rule rather than exception, Dom Lagana made people take notice. In an environment numb or callous to outrageous performances, he startled everyone Oct. 31 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Top Fuel drag racer Dom Lagana never has won it all, but he has seen it all.
 
At age 25, he's not a "briefcase driver," no buttoned-down corporate marionette. He's a get-your-hands-dirty, work-until-everything-gets-done, go-hungry-but-go-fast kind of kid. He's a second-generation racer, but nobody ever handed anything to him -- except maybe a disaster or two here and there.
 
But at Las Vegas, a city with so much sensory overload even without 7,000-horsepower dragsters and so much "Doesn't-that-beat-everything?!" kind of behavior the rule rather than exception, Dom Lagana made people take notice. In an environment numb or callous to outrageous performances, he startled everyone Oct. 31 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
 
He defeated six-time IHRA champion Clay Millican in the opening round, two-time champion and points leader Larry Dixon in the quarterfinals, and top-five driver Antron Brown in the semifinals for a final-round meeting with seven-time and reigning titlist Tony Schumacher.
 
Like the Sylvester Stallone movie character Rocky Balboa, Lagana went the distance against the champion but didn't win. It almost didn't matter, though. The day marked the longtime racing family's first NHRA final-round appearance. That it came at the expense of three of drag racing's most respected drivers heightened the buzz.
 
America loves underdogs. So this was a moment of pure joy on a weekend interrupted by rain and tainted by infuriatingly long oildowns. Even Schumacher enjoyed Lagana's unforgettable performance that made him reminisce about his own first final in 1996. It was a milestone for Dom Lagana, just as older brother Bobby's IHRA championship in Feld Motorsports' new entertainment-style format. Bobby clinched that title Oct. 17 at Virginia Motorsports Park.
 

Understanding the dynamics

This all has been a fitting finish to this season that Bobby called "My Mom's The Best" Tour. It marks a decade since he and Dom lost their mother, Marie, to cancer. She passed away in December 2000, not long after she looked her son in the eye and told him not to stop racing. She knew it was what defined him. Surely she knew the two of them would be inconsolable for a long time without her, but she's a mother -- she knew they would be reeling without racing. She loved them and wanted them to be happy and feel fulfilled.
 
The notion of being fulfilled, for the Laganas, doesn't revolve around winning. What's important is that they are there, competing -- together.
 
"We're misfits," Lagana said, unashamed. Traveling around the country and racing, he said, is all about seeking "places to sleep, places to see, places to race. It's an awesome life."
 
It's not like their Scarsdale, N.Y., neighborhood where they've always stopped in at the family home when they weren't at a dragstrip.
 
He said he knows the neighbors must wonder who he is and what he does. He said he's pretty sure real-estate brokers aren't crazy about him. "We're the de-valuers of the block. If a home is listed for $650,000, people will say, 'who lives in that house that needs a good painting?!" he said. Bobby said friends and family in New York encourage him and his dad and brother to come home from their racing schedule and visit awhile -- but, he joked, after a short time they're urging them to start their nomadic racing cycle again and leave Scarsdale to contemplate their house's weather-worn paint job.
 
Bobby once told reporters, "We are doing exactly what makes us happy. Being at the track, staying up late, looking at the track, the cars, the trailers, hanging out with everybody, and throwing BS around the table – that all means a lot to us. That's what keeps us going."
 
During that time following their mother's death, the Lagana brothers forged an inseparable bond. Bobby, an emotional young man wise beyond his 32 years, explained it this way several years ago: "There really are no words to describe how I feel for my brother. People have no idea what they are missing by not having someone in their life like Dom is in mine. I never have to question anything, and I know he will always, always be there for me. There is no amount of money, no sponsorship, no deal that would ever separate us. We've been together constantly for so long and he wants what I want -- to go racing."
 
Nothing has changed today, although people have questioned Bobby about his influence on Dom.
 
"It's funny -- I've had more than my share of fans and friends -- they're all trying to be nice -- asking me, 'Do you think it's a good idea to drag your brother into this? Are you sure you should be dragging him all around the country?' Dom is an extremely independent person. I would never force him to do this."
 
Said Dom Lagana, "I love racing! I would sign on to racing forever. We have so much fun. We didn't always have such a competitive car, but we go out as a family."
 
So this Las Vegas feat gave Dom his day in the spotlight. But it was a shining moment for his father and brother, as well.
 
"What I always say is it's not just me," Dom said. "I'm just the person going down the track. Every person has a bit of himself with the car. It's how I feel when I'm on the outside [as a crew member for Bobby or another racer]. It's our car -- but its like the car has 10 seats."
 
Everybody goes on the run in spirit.
 
And watching is just fine with Bobby, he said.
 
"I love watching -- it's awesome. I almost dare to say it’s almost exhilarating outside the car. Inside the driver has to be a focused machine. He has to think about going straight down the track, about reaction time, about so many things. There's no margin for error," Bobby said.
 
He said Dom "is 10 times better" a drive, that the 25-year-old class newcomer handled facing the sports' stars with aplomb.
 
"He didn't break a sweat," Bobby said. "My knees were shaking. And I was thinking, 'Holy moly! That's what I would be saying, so I'd be in trouble already."
 
But Dom Lagana wasn't in trouble at all.

 
Viva Las Vegas!
 

"We run within our means. We run within our capability," Dom Lagana said. "Going to a final was out of control! I still can't believe it. I'm still grinning from ear to ear. Just to make a run and be alongside those guys was amazing.
 
"Beating Larry Dixon was unreal. We root for them so much. They are the best. I actually felt bad beating them," he said, knowing that eventually he'll get over that feeling as he develops a winning habit.
 
"We definitely didn't expect that," Dom said. "It was a dogfight just to get in."
 
In just his fifth NHRA appearance, Dom Lagana qualified 11th in a field that was too quick for Doug Kalitta, Morgan Lucas, and up-and-coming former IHRA regular Terry McMillen. They were among the 10 who missed the cut.
 
But once he made the grid, Lagana still figured he needed to be on his best behavior.
 
"You have a responsibility at the starting line," he said. "It's not to screw anybody up. They have earned that respect. They do this week in and week out. We want to go up there and be fair to the other driver and not mess him up. To win a round is a bonus."
 
To do it three times on a Sunday against drivers with a combined 15 championships and 136 event victories is even more staggering.
 
"For us to say that we would do that would be like completely going over our capability," Lagana said. "We knew Dixon and Schumacher and (Cory) McClenathan -- the pressure was on those guys."
 
Even though it wasn't what thrust him into the final round, his victory over Dixon was perhaps the biggest of the day, because points leader Dixon has been in a rugged battle down the stretch with first McClenathan and then Schumacher.
 
"We felt more proud to make good runs down the track," Bobby said.
 
In the same vein, he said the team -- which includes Wes Weinert, Matt Weinert, and Bob Szelag -- counts Bobby's track-record performance at modest Ware Shoals Dragway in South Carolina this May as one of their top three moments of this success-studded season. Just the same, the Las Vegas run to the final was right up there.
 
Against Dixon in Round 2 at Las Vegas, once the shock wore off Bobby Jr. and Sr. and the rest of their crew, Bobby Jr. tried to congratulate Dom via radio. But Dom had turned his head ever so slightly, cutting off the signal for a second. When he finally heard Bobby shouting in his ear that he had won, it was Dom's turn to be in shock. "Nah, no way!" Dom told Bobby.
 
"He was in total shock and disbelief," Bobby said.
 
"We can't stop smiling. We're still smiling," Dom said.
 
Schumacher was smiling, too, as happy for the Lagana family's big moment as he was to win and pull within 85 points of Dixon in the standings with only the season finale remaining in the Countdown.
 
"I remember 1996 and my first final. There you were in the finals, racing Cory McClenathan. It was something real special to me," Schumacher said, "and I hope he remembers it like I did."
 
He said Lagana did "a heck of a job," adding, "If he had won, I would've walked over and held his hand up like a champion. It's a cool thing to remember, your first final round, against a good team like us.
 
"They did a great job. They were running better than we were at Indy. They had a good car, and they were making good calls."
 
Said Bobby Lagana, "It shows if you put your mind to it and work your butt off, you can achieve things. We're well ahead of where we ever envisioned."
 

The long and winding road  . . .
 

Certainly, who knew that in just five NHRA events, Dom would get the hang of it so quickly? Who knew the Lagana family finally would shake some of their rotten luck? For years people had hoped to see that happen, but many stopped expecting they ever would.
It just seemed little went the Laganas' way.
 
Only one year and four months after Bobby Lagana earned his Top Fuel license, he had his worst day in a race car.
 
It was July 11, 1998, at New York International Raceway Park (now Empire Dragway) in Leicester (pronounced "Lester"), N.Y. In the opening round of qualifying for the IHRA CARQUEST Empire Nationals, the throttle on his dragster hung open. It sent the car skating off the end of the track after a run clocked at 233.64 miles an hour. He tore through the sand trap and catch netting, through some woods, and stopped in a field.
 
"Dom was right there," Bobby recalled. "He was running through the weeds, looking for his brother."
 
Lagana was transported to a hospital in Rochester, where doctors tried feverishly to re-attach three of his fingers and mend his broken right ankle. He lost one finger on his right hand. A pushy nurse broke one of his injured fingers by forcing him to put too much pressure on it during a physical-therapy session.
 
But he returned to the track, continuing to carry his dragster on the 1969 Ford ramp truck that had hauled dad Bobby Sr.'s "Twilight Zone" nitro Funny Car for nearly a quarter-century. A dinosaur among the fancy haulers, the ramp truck couldn't protect the dragster from the elements. The car's tires, rear wing, nose, and even cockpit would get a thorough washing if he drove in a rainstorm on the way to a race track or home. (And, of course, it never rains near a dragstrip.
 
Finally Lagana got a dually, a 1985 Ford F-350, along with a 42-foot Gold Rush trailer, in 2004. The team had joined the 20th Century -- never mind that it was the 21st already. They were going to travel at least a little more in style for the campaign he called his "All or Nothing Tour."
 
It was one of the finest of his career. He was smokin' hot. But so was his truck. It burned completely, just as he was preparing for the IHRA season-opener at San Antonio -- a long enough hike from suburban New York City.
 
Bobby lost clothes, a digital camera . . . Pretty much everything he owned. "The only thing left is a Care Bear, and it needs a skin graft," he said. But an army of well-wishers -- he received. Lance Larsen, at the time Millican's team manager, bought him a new wardrobe. And Lagana received 75 phone calls and 35 e-mails from friends and strangers alike, offering to help him. He traveled about 1,600 miles to Texas, just to record a DNQ and blow up his engine in the process.
 
And so it has gone with Bobby Lagana until this year.
 
Dom Lagana grew up seeing it all.
 
The family's Twilight Zone Dragster on the ramp truck to him is like some other boy's memory of a first bike or his Little League uniform. That dragster and truck conjure  special memories.
 
For years, they never had top-of-the-line equipment. They begged, borrowed, and bartered for parts. And although they never had a surplus of equipment, they always were happy to share with someone in worse need.
 
Dom saw the hardships, including Bobby's frightening accident at a New York dragstrip that cost him some fingers.
 
But he also saw Bobby's irrepressibly cheerful spirit shine through all the misfortune that might have driven any other man from the sport. He watched Bobby carry his first IHRA Ironman trophy around to the races so anybody who stopped by could hold it and get a photo taken with it or just touch it.
 
And that's why the Lagana family is so popular.
 

'Everybody Loves Lagana'

Proof of the respect the Lagana family has among the racers is an message fellow Top Fuel driver T.J. Zizzo, also a former IHRA driver, sent out via e-mail. It recognized that the NHRA and Full Throttle have nominated Lagana and his team for the Full Throttle Hardworking Crew Award, an award based on fan voting. Each of the four pro classes will have a winner, announced this weekend at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
 
Zizzo, himself on a limited schedule with a family-operated team, encouraged fans to vote for Lagana by visiting www.NHRA.com/HardworkingCrew this week.
 
"I've known Dom and the Lagana family for a long time, and I'll admit, I'm a little jealous of what they accomplished in Vegas," Zizzo said from his Lincolnshire, Ill., home Sunday. "But at the same time, I'm happy for him and proud of what he and his family-owned team were able to do. And I can't imagine another team more deserving of this award than them.
 
"It also gives us hope, because we're a family-run team that competes on a limited schedule. When I see what he was able to do, it makes me think that we can get our PEAK/Herculiner Dragster in the same situation and, hopefully, win all four rounds on a Sunday afternoon."
 
And this is from a competitor who saw Bobby Lagana accidentally crush the front wing of his car after he lost his brakes at half-track during qualifying at the Houston NHRA event a few years ago. For Lagana, it was an ugly mishap in Bill Miller's dragster; for low-budget Zizzo, it was an expensive exercise in being at the wrong place at the wrong time -- something that Lagana appreciated more than most.
 
Top Fuel driver and drag-racing instructor Doug Foley, a good friend of Lagana's from their IHRA days, said, "If you're a die-hard racer and you don't like Bobby Lagana, there's something wrong with you. He races from the heart."
 
"When I crashed in '98," Bobby said, "one of the first guys to call me up was Larry Dixon. He didn't know me from a hole in the wall. Gave me 500 bucks and called me up in the hospital. That's stuff you never forget. That's a hell of a guy."
 
Even drag racing legend Don Garlits has noticed the Lagana family's effort. Years ago, he said, "Every time I see Bobby Lagana racing Top Fuel, I'm amazed at how much he can do with so little."
 
That's the family's trademark -- doing a lot with so little. Now, with some sponsorship support, maybe they can show a little more.
 
 

 
'Take it out to Pomona . . . '

 
"We're just riding the wave," Dom Lagana said.
 
At the crest of that is extended sponsorship from Big O/Tire Kingdom for seven races in 2011.
 
"We don't know which ones. We're just kind of waiting [to find out]," Bobby said, adding that Dom likely will drive at all seven NHRA races while he gets behind the wheel in IHRA competition.
 
He said the company "sees the value of drag racing," and Dom said Big O/Tire Kingdom "is the only reason we've been able to come out west."
 
The Laganas never have raced at Pomona," Dom said. They'll get their chance this weekend at the Automobile Club of Southern California Finals at the Los Angeles County Fairplex's Auto Club Raceway.
 
"We've worked on Clay's car and on Jack Wyatt's car and with Scott Palmer. But this will be my first time racing there -- our first time racing there," he said.
 
With newfound confidence, maybe Dom Lagana can pull the upsets again. No matter what, after this weekend, he'll have seen and learned that much more. 

 

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