Although Top Fuel team owner Santo Rapisarda had said he likely would bring an Australian driver to Las Vegas to drive the Titan Cranes Dragster at the April 10-12 SummitRacing.com Nationals, he announced New Yorker Dom Lagana will return to the cockpit.
 
Damien Harris is carrying the RAI banner in Australia, leading the ANDRA Top Fuel standings, teammate Wayne Newby is third there, and Rapisarda said he wants to concentrate on winning the championship in their native country.
 
He hinted that when the ANDRA series concludes in June, he might decide to add some NHRA races to the one Mello Yello Drag Racing Series commitment at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
 
The RAI-Lagana combo last raced at last November's NHRA Finals at Pomona, Calif. Lagana qualified 10th in the fastest field in NHRA history, defeated Khalid alBalooshi in the opening round, then lost to Antron Brown in the quarterfinals.
 
Rapisarda called Lagana "an underrated talent."
 
He told Auto Action magazine's John Doig, "There are a lot of drivers in America looking for a ride, and I believe that Dom is the pick of the bunch. He did very well for the team at Pomona, gets in to help the team between the runs, and also gets on very well with my boys [crew chiefs Santo Rapisarda Jr. and Santino Rapisarda]. He is an underrated talent, and having a driver of his ability is a coup for the team."

Lagana, who also drove for RAI last September at the U.S. Nationals, told Doig, "I’m really excited to be invited by Santo to race for the Rapisarda family. In Pomona we ran a 3.76/519 km/h - that was a [personal best] for the team and myself – and we hope to go even better in Vegas. There are some great race teams out there, and we can’t get ahead of ourselves. First we need to qualify, and then we can start thinking about winning rounds."

The Sydney-based RAI operation will have to scramble after competing Saturday in the Santo Super 3 Extreme event at Willowbank Raceway near Brisbane, in Queensland. They'll return to Sydney, in New South Wales, then regroup and fly Tuesday to Las Vegas.
 
The trans-Pacific adventure possibly will extend into the summer and fall in the U.S., Rapisarda suggested.
 
"Maybe," he said. "I want to win the Australian title. We are leading the championship with Damien Harris, and Wayne Newby is in third place. The local title is our focus, but after the final round of the season in June, we will have some time on our hands and then will look at going back to run the NHRA series."

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