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Sam Kouvaris: Lagasse continues area's speed tradition

Staff Writer
Florida Times-Union

There’s always been a connection between North Florida and NASCAR.

LeeRoy Yarbrough called Jacksonville home and won 14 times on the top-rated NASCAR Grand National Circuit.

Speedway Park, also known as Jacksonville Speedway, was a half-mile dirt track at Lenox Avenue and Plymouth Street in what was then called Southwest Jacksonville.

The track hosted seven NASCAR Grand National races, won by racing legends like Lee Petty and David Pearson.

Wendell Scott won the race there in 1963 and was the first and remains the only only African-American driver to win on NASCAR’s top circuit.

Jacksonville Speedway closed in 1973 and a housing development now occupies that spot.

From his shop in St. Augustine, Scott Lagasse Jr. continues that North Florida speed tradition.

His father, Scott Lagasse Sr., had been a racecar driver for all of Scott Jr.’s life. He faintly recalled his dad’s success in the Sports Car Club of America Corvette Challenge Series in St. Petersburg in October 1989.

“I can barely remember that,” he said. “But his original Corvette Challenge car was from Jack Wilson Chevrolet. He got wrecked early but came back and won.”

Lagasse Sr. raced 39 times across the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck series after winning back-to-back SCCA National Championships in the 1980s.

"A couple out of Wisconsin bought that Challenge Series Corvette sometime in the ‘90s,” he explained. “They restored it and got all the ratings. They called us last year and said, 'It’s time for it to go back to its home,' and sent it to the shop. It sits there now. It’s really cool.”

Scott Jr. knew early on he wanted to race.

“I remember my first motor cross bike, for sure. I wasn’t good on two wheels. I was better on four,” he said this week as he prepared to drive the No. 4 Camaro for JD Motorsports Saturday in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series. He qualified 17th and finished 21st.

“I got in a car my dad was using to transition from the road track to the oval world. It was a fast car at St. Augustine Speedway. I ran my first race and won. I just had to lean on 30 years of stuff that was going in my ear,” Lagasse said with a laugh of his quick learning curve.

 A competitive nature has always been a part of Lagasse’s personality. A multi-faceted athlete, he says driving a race car feeds that perfectly.

“It’s just a form of competition. The sport has competitive people. There’s the thrill of having to be perfect. It’s a high-speed chess game out there. A tenth of a second matters, and all of that happens at 180 miles a hour.”

And it was that competitive part of his personality that ultimately led to a self-diagnosis of a serious medical condition.

“I was on the bike doing two-a-days, working on going to Charlotte to see Jimmy Johnson for his triathlon,” Lagasse said.

“I texted my doctor, and I just didn’t feel right. I was having to take days off because of a ‘tightness’ I felt after workouts.”

Lagasse went to see a gastrointestinal specialist who found cancerous polyps in his colon. He had surgery and was back racing in six weeks. “It was the competitive side of me that forced me to the doctor.”

That’s one of the reason’s he’s is excited about his No. 4 Camaro this weekend sponsored by locals Micah Linton and Wally Devlin of the Rimrock-Devlin Group.

“There was open (sponsorship) space on the car and they put the Jay Fund on it. That has a really personal connection for me having gone through it.”

The Jay Fund is Tom Coughlin’s charity that helps families battle childhood cancer.

Throughout his career, Lagasse has had success on several racing levels and has had offers to drive full-time on NASCAR’s top circuits. None were fully funded, top competitive teams, so he chose to race where he thought he had a chance to win.

“Could it have been different?” the 39-year old asked rhetorically. “Probably, but I’m really committed to the road race program we have going on.”

Lagasse has 13 races on the schedule for his Camaro in the National Trans Am Series this year. Last September, he won his first Trans Am race and was surprised by his ability to adapt.

“I’ve been pretty good on superspeedways, but our team is really committed to our road race program.”

An avid cyclist, the Flagler College grad is the spokesperson for the Alert Today Florida campaign, which raises awareness about pedestrian and bicycle safety.

Lagasse and his wife, Kelley, have two young children, so will the racing bloodline continue?

“I was watching a race the other night with our 4-year old daughter,” Scott said. “And she said, ‘This looks like a lot of fun.’ And I said, ‘No, no, no, a piano is a lot more fun.’”