LUKE BOGACKI
“ WHAT I THINK REALLY MAKES [ THE SPRING FLING MILLION WIN ] SPECIAL , IS THE REALIZATION OF JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE PAYING ATTENTION AND HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE GENUINELY HAPPY TO SEE US GET THAT WIN .”
A second successful Jr . Dragster season followed in 1994 , but Bogacki voluntarily opted out of racing the next year to work at the Kennedale track and save his money for a “ real ” car . In January 1996 he found it , a ‘ 73 Nova that a then-14-year-old Bogacki promptly wheeled to victory at Cedar Creek Dragway , again in his first time racing a full-sized ride .
“ I ran my first NHRA national event with that car later that year at 15 ,” he recalls . “ Now you ’ ve got to be 18 , but at that time in Texas if you could justify that you needed to drive at 15 — you had to have a way to get to school or to work or what have you — you could get a license with restrictions , like you had to drive between 7 a . m . and 7 p . m . or something like that — and you couldn ’ t tow anything .
“ Both of my parents worked and obviously there was transportation to and from school , but I think I justified it through the after-school job that I had , but it was just to go racing . That was really what it was for .”
In 1997 , often running as many as five times a week , Bogacki enjoyed great success in the Nova while still a high-school student , putting 24 events in the win column that year while making nearly 900 passes down local eighth-mile strips .
“ I ’ ll always look back on that season as probably the most memorable and most fun I ’ ve ever had racing . I was 16 ; I ’ d just got my license and all I wanted to do was race . Dad had helped me make my old Nova into a real reliable piece ,” Bogacki says in his online bio , though he admits it wasn ’ t going to win any car-show trophies . “ It was god-awful ugly ; mostly factory brown , but we ’ d torched out the door beams and put a bigger tire under it that didn ’ t really fit , so we ’ d cut out the fenders . So that was all bare metal . Then to top it off the wheels and tires for it were an old set off my Dad ’ s Vega that he ’ d painted blue . That really went well with brown and rust ! I was somewhere and couldn ’ t make the bump for Super Pro , so I ditched the front bumper . It never found its way back on the car . It was rough for sure , but it was the perfect learning tool .”
Recognizing his son ’ s obvious talent , for the 1998 season Gary Bogacki turned over the helm of his ’ 32 Bantam Altered , in which the young rising star earned his NHRA Super Comp license . Though still racing his Nova at local bracket races — and often winning — Bogacki took on the NHRA Division 4 Super Comp tour in his dad ’ s Bantam , while also driving Stock Eliminator entries for several other car owners and eventually finishing fifth in Div . 4 Stock class points .
A 17-year-old Bogacki capped off an exciting ’ 98 season with a huge Labor Day weekend outing at Texas Raceway , steering the Nova to back-to-back bracket wins on Saturday and Sunday in the No Electronics class before scoring a 32-car shootout win with the Altered on Monday that delivered a brand-new Cameron Race Cars dragster as his prize . “ That ’ s how I got my first dragster ,” he says . “ And things kind of snowballed from there .”
More bracket racing in the new dragster followed in 1999 , highlighted by a $ 20,000 win at Montgomery , Alabama — Bogacki ’ s first truly national victory — on the final day of the original Million Dollar Drag Race , pioneered by the late George Howard . He hasn ’ t missed one since . To start the new millennium , though , Bogacki ventured into IHRA competition for the first time , eventually landing the inaugural IHRA Division 4 Quick Rod championship and finishing third in Hot Rod points .
Unfortunately , Bogacki was about to experience his most conflicted season ever in 2001 , as he scored seven major wins on his way to securing a B & M Series Division 4 championship , but also tragically lost his dad to cancer that August . Devastated but resolute , at just 20 years old , Bogacki returned to racing just weeks after his father ’ s death , participating in a Million Dollar race in Atlanta , where he not only won a $ 20,000 one-day purse , but a special-event shootout , too . He recognizes some people may wonder how he could compartmentalize the decision to compete , but explains it stems from the example set by his father .
“ That was a really special weekend ,” Bogacki remembers . “ Mom and I went out there , obviously with a lot of confusion in our lives and very heavy hearts . Racing was what brought Dad and I together , and when I say we were best friends , we were . Sure , we had the normal father-son spats , but we were tight . To some , it probably seems strange that I got back to racing so quickly , but that ’ s what he would have wanted . To see me succeed in this sport , I think that was very fulfilling for him .
80
“ I watched a Sports Century episode on ESPN about the Petty family , and they focused on the death of Kyle ’ s son Adam in a racing incident . They interviewed Richard Petty and asked him about getting the team back on the race track . He simply replied , ’ That ’ s who we are ; that ’ s what we do ; the Pettys race .’ That , in essence , was how I felt about getting back on the track myself .”
Three series titles came Bogacki ’ s way the following year , including both Quick Rod and Hot Rod in IHRA Division 4 , along with the 2002 Southern Super Tens Bracket Series championship . Meanwhile , Bogacki was also attending Northwood University in north Texas , where he graduated in May 2003 with a Bachelors degree in Automotive Aftermarket Business Management . A move to upstate Alabama followed shortly after graduation , where he put that fresh degree to work at Huntsville Engine and Performance .
“ I was basically doing marketing , answering calls , sales , and did that for two years before I decided it wasn ’ t really for me . But we ’ ve still got a great relationship ,” he quickly adds . “ Huntsville had always built my engines previous to that and they ’ ve built my engines ever since . I just wanted to basically pursue the timed racing and I was doing some PR work , press releases and things like that . But racing had been really good , so I kind of took off on that road and scraped by ; truly racing for a living for probably five years or so , just did bracket racing almost exclusively for 45 weekends a year , three or four nights a week . Just ran all over the country and had a lot of fun , met a lot of cool people , but if you put pencil to paper on that the math is very difficult to make work . It ’ s kind of feast or famine .”
In truth , it appeared to be more feast than famine for Bogacki . Coming off an ’ 04 run that delivered the southeastern Tenn Tuck championship , as well as weekend series titles from widely spaced Montgomery Raceway Park and Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk , Ohio , he finished 2005 with a DragRaceResults . com Bracket Series Division 2 Sportsman crown and the Division 2 Super Pro and Sportsman titles the following year . Then , in addition to several big-money bracket race wins nationwide in 2007 , Bogacki added DragRaceResults . com Bracket Series world championships in both Super Pro and Sportsman to his racing résumé .