LUKE BOGACKI |
DREAMS FULFILLED |
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After notching the most prestigious event victories onto his scorecard, Bogacki has far exceeded the expecations he set when he was growing up.“ I don’ t feel like there’ s anything I can look back on now and say,‘ Well, I wish I’ d have done this or that.’” |
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PHOTO: GARY NASTASE |
cally is done with a wide-open fuel curve. Again, he says there’ s not nearly as many variables, plus whatever the car runs, the driver could just match it with the dial in.“ Whereas in class racing it’ s a set index and then you’ ve got the down RPM, the time limits on the throttle stop and that’ s a completely different fuel curve from wide open and requires a little bit different converter set up. There’ s a lot more variables in this stuff than a wide-open bracket race.”
As an expert at both, even Bogacki says he’ s become somewhat surprised to say he now prefers index racing over running brackets— in most cases.
“ Like all bracket racers, I used to say, how do you stand that NHRA stuff? You sit there all
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weekend to run one race. You know what I mean? But I’ ve actually gotten to the point— and I never thought I’ d say this 10 years ago— but from a driving standpoint I actually enjoy these( NHRA events) more just because there’ s so many more variables. There’ s so much more to think about and there’ s more emphasis on finish line driving.
“ And I don’ t know, the only thing that I could compare to winning The Million, because electricity-wise that’ s a pretty neat setup, but I don’ t know if anything compares to Indy. Monday at Indy is special. I always hold those two days— Saturday at The Million and Monday at Indy— as kind of on par. It is a different type of pressure, but that electricity is in the air that you just don’ t really get any other time.”
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Regardless, Bogacki seems to recognize his Spring Fling Million win as a crowning achievement to his on-track career. He has no real interest in stepping up to the pro ranks( though admits if Don Schumacher came calling with an offer,“ it’ d be hard to turn down”), and appears more interested in his son’ s potential Jr. Dragster start another four years down the road.
“ I’ m sure there’ s not going to be any getting him away from it. Yeah, he’ s already hooked now, so if he continues on this path there will be no other way,” Bogacki says.“ And at this point, my racing is going to slow down a lot. Gary is going to start school, so I just want to be home more. It’ s neat, timing-wise, for it all to come together like this. Not to say I’ m just going to hang it up. I’ m still going to be around, but I don’ t have much intention of racing at this level much longer.
“ At the end of this year I plan to scale it back a little bit. I just want to have two cars, one for me, one for Jessica, and kind of pick and choose races. We just built a new car for my wife and then I’ ve got a little Vega that most people probably associate with me when I was just bracket racing. That’ s the car I barnstormed the country with and just beat the heck out of for years. It’ s actually got the year off. I got it stripped down to nothing, kind of redoing it all in hopes that next year when I slow down a little bit, that’ ll be the car that I race most of the time and I want it to be nice.”
Additionally, Bogacki says the victory in Vegas feels like a career-completing accomplishment.
“ I’ ve won two NHRA world championships; I’ ve won Indy; won the JEG’ s Allstars. If you had a grand slam of sportsman bracket racing, the only thing that was missing was winning The Million. But at that same time, you figure there are 230 cars; the competition is so tough; it’ s so random to actually win. But to me, doing it is kind of like the last leg of a grand slam, really fulfilling. I don’ t feel like there’ s anything I can look back on now and say,‘ Well, I wish I’ d have done this or that.’
“ It’ s kind of surreal because coming into this deal, I grew up racing. My dad raced. So I felt like I had big goals, big dreams. But I’ d never dreamed any of this. It’ s far exceeded my expectations. So it’ s cool to be here at 35 years old and say,‘ Well, if it ended tomorrow I’ d have no regrets. You know what I mean? Everything is pretty cool.” DI
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