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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