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18 year old walks away with a victory on the final day of the B&M Million-Dollar Weekend. Eighteen year old drag racer Luke Bogacki, from Arlington, Texas drove the distance to Montgomery Motorsports Park (Montgomery, AL) this weekend, like many other racers from across the country, in search of the one million dollar grand prize awarded to Saturday nights winner. “The B&M Million is the biggest drag race there is,” he says. “It’s the largest purse available for any type of drag racing, from Street ET to Top Fuel.” Bogacki did not take home the Saturday night win, but did the next best thing by taking a $20,000 victory in Sunday’s “Cool Down” event. Bogacki, in his 1999 Cameron Dragster, sawed through a ten round field of over 300 cars to take the largest payday of his young career. “This is amazing,” he said. “Just being here is an honor. But to win-especially considering the level of talent and experience within this field, I can’t believe it.” The first person Luke Bogacki thanked Sunday evening was Bryan Finley at Mid-America Fiber Pullers, out of Ft. Worth, Texas. “I wasn’t even going to be here this weekend-Bryan had a lot of faith in me and in our team. We came up with a deal on Tuesday, and he agreed to sponsor the trip. If it weren’t for him and the folks at Mid-America Fiber Pullers, I’d have been racing for $1500 today at Little River (Temple, TX) back home.” Obviously the agreement proved beneficial to both parties. Bogacki was able to lay down good packages all the way through, knocking off heavy hitters Jason Folk, Marty Wiles, and Allen Britt before meeting up with Bob Harris in the seventh round. “Bob is one of those guys I’ve only read about, he’s probably won more races than I’ve attended!” Joked the young Texan. “Fortunately, I got the advantage at the tree and won when we both went dead-on.” Bogacki’s toughest round of the night, however, came with five cars remaining when he drew Floridian Manny Sousa. “Manny worried me more than anyone,” he said. “His style of racing is almost identical to mine-we’re both set to wreck the tree, and we both carry some ET at the stripe. I didn’t like the situation, because the winner was going to be whoever hit the brakes at the right time, and Manny is awful savvy on the stripe.” So, uncharacteristically, Bogacki dialed more honest for this round. “I thought that if I could hit the tree, he’d want the stripe, and hopefully I could break him out.” “Manny did everything right. We were both .514, and he took .006 at the stripe. Fortunately, my plan worked. That’s one nice thing about having a car that works as well as this one.” Bogacki was dead-on, 5.450 on his 5.45 dial to earn a bye into the final, where he defeated last years Million Dollar Race runner-up, Kenny Newberry. “I think I won the final when we drew for lanes,” said the eighteen-year-old. “Kenny didn’t feel comfortable on the tree in the left, he said he stacked the box up.” Bogacki took a .518 to .524 advantage on the tree to a .007 second margin of victory and a huge payday. Although Bogacki averaged a .510 starting line reaction time, and was never worse than .519 through the ten round event, he gave all the credit to the Cameron Dragster, which ran dead-on in six of his ten victories. “Nathan Martin and George Watson at Cameron Race Cars built an amazing piece of equipment. The car was absolutely nasty all weekend-it would’ve been dead-on every round had I not had room to lift.” He went on to credit the Mickey Thompson slicks-“These are a new experimental tire for Mickey Thompson, and they’re awesome. Hopefully the compound will be available for everyone next season.” Bogacki also credited product from Hedman Hedders, Goza Racing Products, Brodix Cylinder Heads, Taylor Vertex, TD Performance Products, Weld Racing, Comp Cams, Autometer, Harwood, Mr. Wendell’s Torque Delivery Systems, and B&M for having a part in the deadly consistent combination. “This car is for sale,” Bogacki said after the event. “I hate to see it go, but we’ve got a new one coming. This car can win someone a lot of races, and a lot of money.” Bogacki also wished to thank his Mom and Dad, Ellen and Gary Bogacki, as well as Wendell Dunaway, all his buddies at Punkid racing, and of course Bryan Finley and Mid-America Fiber Pullers. This win, in addition to being the biggest in his career, had a special meaning to Bogacki. “Last Thursday, a good friend of mine and a great racer, Brian Canada, was killed in a motorcycle accident outside of Oklahoma City. He was only Thirty-nine years old. Brian was a great guy, he always treated me like gold, and I don’t think he ever met a stranger. Like most of us, racing was his passion, and I think he’d like to be remembered for some of the things he accomplished on the track, although he will be missed so dearly for his presence away from it. The most impressive thing about his racing career was the fact that he won, and at times dominated, in cars that weren’t the best. In all his years of racing, he never had the opportunity to drive the type of equipment I’ve been offered at such a young age. For that reason, and for all he’s done for me in the past, I’d like to dedicate this win to his memory.” Brian will be dearly missed. |