Reigning NHRA Super Gas Champion Luke Bogacki showed why he wears the number 1 on the side of one of his competition vehicles for a second consecutive season with a strong performance at last weekend’s Lucas Oil NHRA Route 66 Nationals. Bogacki, who earned a berth in the prestigious JEGS All-Stars event for the first time in his accomplished career, drove his Racing RV’s backed, Charlie Stewart Race Cars built Corvette roadster to the victory over an elite 8-car field. The JEGS All-Stars field is comprised of the top representatives from each of NHRA’s seven geographic divisions, plus the defending JEGS All-Star champion. As is the case every season, this year’s Super Gas lineup read like a “Who’s Who” of 9.90 campaigners. This season’s All-Star roster included Jason Kenny, Steve Furr, Bogacki, Steve Collier, Trevor Larson, Kari Larson, Eddy Plazier and Marko Perivolaris.

Bogacki opened the JEGS All-Star competition with a marquee matchup, as he faced off with defending All-Stars champion Trevor Larson in a bout between the top two national points finishers from 2014. After leaving first .011 to .030, Bogacki got the nod in a double breakout decision with a near-perfect 9.899 ET. That setup a semi-final meeting with Division 6 representative Eddy Plazier, who made the trip to Chicago all the way from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. There, Bogacki used a sizeable starting line advantage (.017 to .042) to defeat Plazier with a 9.919 elapsed time. Waiting for Luke in the final round was Division 7’s Perivolaris, driving his Corvette roadster based out of Petaluma, CA.

For the third consecutive round, Bogacki took the starting line advantage, .009 to .020, and he once again held on for a double-breakout victory, crossing the finish line first by just .002-of-a-second to win with a 9.891 ET to the 9.882 of Perivolaris.

“Just earning a spot in the JEGS All-Stars was a huge goal of mine coming into the season,” expressed Bogacki. “I’ve been really fortunate in my racing career: I’ve had the opportunity to win a lot of races and accomplish a lot of things in this sport that most racers only dream about. As a result, my remaining checklist of accomplishments, if you will, is pretty short: win the Million Dollar Race, win the U.S. Nationals, and win the JEGS All-Stars. Being able to check this off is a major accomplishment. Everyone works all season just to earn a spot in this race; and once you’re here all you’ve got to do is beat three of the best racers in the world – It’s a tall order! I do want to extend a huge thank you to NHRA and to Woody (Scott Woodruff), the Coughlin family, and everyone at JEGS for making this event so special. They make us feel like the stars of the show for a weekend, it’s really a neat deal.”

As if his All-Stars title wasn’t enough, Bogacki also made his way through a deep and talented field of Super Comp entrants in the Lucas Oil NHRA Route 66 Nationals, advancing his K&N Filters backed dragster to the final round of Super Comp before falling to good friend and two-time Million Dollar Race winner Gary Williams.
To earn his spot in the final round, Bogacki defeated Ken Moses, Rustin Mayse, Britt Cummings, Josh Gnandt, and Troy Coughlin, Jr. before taking a semi-final bye run. Alongside Williams in the final round, Bogacki was uncharacteristically late with a .039 reaction time, and broke out with a 8.899 ET despite trailing Williams at the finish line by .001-of-a-second.
“Gary is a great racer, and he did a great job. I wish I could have put up a little better fight in the final round, but he definitely earned this title. I’m not sure you could hand pick a group of opponents that would make for a tougher road to victory than the one he had; he showed why he’s one of the best all weekend. On our end, I was really happy with both our Racing RV’s Corvette and K&N Filters dragster; they were flawless all weekend. We had a pretty rough start to our season, so hopefully when we look back in a few months we can say that this was the weekend where we really turned the corner.”

Courtesy Luke Bogacki Motorsports news