Bogacki refocused on the national IHRA sched-
ule for 2008, resulting in two national-event wins
in Stock, one in Quick Rod and another in Top
Dragster. His ’08 efforts also delivered the IHRA
Division 3 championship in Top Dragster while
he became the first driver in IHRA history to
finish in the top ten in three different national
categories (second in Stock, fourth in Top Drag-
ster, fourth in Quick Rod). Bogacki also was voted
2008 IHRA Sportsman Driver of the Year.
While he added another pair of IHRA Quick
Rod national-event titles in 2009, Bogacki turned
much of his attention back to NHRA, a deci-
sion leading to a pair of Super Comp victories
and representing his first NHRA national-event
wins. He also won the Summit All-Stars event in
Top Dragster and prevailed with big-dollar wins
in the World Footbrake Challenge, the Tenn-Tuck
Triple Crown Series, and the annual 5-Day brack-
et event at Bradenton, Florida.
“Yeah, by that time I guess you could classify
me as a professional bracket racer, but now I’ve
got a lot of other income streams, racing related,”
Bogacki says. “The turning point I guess for me
professionally or financially was in 2009 when
I developed ThisIsBracketRacing.com, which
is basically our online driving school. It’s been
going now for eight years. Obviously took on a
lot of different forms, but it’s probably stronger
now than it’s ever been.
“Along the way, (the site) started selling parts,
too, and that’s created a little bit of extra income.
PROFESSIONAL SPORTSMAN RACER
Luke Bogacki’s operation might be found in the
sportsman pits at NHRA national events, but he’s a
professional racer in the truest sense of the term,
earning his living behind the wheel of a race car.
And like I said, I did the PR deal for a while, but I
basically separated from that. But I started doing
the Sportsman Drag Racing Podcast with Jared
Pennington, which of course is not really an in-
come generator but it’s a neat deal to connect
with other racers and fans. And the following, it’s
been incredible. We just launched it in December
2016 and it’s really taken off. It’s on iTunes, on
Google Play, and it’s on Stitcher.”
For 2010, Bogacki again concentrated on
NHRA, racing in Super Comp and Stock Elim-
inator within the Lucas Oil national sportsman
series, where a second-place points finish in Super
Comp and sixth-place result in Stock led to him
being voted NHRA Division 2 Sportsman Driver
of the Year. Simultaneous to his NHRA efforts,
Bogacki continued to win big-dollar bracket races,
a practice he concentrated on the next year.
Also in 2011, Bogacki partnered with I-57 Drag-
strip, a small outlaw track near his southern Illi-
nois home, to bring a big-dollar, bracket-racing
door car event to the property.
“This July will be our 7th annual JEG’s Summer
Door Car Shootout, a door-car-only bracket race.
81
It’s really taken off, and then last year we add-
ed a second race that we called the Racing RVs
Exclusive 150,” he says. “So we’re putting on two
events a year at the local track, and now they’re
up on their feet and doing pretty good. But the
first couple of years that door car event kind of
subsidized the track. So that was neat just to be
able to help get it back going. And it’s been a good
thing for us, too. Like I said, I’ve got my hands in a
number of different things, but all racing related.”
Meanwhile, another return to NHRA action
came in 2012, with newlywed Bogacki driving
his familiar Super Comp dragster in addition to a
brand-new ‘63 Corvette Super Gas entry. No new-
car blues there, however, as Bogacki won Super
Gas with it the first time out at the national event
in Houston, then repeated the feat at Brainerd,
Minnesota, and won a Super Gas divisional race
later in the season. He also secured a Super Comp
win with his dragster at Las Vegas that year and
finished third overall nationally in both Super
Comp and Super Gas.
In addition to his son’s birth in April, Bogacki’s
2013 racing season was absolutely memorable.
After scoring one NHRA national-event win
in Super Comp, plus four divisional race run-
ners-up, it all added up to a career-first NHRA
world championship, plus his fourth NHRA di-
visional season title. The following year brought
even more NHRA national success with a second
world title, this time in Super Gas following na-
tional-event wins at Topeka and Chicago, as well