Bogacki DQ

[Luke Bogacki]

Wow, good to see so many people keep up with what I’m doing! Lol
I’ve gotten about a dozen calls over the past two days telling me I have to read these message boards. I would’ve posted sooner but I just got home from Brainerd: my phenomenal weekend just got better once I left the track. My truck broke down and I spent the better part of a day in Nowhere, WI.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a fan of message board forums; I don’t think many positives can come from this discussion (except to possibly keep other racers from making a mistake similar to mine). Additionally, my blood pressure rises at the thought of this whole situation, and I’d rather not relive it. So, while I feel the need to make a statement, an explanation of sorts, this will be my only “post.” It’s already in the past as far as I’m concerned, and I’m not going to spend any more time dwelling on it.
The Nova that I drive in Stock has an aluminum headed 396 Chevrolet. It’s advertised horsepower is 375, and NHRA has factored it to 405. That is a legal combination in 1968 and 1969, with a natural class of A/SA (meaning with it I can run AA/SA, A/SA, or B/SA in NHRA competition). In Brainerd, I wrote the year model on my tech card as a 1970. In 1970, the 396 combination wasn’t even offered. There was a (somewhat) similar 402 motor (factored at 405 as well), but with the 402 the ‘70 model’s natural class is B/SA, which means that it’s not eligible to run AA/SA. The tech officials caught the discrepancy (or were made aware of it by another competitor; I have no idea) after the final qualifying session. I was called to the tech trailer and after a brief discussion and review of the classification guide I was informed that I had no options at that point, and was promptly disqualified from the event.
This was nothing more than a boneheaded mistake on my part. The car is a legal AA/SA car, with a legal AA/SA combination: I’ve run AA/SA at 4 of the 6 NHRA events I’ve run with the car over the last two seasons. I simply wrote the wrong year model on my tech card. I know what you’re thinking: how could you make such an ignorant, stupid mistake? Believe me, I asked myself the same question for 1500 miles coming home. I didn’t realize I’d done it until the tech card & class guide was shown to me in the tech trailer (as I was being disqualified). The only explanation I can give is that Bryan (Robinson, the car owner) and I had reviewed the classification guide and discussed it a few months ago; reviewing the different possible combinations that we could run by making fairly minimal changes to alter the year model (which is pretty common in Stock by my understanding). I’ve only been able to run the car a handful of times this season, so the information wasn’t fresh in my mind. Apparently, I got it all mixed up in my little pea-brain.
I’m extremely upset with myself, and embarrassed for making such an ignorant mistake. Doing something like that anywhere is bad enough, but to do it at an event so far from home, where I felt I had a good chance to do well, was very disappointing. Not to mention the fact that I let Bryan down, and all of our marketing partners and the many people who‘ve helped to make the car competitive. Had I had any doubt in my mind I would’ve referenced the classification guide or consulted a tech official; it just never occurred to me that I’d made the mistake. I wasn’t trying to misrepresent the car. I wasn’t trying to “pull one over” on NHRA or the other racers. I was running a legal combination in the correct class, I just wrote the wrong year on the tech card.
This is my mistake, and I take full responsibility for it. With that being said, in my mind the punishment was severe for the crime. I was running a legal AA/SA combination in AA/SA. It was accepted at tech as a AA/SA combination, and I made four time trials at AA/SA weight and qualified against a AA/SA index, I simply wrote the wrong year model on the tech card. With the response from NHRA and other racers, you’d think they found my delay box (that was a joke for those of you who take the written word very literally). But, again, that’s my outlook; and that’s coming from a racer with a bracket racing background. To the class racers (and obviously to the NHRA officials), it’s a bigger error than it is in my mind. Regardless, I made the mistake; it was caught; and I faced the consequences of my actions. End of story.
As was posted previously, class racing has a lot to do with attention to detail. Love it or hate it, that’s what makes Stock and Super Stock what it is. Obviously in this instance I lacked that attention to detail and I certainly feel like I’ve paid the price. I have no one to blame but myself, and all I can do at this point is try to be more careful in the future: dot my i’s and cross my t’s, and have an overall better knowledge of the combination. Live and learn.
So, for those of you who want to poke fun at me for my ignorance and stupidity, I can’t fault you. Believe it or not, you’re laughing with me, not at me. I screwed up. 1500 miles of consideration have brought me to that conclusion!
For those of you who see this as an opportunity to bash me over unrelated issues; hey I guess you’re entitled to your opinion. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.
One thing I can guarantee was accomplished over the weekend and with the continued discussion: A pretty good racer was given a lot more motivation to be successful in NHRA Stock Eliminator. I have a great support group: and a lot of people who are a lot smarter than I am are already paying attention to the details to make sure those t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted (I‘m not naïve enough to think that we won‘t be under a microscope after this episode). We’ll be a constant fixture in Stock Eliminator, and we will be successful.
Luke Bogacki