By Evan Smith
The 2025 racing season has been a good one for the Bongiovanni Racing Team. Steady driving and racecar consistency has led to a multitude of round wins and points earned by Drivers Anthony Bongiovanni and Dan Fletcher.
Bongiovanni was the only team driver in competition at the recent 4th of July Weekend Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Lebanon Valley Dragway in Lebanon, New York.
There, Bongiovanni drove the Micro Strategies Cobra Jet Ford Mustangs to quarter-final, and semi-final finishes in Super Stock and Stock respectively against the tough NHRA Division 1 fields.
“Lebanon Valley is just a few hours north for us and it’s a great track that’s been on the Division 1 schedule for a long time,” said Bongiovanni. “We made some adjustments to the cars after our last race in Georgia and I believe we improved the consistency.”
Bongiovanni was comfortable in the seat and had a solid tune-up for the track. In Super Stock, Bongiovanni ran 8.74 in F/SS/C and qualified his 2014 Cobra Jet second behind Lincoln Morehead in the field of 58 cars. He then used an 8.76 to defeat Brian Stianchi in the opening round. In round 2, he delivered an 8.33 to get past a redlighting Tom Boucher, and he received a competition single pass in round three. Bongiovanni turned on the redlight in round 4 against Greg Gay but earned enough points to finish the weekend 4th in Division 1 Super Stock points.
In Stock, Bongiovanni was matched up with Ray Bassett in the opening round of competition. Bassett redlighted, while Bongiovanni was .010 on the tree and ran a solid 8.82 elapsed time. Mat Bernard was the next victim, and he also produced a redlight, with Bongiovanni delivering a consistent .018 light and 8.99 winning elapsed time.
In round 3, Bongiovanni faced the strong-running Shelby GT500 of Ryan Horensky. Horensky was .031 on the light, but Bongiovanni used a dead-on 8.93 and a .036 light to get the win. Bongiovanni was rewarded with the competition single run in the 4th round and then he won a tough race against Paul Stalba in the quarter-final round. He was nearly perfect in reaction time with a .009 light (Stalba was .018) and Bongiovanni ran 8.99 on his 8.98 dial in to capture the win. With just three cars remaining, Bongiovanni left the line just .003 of a second too early, constituting a redlight and the end of the day for the team.
“While you always show up with the intension and hopes of winning, you never know how things will go. You can drive well and lose by a slim margin, or sometimes just get lucky. Today I drove well but I was slightly off with my focus in the late rounds,” said Bongiovanni.
“Our Micro Strategies Mustangs ran well, with quick performance, consistency and great predictability and we had a nice finish with a semi- and quarter-final finish. Most importantly, we gained in-division points and moved up in the standings with a bunch of races remaining,” he added.
Moving up he did, as Anthony Bongiovanni sits 2nd in Division 1 Stock points (of 145 drivers) and 4th in D1 Super Stock points. Bongiovanni Racing is scheduled to compete next at Numidia Dragway at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event later in July.
