By Evan J. Smith
Fresh off a solid performance at the season opener at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Florida, Anthony Bongiovanni scored valuable NHRA points at the Lucas Oil Division 4 race in Belle Rose, Louisiana.
Located in the Bayou, No Problem Raceway is a favorite amongst competitors due to a fun, friendly environment, delicious Cajun food and intense competition.
“Belle Rose is a bit of a drive from New Jersey and from Gainesville. We have family in the area, the racers, fans, and staff at No Problem Raceway in Division 4 are so welcoming so it’s well worth it,” said Anthony. “Plus, it’s a great track and we’ve done well in the past,” he added.
Unlike most events where he races Stock and Super Stock, Anthony competed only in Stock Eliminator. He qualified 24th in the field of 87 cars and he had the second quickest FS/A Stocker during qualifying. “I was driving the 2010 Micro Strategies Stocker very well in Florida, so I wanted to focus on Stock Eliminator,” stated Anthony. “I also found a few things about the Super Stocker racing it in Gainesville that needed correcting. I wanted to make changes to that combination before I ran the car again,” he added.
Anthony entered eliminations with a win against the McNeal Freeman, who was unable to make the call, and he defeated Ken Vaughn, who broke at the line in the second frame. Anthony faced Mike Trumble in Round 3, and amazingly, Trumble’s machine couldn’t make the run. Regardless, Anthony was .036 on the tree and he ran 8.88 at 153 mph. Anthony was the recipient of the bye run in Round four, where he delivered a consistent 8.86 elapsed time at 153 mph.
In the 5th Round he was paired against Jeff Hefler, a three-time Summit Racing Series national champion and two time NHRA Division 4 champion, who also competes in the FS/A category. And with Anthony and Jeff Hefler both competing in FS/A, the race would he heads-up—first racer to the finish line wins. Hefler was quicker in qualifying, having run 8.75 to Bongiovanni’s 8.85 effort, giving him the advantage on paper.
Not one to lie down, Anthony fine-tuned his engine calibration using his tunable electronic fuel injection and he adjusted the suspension to handle the extra horsepower. Anthony went to the line confident and was quicker at the tree with an .027 light to Helfer’s .063 reaction. After launching, Anthony outran the Fort Worth, Texas racer scoring a very tight 8.712-to-8.721 victory by .045 of a second!
