7/22/2025
Knoxville Raceway
Scott Bogucki: New Team, New Year
Approaching the halfway mark in the Knoxville Raceway season, Scott Bogucki is showing a strong presence in his 9th season of competition at Knoxville Raceway. He is currently sitting sixth in points at the half mile.
Originally from McLaren vale, South Australia, Scott has been competing in American sprint car racing since 2014 at Devil’s Bowl. “The first track I ever went to when I came to the states was Devil’s Bowl (2012); the first race I ran in the states was at Devil’s Bowl (2014); and the first win I had was at Devil’s Bowl (2018)”. He originally came over in 2012 to crew for Johnny Herrera and then was fortunate enough to get backing to set up his own team to run sprint cars over here in America. In 2015, Scott sold all of his equipment in Australia, and was able to buy enough race parts, cars, and engines and have Kenny Woodruff help put everything together. That year his goal was to get prepared to run weekly at Knoxville, planning for the 2016 season.
With the help of Kenny Woodruff, Scott was able to get his 410-program established to race weekly at Knoxville. He ran 10th in points and was Rookie of the Year. In 2012 Scott was helping Johnny, and they parked at Kenny’s shop and Scott realized he was walking into a legend’s shop. “Kenny said there is only one way to put a race car together and that’s the right way. You can’t short cut it”.
The 2017 season, he did some 410 and some 360 and did more traveling to gain more experience at different tracks, running a lot of ASCS National races.
After three seasons of racing in the states, in 2018 Bogucki was ready to hit the road professionally racing with the ASCS National tour, where he competed for four seasons. Highlights of those four seasons included a 3rd in points and several wins. “I’m confident I would have won Skagit’s Dirt Cup in 2019. That Friday night, we were leading it and the bird cage broke and the arm dug into the ground, and I started flipping. My crew guy managed to put the car back together and we came from deep in the pack in the qualifier for Saturday night and were able to pull off a top ten”. Bogucki was a force to be challenged in the 360.
After the 2022 season, Bogucki stepped away from 360 competition to focus on growing his 410 program. He partnered with Clayton Snow to run the All Stars. The start of speed week, Bogucki stepped away from that partnership to come back to Knoxville and run weekly shows and hit and miss races nearby back in his own equipment.
The 2023 season, he started with his own program, then in late June he partnered with Shane Liebig where he focused on Knoxville and Husets, attending many of the bigger races around the region. The highlight of that season was making the Nationals and finishing 22nd, after knocking the nose wing off on the first lap. 2024 found Bogucki and Liebig once again partnering running Knoxville, Husets, and Jackson. “We won three in a row: Knoxville, Husets, and Jackson, back-to-back to back”. Making the Nationals again, they ran 6th on the qualifying night and returned to the big show finishing 8th.
Coming into the 2025 season, Justin Giddings had decided to put together his own team to race weekly at Knoxville as well as some other bigger regional races. The duo have had strong success early in the season, with a top finish at Knoxville of 3rd place. At the end of May, Bogucki was racing a Friday race at US36 with the POWRi and was involved in a violent wreck, leaving him unable to race the following weekly night at Knoxville. “Sam Hafertepe and I were both going hard to get the lead and we got together. We killed the car and I was pretty beat up. I just didn’t think I was in good shape physically for Saturday at Knoxville”. Going into the halfway mark at Knoxville Raceway, Scott traveled to a High Limit show at Lakeside, where he was caught up in lapped traffic running third, when he lost two spots and ultimately ran 5th.
“Looking ahead, we want to win races at Knoxville. Justin wants to win at Knoxville as a car owner. We are working on new little things, and I think we are close to being able to achieve that. Coming into Nationals, I’d love to keep my streak of making the show alive, keep being competitive at Knoxville. We struggled at the Outlaw show, and we are feeling better than ever with our changes. I see a future with this program. This is some of the most fun I’ve had racing in a long time. Justin has great equipment and strong knowledge and there is no reason we can’t compete at a high level going forward”.
After the Knoxville season ends, the team plans to pick and choose Midwest races as well as run the 360 nationals.
Article Credit: Joanne Cram
Submitted By: Eric Arnold
