'WE DID IT FOR BLAKE' — MANNY BUGINGA RUNS WIRE-TO-WIRE IN OSCR PRO 275 WIN

by Jason Reiss; Photos by Chris Simmons    Sun, 2021-04-25 15:44

 

Emotion filled the voice of Manny Buginga as he talked about the FuelTech Outlaw Street Car Reunion VIII held at Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend. The event, which featured the renamed BCOP 275 (X275) class in Blake Copson’s honor, was the first time Buginga has his own Pro 275 car at the racetrack since Copson’s unexpected passing on March 6, 2021. 

The event featured the wild highs and lows of a drag race that ended in victory and a visit to the winner’s circle for the Buginga team, coupled with the waves of sadness knowing that Copson would never be able to share in the team’s victories again. Along with his own championship-winning Corvette, Copson piloted Buginga’s X275 car with massive success in recent years and was an accomplished driver with a string of wins under his belt, part of the new generation of drag racers the sport so desperately needs. 

“It was an emotional race. Blake was like my track kid — he was my test pilot whenever I couldn’t get to a race. I’d say ‘Blake, I need you in Orlando, Jamie’s going to be there, the crew will be there, just get there, here’s my credit card, get a flight.’ He’d say, ‘Uncle Fred, I’m there.’ He was a knowledgeable sponge. You’d feel like the energy was sucking your brain dry, because he wanted to learn and understand. He was just such a good kid and a winner. Up until Lights Out, he was undefeated in the X car and was building his own Pro 275 car. He was always looking for the next step,” said Buginga. 

The team set out to deliver the win this weekend with the Jamie Miller-tuned Pro 275 Mustang, running low 3.7x elapsed times like a bracket car, culminating in a strong showing over the always-tough Shawn Ayers-driven, Fletcher Cox-owned blown Camaro to end the weekend in the winner’s circle. 

“Before I went up there, I said, ‘Blake, I need your help on this one. The driver ain’t doing so good, you gotta give me a little boost here.’ I said that out loud in the car,” said Buginga.

Longtime racer Buginga admired Copson’s drive and fed upon it, understanding that the pair together made a better team, especially when combined with the talents of the rest of the Buginga Racing crew, including Miller, Franny, Jim, Ben, his wife Jen and his kids, and the entire Pro Line Racing gang that provide the powerplants and tuning assistance. 

Buginga originally hooked up with Copson a couple of years ago. At the time, the team consisted of two X275/Street Outlaw cars, and Miller suggested he have Copson drive the team’s second car. Copson and Buginga were similar in size and weight, which meant the team would not need to change the cars up with respect to weight placement and other variables. It was a match made — literally — in heaven, as they went on to great success together. 

“The first time he ever raced that blower car of mine, he went to the final round, and won a bunch of rounds on holeshots. He was an excellent driver,” said Buginga. “You’d be down and out, and he’d come around with his little laugh and make you smile. He had a smile that would brighten up the whole room.”

Buginga, a longtime driver of turbocharged door cars, has had to make major adjustments to be successful in the ProCharger-boosted Pro 275 Mustang. Between driver error and other difficulties he’s faced learning how to drive the racecar in a completely different fashion from the turbo cars, it’s been quite the challenge. The staging process is greatly different, and he’s battled the mental side and refocusing his discipline while trying to become proficient behind the wheel of this machine. This win, he says, takes the monkey off his back, since the team gives him a racecar that is capable of winning races on every outing. 

“The last thing he said to me was ‘Uncle Fred, we’re gonna get ‘em at Sweet 16. We’re going to double up, and I love you. I wanted to win this race for him. I sat in the car and cried for like two minutes at the end of the racetrack, because it’s such an emotional deal for me. This was such a big win for us,” he says.

 

 

 
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