An early season match race at Luskville Dragway had the fans on their feet and cheering the Koffel’s Place supported team and their blown Dodge Avenger. Facing off against local racer, George Levesque on the Saturday evening Boniferro went on a wild ride when the car turned sharp left once it left the concrete pad. The resultant damage may have made a lesser team head for home. Not the Smokin’ Joe’s crew, along with local chassis shop owner Ed Crilly the team made the repairs to allow them return for Sunday’s event. Levesque helped by offering a pair of slicks to replace the ones cut down the previous night. And what a run it was, Boniferro, undaunted by the previous night’s experience laid down a pass that annihilated his own track record by almost half a second.

The next event on the schedule was the IHRA Mopar Canadian Nationals. Boniferro made his usual statement at the Grand Bend Motorplex and sat on top of the Top Sportsman time charts with a 6.505 second pass at 213 mph. However the team had to pack up and go home after qualifying as the new motor gremlins had struck again and the team was out for the weekend. Boniferro commented, “We have shown we can run the numbers but we got let down in the motor department. No one is doing what we are with a Mopar wedge and when you want to run faster you have to expect things like this. We are lucky we have good people behind us like the Koffel’s helping with R&D. We will get it right!”

Next up was a match race at Toronto Motorsports Park against Terry Brown for the TMP Mopar Day. Mopar fans were not disappointed as the two blown doorslammers put on a show to be proud of. Boniferro took both wins, running a best of 6.47 at 215 mph. TMP was again the scene of the next outing. Celebrating 50 years of racing, TMP had Shirley Muldowney on hand to watch the best Pro Mod racers in the area vie for the win. Boniferro qualified number two and made it to round two before facing off against IHRA standout Mike Stawicki. Joe was on for an upset win and was ahead at the 1000 feet mark when the motor dropped a valve. “I knew it was hurting but I thought we had the win, I never saw him until the traps” was Boniferro’s comment afterwards.

Never having been plagued by motor problems like this before, Boniferro took some time to go over both motors and check what was causing the problems. To solve the problems with rockers that were breaking Boniferro designed a new shaft system that would stand up to the rigors of Pro Mod racing. The team returned to the track at the Labor Day Chicago Style Shootout at Lancaster Dragway. The new valvetrain stood up to the test and Boniferro was number two after the first round of qualifying. The second round saw Joe Lillienthal and his Jeep squeak into the number two spot and dump Boniferro out of the program. The most important thing was the valvetrain stayed together and the team was ready for the KC Autoparts/Wix Filters Pro Mod Shootout at TMP the next day.

The first round of qualifying had Boniferro sitting on pole before the last runner IHRA regular Tony Pontieri bumped him down a spot. The second round saw another IHRA regular Carl Spiering slide into the number two spot leaving Boniferro number three heading into eliminations. Joe’s first round was against the ex Al Billes Studebaker of Ralph Andreacchi. Andreacchi tried his best but could not stop the Koffel’s Place Dodge Avenger from advancing to the next round. The semi final set up a face off against
Carl Spiering who Boniferro beat to the 2003 TMP Jet Warz title. Spiering was determined to have a different result in this match up but it was Boniferro who took the starting line advantage. He was ahead until the 900 foot mark, when Spiering and his ex Tim McAmis Corvette edged past for the win. Not the result the team was looking for but the new valvetrain proved itself again and the team felt good about retaining the upcoming Jet Warz pro Mod title.

The 2004 edition of Jet Warz saw Boniferro take up where he had left off in 2003. A 6.51 second pass saw the Niagara Falls, ON based team sit on pole after two rounds of qualifying. With the likes of Al Billes having difficulty getting down the tricky TMP track Boniferro was happy to be sitting at the top of the timesheets and looking forward to eliminations. The first round set up a rematch with the G-Force Corvette of Mike Stawicki who had taken the honors in a previous encounter at TMP. However Boniferro was not to be denied on this day as he streaked to a 6.967 second win to Stawicki’s shutoff 12.967. The team was struggling with a lack of clutch data due to a malfunctioning sensor but dug deep into their collective memory bank and came up with a clutch setup for the second round. Their cause was helped by the non appearance of Larry Sinke due to massive engine failure. The resultant bye run gave the team the info they needed for the final and with longtime nemesis Kasey Janzen rolling in the other lane you knew it was going to be a good one. Boniferro took the starting line advantage and once Janzen shook the tires on the gear change it was all over. Boniferro started another streak with his 6.66 second pass and was the TMP Jet Warz Pro Mod Champion for the second year in a row.

The win encouraged Boniferro as he headed to Norwalk Raceway Park trying to extend his winning streak at the Summit Halloween Classic XXXI. Having won the race for the last two years Joe was a little apprehensive about the event. The good thing was the motor program had performed flawlessly since Labor Day and the Koffel’s Place Avenger always works well at Norwalk. Qualifying was restricted to two passes and changed to eighth mile due to inclement weather but nevertheless it was Boniferro on top of the time sheets over fellow blower racer Bill Rowe and nitrous devotees Jimmy Detrick and Brandon Anderson. Boniferro bested Detrick and Anderson overcame Rowe to setup a classic blower versus nitrous final. All was not well in the Boniferro camp as a rocker arm had broken and the team had to thrash to make the final. All manner of racers pitched in to help and the team made it to the staging lanes with time to spare. Anderson did his job on the tree but could not hold on as another run in the four-twenty zone cemented another G-Force/Oddys Performance Frantic 4 title for Boniferro.