Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 107

WORLD SERIES OF PRO MOD 2019
DAVE WALTERS
■
Dave Walters’ Pro Mod
debut didn’t go as planned
as he paid a visit to the sand trap
during testing at the third annual
Drag Illustrated World Series of
Pro Mod at Bandimere Speedway.
On the bright side, things only got
better from there.
Walters turned things around
quickly to make a series of solid runs
heading into eliminations. He fell in
the first round to 2018 race winner
Carl Stevens Jr., but it didn’t take
away from one of the most memora-
ble experiences of his racing career.
In short, Walters had the time of
his life racing 20 minutes from his
home and in front of a huge crowd
of family and friends.
“I’ve wanted to race here for
three years,” Walters said. “We
changed our whole combination
for this race. Everybody wants to
win $100,000. It would have been
badass to win.”
Walters has excelled in the Out-
law 10.5 ranks for a number of years,
getting his start racing King Street
and Top Sportsman on Thunder
Mountain. He first started coming
to Bandimere Speedway 15 years
ago, cutting his racing teeth at the
first-rate facility, but the weekend
in August marked a brand-new ex-
perience for him.
He received his Pro Mod license
in testing – after the trip to the sand
– put on big tires for the first time
and got to slug it out with the elite
in Pro Mod in Denver. He rubbed
elbows with Stevie “Fast” Jackson,
faced off with Stevens, all nearly
within shouting distance from him.
“This is where we wanted to
come race and compete with the
big boys,” Walters said. “I got my
Pro Mod license and you need two
drivers to sign off on it and one of
them was Stevie Jackson, so that
was pretty cool.”
That was a definite bright spot
after an auspicious beginning where
Walters didn’t let the chutes out in
time before visiting the sand. The
team stayed up late to fix the dam-
age – which wasn’t severe – and they
quickly made it known they were
going to be competitive.
“We spent all night work on it
and made a good pass (Thursday),”
Walters said. “It came around. We’re
not where we should be, but we’re
stepping into it. These things are a
handful, and we did what we could.”
Walters made sure to enjoy every
minute of race day, much like he did
the first three days of the event.
He undoubtedly had one of the
biggest cheering sections during
eliminations, as Walters estimat-
ed upwards of 50 family members
and friends watched him compete
for $100,000.
No matter the result, that proved
to be a massive – and memorable –
win for Walters.
“We had lots of people here cheer-
ing for us and it was pretty cool to
race here in front of my friends and
family,” Walters said. “It was like a
big, huge party. That feels pretty
good.” – JOSH HACHAT
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TERRY HADDOCK
■
Terry Haddock was pre-
paring his nitro Funny Car
and Cameron Ferré-driven Top
Fuel dragster for Friday qualifying
at the NHRA Northwest Nationals
in Seattle when he got the call from
Wes Buck inviting him to compete
in the World Series of Pro Mod just
a week later.
That call set into motion an all-
hands-on-deck effort to get Terry
Haddock Racing crew member
Robert Haverland’s ’37 Ford Coupe
loaded up and on its way to Bandi-
mere Speedway.
“All of my guys are volunteers on
our team,” Haddock pointed out.
“The one guy flies in from Honduras
of all places. He ended up taking my
pickup [from Seattle] and he drove
the 2,000 miles to Dallas so he could
fly home. I drove the big truck to
Brainerd, parked it there and then
I had to get to the airport and fly
back to Dallas and drove home. We
went and borrowed his little trailer
and loaded the car up and the truck
headed up here Thursday morning.”
Haddock and his small crew oper-
ated out of a tag trailer with minimal
parts, tools and supplies. It was a
true last-minute effort to make the
trip, but the offer was too tempting
to turn down.
“We wanted to be here and be a
part of this,” Haddock said. “I just
wish we could’ve been more pre-
pared. When we come out to race
we want to do a good job and race
and make all the runs.”
Haddock wasn’t able to meet that
last goal, as a delayed flight prevent
him from making the first clocks-
off shakedown session Friday after-
noon. The Brad Anderson-powered,
supercharged coupe labored down
the track in the second session,
then had to miss the third and fi-
nal shakedown session Friday night
before going into Saturday evening
eliminations.
The Temple, Texas-based nitro
racing veteran ended up leaving
too soon in his first-round pairing
with Doug Winters, but merely be-
ing there was an accomplishment
in itself. He’s only had six months
and limited opportunities to get
the blown alcohol Pro Mod tuned
in, and just one attempt on Thun-
der Mountain before going into
eliminations.
“This is a neat opportunity,”
Haddock said. “Whenever we go
racing, everything is a challenge
and a struggle. I chase the dream
every day. A lot of times we should
just say, ‘No, stop,’ but we keep try-
ing. The fact that they invited us is
an honor. We’ll get it together and
figure it out. We want to do more
of this stuff.” – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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October 2019
DragIllustrated.com
| D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 107