Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 8

t’s painfully difficult to explain the feeling that came over me around 11 o’clock that Saturday night. It was finally over. Perhaps the most challenging and difficult 12-month stretch of my life had come to an end, and somehow I’d survived. In years past, the big emotions produced by the World Series of Pro Mod – the $100,000-to-win Pro Mod shootout that my team and I here at Drag Illustrated have produced for the last three years with our partners at Bandimere Speedway – came early. In 2017, I no more than pulled onto the property the weekend of the race before I started to get a little bit teary-eyed. Simply coming to terms with the surreal notion that we were about to do this deal, and do it at one of the most incredible racing facilities on the planet, was overwhelming. Then when Pete Farber cracked the tires coming out of the water box on Wednesday morning – the first WSOPM test pass in history – I got a little choked up again. By the time the first round of eliminations rolled around…I was basically crying my eyes out. Our sophomore effort had me a little more com- posed, but I still found myself welling up anytime I let my mind wander or my perspective shift from what was happening right in front of me to the significance of the race to our industry, and the fact that this was, at least for me, quite literally the realization of a dream more than a decade old. Things were different this year. During our post- race debriefing the Sunday after the 2018 WSOPM, I confidently told my team that our “car count is- sues were behind us.” We had 27 cars venture out to Thunder Mountain, enjoyed a crowd that nearly doubled in size from our inaugural effort and it genuinely felt like nothing could slow us down. While we certainly had some parity issues to sort out with our rules – which we only slightly modify from the standard provided by the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series due to the elevation at Bandimere – it felt like a good bit of the begging, pleading and convincing we’d had to do previously would be over with. I was wrong. Over the course of the next few months, the pushback from Pro Mod racers as to the perceived disparity between supercharged and turbocharged combinations in Denver became a daily topic of conversation. By the time the 2019 race season rolled around, in a lot of ways it genuinely felt like we were starting over. Many of the racers that I felt were a lock to participate in our third annual race were now on the fence or suddenly hard to reach. A month or so out from the race, following an unprecedented string of crashes and accidents in NHRA Pro Mod competition, the list of committed racers I’ve kept on my phone for the last 1,000 days had dwindled to 10. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it. I thought we’d checked every imaginable box, done everything we’d been asked. Big money? No problem. No entry fee? You got it. Top billing? Of course. Primo park- ing? Done. Testing before the race? OK, sure. The only issue? The race happens at 10,000 feet of elevation on the side of a mountain outside Denver. I knew the venue would provide some unique challenges, but I had no idea it would be this much of a challenge – especially considering how quarter- mile Pro Mod racers had historically been treated, the money they’d raced for and the filler status they held for years in NHRA (not a jab, just a fact because, well, nitro). Thank God, we still had believers. By the time Friday, August 10, 2019, rolled around, we had 11 Pro Mod cars on the property at Bandimere. Eleven racers who wanted to be there, and to this day I’ll never be able to thank them enough. What turned out to be every bit as rewarding as the participa- tion of those Pro Mod racers was the unbeliev- able turnout of Top Sportsman and Top Dragster, Xtreme Drag Radial, King Street and Jr. Dragster competitors that turned up. I’ve been ranting and raving about Top Sportsman and Top Dragster for- ever – two eliminators that I believe are absolutely critical to the health and wellness of the sport of drag racing – and to see them turn up in droves was nothing short of breathtaking. That Saturday night, I had a few major take- aways. Firstly, it only takes two cars to have a drag race. I’ve said that to myself a thousand times this year, perhaps never fully believing it, but saying it anyway in an effort to pump myself up and forge forward. When Doug Winters rolled in and nearly double-bulbed Scotty Oksas in the final round of this year’s World Series of Pro Mod, in front of a crowd that rivaled peak attendance in 2018, and a swarm of racers, fans and onlookers strewn across the starting line, I believed it. That drag race – alone – was worth the price of admission – ten times over. Quality will almost always trump quantity. Secondly, these things we build up in our heads, that we convince ourselves are matters of life and death – they’re really not that important. Sure, put- ting on a $100,000-to-win drag race is a pretty big deal and I don’t want to downplay the significance of the race, its winners, or any of the people or companies involved. But when those parachutes blossomed and Scotty O and Doug began to safely coast to a stop, I turned and looked at my wife, my two kids, my team here at DI, so many of my friends and family, and realized these people are what’s important – and they will love me, support me and believe in me regardless of the car count at my Pro Mod race. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all of you who believe in what we do and have supported us over the years. I speak for all of us here when I tell you that we will not soon forget it. Wesley R. Buck Founder & Editorial Director 8 | Drag I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com I invite you to email me at [email protected] and follow me at facebook.com/wbuck and wesbuckinc on Instagram. Wes Buck Founder & Editorial Director 660.988.2313 [email protected] Scott Dorman Publisher 615.478.5275 [email protected] Mike Carpenter Design & Production Director 704.737.2299 [email protected] Nate Van Wagnen Editor-in-Chief 440.986.1480 [email protected] Nancy Koeppen Chief Operating Officer 573.552.5551 [email protected] Will Mandell Senior Sales Executive 615.426.0465 [email protected] JT Hudson Sales Executive 660.341.0063 [email protected] Van Abernethy Senior Staff Writer & Field Subscription Sales 828.302.0356 [email protected] Josh Hachat Editor-at-Large 660.988.2313 [email protected] Caroline Fox Customer Service / Office Manager 660.988.2313 [email protected] CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Ian Tocher, Ainsley Jacobs, Kelly Wade, Bobby Bennett, Brandon W. Mudd, Tommy D’Aprile, Will Hanna, Sadie Glenn PHOTO DEPARTMENT: John Fore III, Van Abernethy, Rick Belden, Tara Bowker, Shawn Crose, Jason Dunn, Paul Grant, Chris Graves, Ron Lewis, Will McDougle, Joe McHugh, Gary Nastase, Mark J. Rebilas, Roger Richards, Cole Rokosky, Chris Sears, Jason Sharp, James Sisk, Ian Tocher ADVERTISING SALES: 615.478.5275 SUBSCRIPTIONS & CUSTOMER SERVICE: 660.988.2313 [email protected] DRAG ILLUSTRATED MEDIA, LLC 902 Kings Road, Kirksville, MO 63501 P: 660.988.2313 F: 660.665.1636 www.dragillustrated.com Copyright © 2019 by Drag Illustrated Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Drag Illustrated is a registered trademark of Drag Illustrated Media, LLC. Printed and mailed by Royle Printing in Sun Prairie, WI. All statements, including product claims, are those of the person or organization making the statement or claim. The publisher does not adopt any such statement or claims as its own, and any such statement or claim does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the publisher. Issue 149 I FOUNDER’S LETTER