Wes Buck with John “Sporty” Bandimere III and John Bandimere Jr. Night one of the first World Series of Pro Mod, Bandimere Speedway, August 2017.
The Story
PRO MOD DESERVED A RACE LIKE THIS. SO WE BUILT ONE.
Drag Illustrated has published since 2005 with a five-word mission: to grow and build the sport. For eleven years that meant telling other people’s stories. In 2017 it started meaning something more.
“I believe we have the platform now. I believe it’s time,” Wes Buck said that February. “It’s time for us to be a part of the stories we’re telling.”
The idea was simple and, at the time, faintly ridiculous. Take Pro Modified, the class Buck calls the universal language of drag racing, the one every racer in every other category admits they would run if money were no object, and stop treating it as a support act. Put it on center stage. Pay the winner more than any doorslammer race had ever paid. Then make it hard enough that winning means something for the rest of the driver’s life.
The first World Series of Pro Mod ran August 4-5, 2017, at Bandimere Speedway outside Denver. Sixteen drivers, $100,000, winner take all. No runner-up money. No points. No qualifying. Pairings were drawn at random a full month early so the sport had thirty days to argue about them, and the scoreboards stayed dark all week so nobody knew what anybody had run.
Mike Bowman won it. He got into the field on a fan vote.
WHAT IT IS NOW
The race has grown into a 32-car field so deep that qualifying for it is a career achievement. The purse has been as high as $150,000. The ladder is gone entirely, replaced by a chip draw, which means the two quickest cars in the building can meet in round one and neither of them can do anything about it.
Seeding cannot save you here. A soft draw cannot carry you. Every pair is a main event and there is no second place.
That format has produced a specific kind of champion. Spencer Hyde won it in 2023 after qualifying 32nd out of 32. Steve King won it in 2025 from the 30th spot, beating Cameron Hensley, Jeff Rudolf, Erica Enders and Jason Harris to reach the final, then taking it from Stevie “Fast” Jackson by one thousandth of a second. Aaron Stanfield won it in 2026 having never sat in a Pro Mod car before that winter.
Seven drivers have won this race. The outgoing champion hands the traveling trophy to the new one, in person, in the winner’s circle. That is the only way anyone has ever touched it.
WHAT COMES NEXT
On March 5-7, 2027, the World Series of Pro Mod runs at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, for the first time. It stands alone now, one event, one weekend, with the full weight of Drag Illustrated behind it.
It also gets harder to make. Rather than chase a bigger number, the race is drilling down on exclusivity to a level it has not applied since the Bandimere years, when the field was sixteen cars and every one of them was invited. Bigger is not the only way to grow something. Harder to get into is the other one.
Since 2017, Drag Illustrated events have paid racers more than $1.36 million. Every dollar of it came from people who understood that growing this sport grows their business with it. A high tide lifts all boats.
“The goal is to make the World Series of Pro Mod something that people talk about long after the last car has left the property. We’re just getting started.”
Wes Buck, Founder, Drag Illustrated
Racers and promoters start at Race the WSOPM. Brands start at Partner With the WSOPM. Every champion in race history is on the Champions page.
