FOUNDER’ S LETTER
From the very beginning – 12 years ago – Drag Illustrated has served the mission of growing and building the sport of drag racing by telling the many stories of the incredible men and women that spend their hard-earned money and free time at the drag strip – racing, tuning, crewing, officiating and simply enjoying the spectacle that we believe is the great American motorsport. Amongst the stories that we tell here on these pages, however, are also many a deep-dive into the issues that are facing our beloved sport and where its future lies – typically by picking the brains of the people who have a hand in steering its course. While there are few things the team here enjoys doing more than bench racing and sharing war stories with racers past and present, we believe it is mission critical to offer constructive criticism, sound-off on hot topics and generally play armchair quarterback( err … crew chief) as to what we’ d do differently from time to time. Plus, it’ s a lot of fun.
It’ s also something I’ m extremely proud of. To be honest, it was a lot easier to shoot from the hip and“ call it like we see it” when our readership didn’ t include many thousands of mailing addresses from around the world, and every single issue and its contents weren’ t readily available online – to be seen and shared by potentially millions of people. It never seemed to stop a story that had some spice from circulating and generating a reaction, but the speed of circulation and the scale of the reaction has massively intensified. It’ s an exciting time. And, I think, that’ s always been at the center of whatever critique we’ ve offered over the years. I truly believe that we’ re living in the golden era of drag racing. Almost all of us have fond memories of the past – especially when it comes to racing and racers, events and tracks, certain cars and even parts and manufacturers that have certainly came and went, or at least changed over time – but the fact remains that this sport of ours is in as good of a place today as it has ever been.
What we’ ve never wanted to be is the proverbial old man yelling,“ Get off my lawn!” The sport of drag racing faces many issues in 2018, but that’ s always been the case. There’ s always division and differing opinions, and there’ s always going to be a certain amount of us-versus-them that exists – whether it be promoters and racers: sportsman and professional, heads-up and bracket, Pro Mod and radial, or whatever else the case may be. We’ ve also always had a number of hot trends in play, some
of which will become passing fads, and a few that will stand the test of time.
More so than anything else, I believe drag racing has tremendous momentum right now. From the NHRA’ s slew of sold-out shows through this first half of the season to Donald Long’ s back-to-back barnburner radial-tire events to start the year, the continued popularity of Street Outlaws and no-prep racing as a whole, the success of our first-ever $ 100,000-to-win World Series of Pro Mod, the PDRA’ s eight-race, million-dollar series for outlaw eighth-mile racers and a seemingly innumerable amount of successful, independent, big-money, heads-up, grudge, bracket and specialty races – like the Good Vibrations Funny Car Nationals – it’ s hard to find a sore spot when it comes to options for racers and fans. Matter of fact, I’ d argue that it’ s controlling the growth of some of these categories, the number of events where they’ re contested, and weeding out inauthentic, money-hungry promoters that should top our collective priority list at the moment. It’ s not exactly a secret, nor hard to infer that that there are drag racing eliminators that simply don’ t have the inventory of cars to support the number of events on the schedule. The market will inevitably speak and sort those matters out, but it’ s often not before the damage has been done – waning excitement and enthusiasm, promoters scrambling to fill fields and the like.
If you read between the lines of my wide-ranging interview with John Force later in this issue, you’ ll also likely find that another place where our sport’ s highest levels have room for growth is in star power. Name a booming sport of any kind, and you’ ll likely be able to quickly identify the transcendent star that caused the pot to boil over. We have examples right here in racing. NASCAR’ s decline in popularity over recent years is without question directly correlated to the mass exodus of their big-name, superstar drivers. Discovery Channel’ s Street Outlaws success? Look no further than Justin“ Big Chief” Shearer and Shawn“ Murder Nova” Ellington.
The point Force made, perhaps without even having to say it, is that there are plenty of racers that are doing their job – showing up the drag strip to race, and fighting the many physical, emotional and financial battles required to be successful in doing so. The onus, in my opinion, falls on the rest of us – sanctions, promoters and the media – to shine as bright a light as possible on the many stars and stars-in-the-making that exist in drag racing today. Which, I’ ll conclude with, has been our bread and butter since day one.
Wes Buck Founder & Editorial Director 660.988.2313 wes @ dragillustrated. com
Scott Dorman Publisher 615.478.5275 scott @ dragillustrated. com
Mike Carpenter Design & Production Director 704.737.2299 mike @ dragillustrated. com
Nate Van Wagnen Editor-in-Chief 440.986.1480 nate @ dragillustrated. com
Nancy Koeppen Chief Operating Officer 573.552.5551 nancy @ dragillustrated. com
Will Mandell Senior Sales Executive 615.426.0465 will @ dragillustrated. com
JT Hudson Sales Executive 660.341.0063 jt @ dragillustrated. com
Robert Jaramillo Director of Business Development 626.253.6428 robert @ dragillustrated. com
Van Abernethy Senior Staff Writer & Field Subscription Sales 828.302.0356 van @ dragillustrated. com
Josh Hachat Editor-at-Large 660.988.2313 josh @ dragillustrated. com
Caroline Sterling Customer Service / Office Manager 660.988.2313 caroline @ dragillustrated. com
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Ian Tocher, Ainsley Jacobs, Tyler Crossnoe, Bobby Bennett, Lisa Collier, Brandon W. Mudd, Tommy D’ Aprile, Will Hanna, Sadie Glenn
PHOTO DEPARTMENT: John Fore III, Van Abernethy, Rick Belden, Tara Bowker, Jason Dunn, Paul Grant, Chris Graves, Ron Lewis, Joe McHugh, Gary Nastase, Mark J. Rebilas, Roger Richards, Cole Rokosky, Chris Sears, Jason Sharp, James Sisk, Ian Tocher
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Copyright © 2018 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 Publication Printers in Denver, CO.
Wesley R. Buck Founder & Editorial Director
I invite you to email me at wes @ dragillustrated. com and follow me at facebook. com / wbuck and wesbuckinc on Instagram.
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.
8 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 135