ORIGINAL WINNER MIKE BOWMAN GETS ANOTHER SHOT Mike Bowman , who won the original World Series of Pro Mod at Bandimere Speedway in 2017 , had already committed to running the full 2023 Street Outlaws : No Prep Kings tour when the return of the WSOPM was announced late in 2022 . After the PRI Show , he decided to take his Pro Mod Chevelle off the classified pages and prepare it for WSOPM battle yet again . He made the trip from his native Southern California to Bradenton Motorsports Park , and despite efforts to step up his program , he fell short of the 32-car field .
Bowman ’ s Pro Mod sat idle for around 11 months after WSOPM . When fellow NPK driver Justin Swanstrom accepted his invite to the 2024 WSOPM in late January , Bowman knew he had to be there too .
“ To be honest , I was pretty burned out on
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NPK ,” Bowman told DI ’ s Craig Cook in the weeks leading up to the race . “ My wife Kristy and I were sitting there having a drink , and I saw [ Justin ] Swanstrom was going to be at WSOPM . It kept popping up on my phone , and I ’ m like , ‘ Hell no . He ’ s going and I ’ m not going ? Are you kidding me right now ? You know what , I think I want to go .’ Once I decided I was going to go , I got really excited and the next morning I was |
working on the car .”
Bowman made numerous upgrades to his Pro- Charged ’ 69 Chevelle , which included borrowing some parts from his NPK Chevelle . He also brought in Pro Line Racing tuner Steve Petty to get the car dialed in and ready to compete with what would surely be an even quicker field than the one he missed out on last year .
Over the course of five qualifying sessions , the 32-car bump spot got quicker and quicker . Bowman ended up in that No . 32 spot with a 3.664 at 206.07 , a performance that would ’ ve put him No . 19 in the 2023 WSOPM field .
“ We were No . 32 and we will go in there [ Sunday ] and do the best we can ,” Bowman said during the chip draw on Saturday night . “ We ’ ll see if we can get it done . [ The chip draw format ] doesn ’ t really matter to me . Like I said before , any way I got in , I didn ’ t care where the spot was , as long as I got in . We were able to get it done .”
Bowman ended up drawing fellow NPK driver Chuck “ Chuck 55 ” Parker in the opening round . Both drivers struggled to get down the track , but Parker recovered quicker and won with a 4.675 to Bowman ’ s 6.236 . — NATE VAN WAGNEN DI
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY LUKE NIEUWHOF , CHRIS SEARS |