YOU ’ VE GOT A GUY OUT THERE , A REAL DEAL DO-IT-YOURSELFER , WHO WORKS ON HIS CAR BEHIND HIS HOUSE . YOU NEED SOMEONE TO REMIND EVERYBODY THAT WE GO UP THERE WITH ONE RACE CAR , WITH ONE SET OF TIRES , ONE ENGINE , ONE TRANSMISSION , ONE MAN OR WOMAN BEHIND THE WHEEL .
way to win .
That ’ s really one of the greatest challenges that exist with a Pro Modified drag race is parity . To reinvest countless hours – myself , Mike Carpenter , John Sears , our director of competition at the World Series of Pro Mod – pouring over data and run logs , and looking at scale sheets from a variety of events . We look at every other sanction and series ’ rules . It ’ s a real , real deep , labor-some process , but we feel like we have arrived at what has always been a pipe dream of mine , and that is a universal rule set for Pro Modified . I feel like we are as close as it exists to a set of rules for Pro Mod that could be utilized anywhere in the world . We made some significant changes to slow a couple of combinations down . We put some weight on cars . We took some weight off of our nitrous cars . We made a special effort .
It ’ s very important to me that we have this cornucopia of Pro Mods show up in Bradenton , all of which are capable of winning , and that is something I think we achieved this year . The final round with Derek Ward and his screwtype supercharged ’ 68 Pontiac Firebird going up against Jim Halsey and his nitrous-oxide-injected ’ 68 Camaro was exactly what I was looking for . I would have taken anything in the left lane , to be honest , but I needed a nitrous car opposing it . I ’ m not here playing favorites , but I just know what ’ s good for the sport , and I know what ’ s good for Pro Mod . We ’ re drag racing . Like if you want to have a land speed contest , they do that shit every year in Bonneville . That ’ s what the salt flats are there for . I ’ m pretty sure that ’ s why God put them there right , so we could go drive really fast . But what we do is drag race .
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The invite format remained the same for this year ’ s event , but has an invitation ever been declined ?
We did have a first in 2024 , and that was when I had an invitation declined for the first time . It ’ s an interesting thing because it was a nitrous car , and I ’ m not gonna name names because I don ’ t want to embarrass anyone , but it meant a lot to me in a lot of different ways .
When it happened , I was really taken aback by it . This was somebody that I knew wanted to come and had shown interest in 2023 but didn ’ t get the nod , so he was kind of high on my priority list headed into ’ 24 . I sent the invite , made the call , and one thing led to another and he told me that he didn ’ t think he and his team were ready
VICTOR ALVAREZ , TRACK OWNER AND A KEY PARTNER IN WSOPM , AND BUCK FILM VIDEO CONTENT FOR MULTI-PURPOSE USE AT THE EVENT ; BUCK HOLDS COURT IN A SEA OF PEOPLE AND GOLF CARTS AS CHIPS ARE DRAWN FOR ROUND PAIRINGS , FITTING AFTER RECEIVING A ‘ WES BUCK 2024 ’ SIGN FOR PRESIDENT FROM A FAN . for that level of competition . In the moment , I was bummed out , because I was going on two years batting 1,000 . It took me a few short seconds to go , “ Thank you . If you don ’ t feel you ’ re ready for it , you ’ re not ready for it .”
If you don ’ t think you can win or if you don ’ t think you belong there , I ’ m not going to tell you that you do . What I think doesn ’ t matter . What you think matters . It is also really humbling but , in some ways , exciting . It was humbling that ’ s the level of competition that we ’ ve arrived at .
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Safety is of paramount importance at the WSOPM . How do you ensure the safety of your racers ?
I ’ m especially proud of the success rate of runs that we had at the race and the lack of crashes . At any time in the history of drag racing , if you ’ re in a situation where you have 65 Pro Mods on the property , you can bet money that there ’ s going to be some of them that leave on a rollback . To run 64 Pro Mods over the course of three days and not scratch one of them was really , really important to me .
There ’ s a lot of things that you can point to . You can point to the track prep . I got to give it up for Wade Rich and his whole team at Bradenton Motorsports Park . I think Wade is one of the hardest-working guys in our industry and one of the best in the business when it comes to racing surfaces . Obviously , he works under Victor
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