Alvarez [ BMP track owner ]. It ’ s no secret I ’ m a big fan of Vic and believe in what he does down at Bradenton in a big way .
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What was the fan turnout like this year , and what can we expect for 2025 ?
We had fans travel as far as 8,000 miles to come to the World Series of Pro Mod this year . Our ticket sales were up 21 %. We were really , really proud of the growth that we saw at the box office . I was still really proud of the turnout we had .
One of the things we ’ re introducing for 2025 will be a Thursday , Friday , and Saturday format instead of the traditional schedule . I ’ ve reframed
it in my mind in that the World Series of Pro Mod is much more aligned with a prize fight on Saturday night than it is a traditional stick and ball sporting event . My thought moving forward is that we ’ re going to further embrace the Saturday night spectacle prize fight under the lights . I ’ ve got some ideas . I don ’ t want to let any secrets out too soon , but we have some fun stuff that I ’ m working towards . I can say I want a festival of drag racing .
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Looking at the event as a whole , what are some additional aspects that stood out to you ?
Across the board , the second annual Mountain Motor Pro Stock Invitational delivered in spades . Matt Giangrande was another incredible story . A guy that , in many ways , came out of left field and did something unbelievable . Matt candidly told me , “ The only problem is that I don ’ t know where to go from here .”
Our Pro 10.5 show was absolutely fantastic . I think they were a match made in heaven for the World Series of Pro Mod . We had some really solid sponsor support , and we had some great , action-packed drag racing . I was really happy with how that turned out .
Top Sportsman and Top Dragster was really like an experiment that I just needed to have . In many ways , I ’ m very happy . We did not have the car count that I wanted in Top Dragster , but I also take full responsibility for it . One of the things that I ’ ve learned throughout the course of this is it ’ s not what you know , it ’ s who you know . I admittedly do not have the relationships and network in the Top Dragster community that I
FAMILY FIRST FOR BUCK , AS HE AND HIS WIFE , ALISHA , AND KIDS MAX AND SOPHIA JOIN 2024 WSOPM CHAMP DEREK WARD IN THE WINNER ’ S CIRCLE .
do elsewhere and that ’ s just a product of my upbringing and the people that I run around with . The competition in Top Dragster was absolutely insane . I mean , we had people running near dead-on with near . 000 lights losing .
[ Top Sportsman ] was a little bit of a “ Wes Wild Hair ” moment where , on a Saturday night , I decided that I wanted to run Top Sportsman for $ 50,000 at the World Series and almost on a dare from Glenn Butcher , did it .
Speaking of a great friend of mine , Bruce Thrift , in many ways , is very responsible for the
Intercontinental Top Sportsman Championship . Bruce Thrift and I were the ones that had been cooking this idea up for a long time , and we finally pulled the trigger on it .
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What are your closing notes ?
This year , we had the quickest 32-car qualified field in the history of Pro Modified . It was an absolutely incredible thing to have 32 cars spread from a 3.59 to a 3.66 . That ’ s unheard of .
I ’ m more excited about next year ’ s race than I am the first one in 2017 out on Thunder Mountain . We ’ ve got some things coming together for next year that I truly think will change the sport of drag racing forever , more so than we already have .
Any racer will tell you there ’ s nothing like the World Series of Pro Mod . Any one of my guys or gals that have run that race in the last two years will all tell you the same thing : they ’ ve never felt what they feel at the World Series of Pro Mod . You have guys and gals that are world-class racing drivers go up there and forget everything because it ’ s just such a different environment than they ’ ve ever been in before .
I pour fuel on that fire . They see me up on the starting line screaming and yelling and clapping my hands in their face . They see me , and they know all eyes are on them , and they rise to the occasion , but it ’ s not for everyone . I think it should be something that we all find pride in that the race has reached a level that is so competitive that it ’ s not gonna be for everybody . You ’ re gonna have some guys say , “ I don ’ t want that smoke .”
I refuse to be influenced by any outside events . I refuse to be influenced by what other people are doing . I pay attention to what other people are doing , but I ’ m not going to let it impact what I ’ m doing . I ’ m gonna do what I think is right , and I ’ m gonna live with the consequences . I ’ ve seen these events come and go . I ’ ve seen promoters come and go . I ’ ve seen it all come and go . I ’ ve been here for 20 years – haven ’ t quit , won ’ t quit . There ’ s nobody that is going to work harder for their event than Wes Buck . It doesn ’ t matter if you ’ re a racer , if you ’ re out there in some other walk of the drag racing life and you ’ ve got your eyes on World Series of Pro Mod , you better be careful what you wish for because you don ’ t want this smoke .
There ’ s nobody alive that cares more about the sport of drag racing and the people within it than this group of people that I call my teammates at
Drag IllustrateD . The proof ’ s in the pudding , and we ’ re just getting started . That ’ s probably the most exciting part about it as well . We ’ ve been around for two decades in so many ways ; I feel like we ’ ve just gotten our feet underneath us in the last few years , and I can ’ t wait to see what happens when we get up to speed .
For the complete interview with Wes Buck , check out the exclusive web version on DragIllustrated . com . DI
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