WITH PARTNERS LIKE HULK HOGAN’ S REAL AMERICAN BEER JOINING THE FOLD, BUCK SEES A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD FOR THE DI WINTER SERIES.
we have that with Bradenton Motorsports Park. I love working with people who are as passionate and enthusiastic and as energetic about what we’ re doing as I am, and that’ s a big ask. We found a track partner that truly believes in what we’ re doing, is as excited about it as we are, and is willing to do what’ s required to ensure these events are successful.
Vic Alvarez, Josh Dauta, Sharon Ramlow,“ La” in the tower, Wade Rich down overseeing the track and making sure our racers got a worldclass racing surface, the EMS team, Petey in the staging lanes, and all these people, including Randy, my little buddy down on the four-wheeler, pushing cars off the track— it takes that kind of group of people to pull this stuff off.
As track owners, I gotta give them credit— there’ s no doubt Bradenton is a honky-tonk, and I love honky-tonk dragstrips, but they’ re making constant efforts to improve the facility. That means a lot to me personally.
We’ re also blessed to have what FloRacing has done. I’ m really proud of our relationship with FloRacing and the kind of stick-with-it nature of this whole deal. They fought some early battles as they got acclimated to the drag racing world, but I feel in late’ 24 and early’ 25, with at least our three events, set the bar again; I hate to beat that phrase into the ground, but it really set the bar for drag racing livestreaming
and gave me great confidence about the future that we can build on the back of this. We’ ve got multiple camera angles. We’ ve got dedicated talent for the livestream in the tower, pit and top-end reporters.
Plus, our fan base delivered for them by all accounts. This is the most viewed drag racing programming that Flo has ever produced and presented to the masses. Each event was bigger than the last, which again is somewhat unheard of, and to be able to carry that momentum into this coming season is exciting. I can’ t wait to see what we’ re able to do with those guys.
I’ m going to read what you said in 2024:“ 2023 was proof of concept. 2024 was the year to show consistency. 2025 is the year when we start cooking with gas.” If you had to finish this sentence: 2026 is blank. We take over. 2026 is the year we take over. We’ re making drag racers household names in our space. It’ s about keeping the pedal down, not resting on our laurels, not taking a day off. I don’ t wanna do that. I want to continue to grow year after year. It’ s about demonstrating that this is the highest level of drag racing. I understand that those are fighting words, right? There’ s a whole community of people that have seen our sport through the lens of,‘ Well, the quickest and fastest cars are the most important ones,’ or whatever. That can’ t be the only thing we focus on; they can’ t be the only thing that we use as a promotional tool, and I think that we’ re turning the tide.
For the last 30 years, it’ s been hellfire and brimstone when you promote a drag race; it’ s header flames and 300 mph and 10,000 horsepower and all these things. I don’ t think I said the words horsepower all weekend at World Series of Pro Mod. That’ s not the conversation. The conversation is more about who’ s here. Who are these people? What do they represent? What community do they represent? What sanction, series, or pocket of this sport do they represent? The conversation is not about downforce and wings and tire shake. It’ s about the stars, and that’ s the future of our sport across the board. That’ s what I wanna focus on.
The point that I’ m here to prove is that this is the hot spot. If you want to be a big name, if you want to be a mover and a shaker, this is the community you need to be a part of. We’ re gonna have to be the driving force on some of these changes and new approaches to the sport, and I’ m proud of that. I’ m proud that we are on that trajectory. It’ s exciting.
The DI Winter Series attracted significant attention from racers and fans, but can you speak to the role sponsors and partners played in making the series successful and how important those relationships are for future events? The support of the sponsorship family is integral in what we’ ve created, and it’ s a wide array of people. There are people that participate in these events because they believe in what we’ re doing, and they want to see it grow, and they want to see it succeed, and perhaps most importantly, they want to see it last.
There’ s been a lot of cool things that have happened in our sport that have come in and been hot for a little while and then waned over time. I think that the big challenge is maintaining relevance, maintaining significance, and staying out front. That’ s the challenge as we move forward, and we’ re lucky to have people that are supporting these events and investing in these events because they believe in what we’ re doing.
We also have brands like Stroud Safety, M & M Transmission and Red Line Oil that are seeing massive upticks in their business based on the back of these events. So it’ s a real magical mix of people that are true stakeholders in our sport, that have businesses, that rely on this group of people, but it’ s also people that see the big picture, and it’ s kind of this coming together of sorts that have given us the firepower that we need to fight this fight.
For the full interview with Wes Buck, check out the exclusive web version at DragIllustrated. com. DI
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