Milestones and Memories
The DI team reflects on 20 years and 200 issues
BY NATE VAN WAGNEN
FOR 20 YEARS and 200 issues, Drag IllustrateD has been built on a simple but stubborn idea: the people in drag racing deserve to be seen, heard, studied, celebrated and remembered. What started in 2005 as Wes Buck’ s coffee-fueled concept for an independent magazine that would treat racers like rock stars has grown into a multimedia brand, event promoter, and trusted voice for a sport that rarely fits neatly inside one sanctioning body, class or storyline.
Along the way, DI’ s team of editors, designers, writers, photographers, salespeople, administrators, and contributors has helped shape that identity from every angle, from the first recycled-newsprint issues to 30 Under 30, Women of Power, the World Series of Pro Mod, the Winter Series, and the glossy, perfect-bound magazine that still lands in mailboxes two decades later.
For Issue 200, the people behind those pages reflect on the moments, memories, and decisions that carried Drag IllustrateD from an independent startup to one of drag racing’ s defining media brands – and why, after all these years, the mission remains unchanged. ➤ ➤ ➤
— PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE DI ARCHIVES—
DragIllustrated. com
133 Drag Illustrated