FOUNDER’ S LETTER

Two hundred issues later, here we are.

I still can’ t fully wrap my head around it. When we sent Issue 1 to press out of a borrowed corner of the Iowa City Press Citizen back in March of 2006, the idea of getting to even a 100th issue felt like a fever dream. Two decades. Two hundred issues. The same singular mission from day one all the way to right now.

For those who weren’ t around for the early days, here’ s the short version. In the summer of 2005, I was a 21-year-old eighthmile racetrack operator in the cornfields of Iowa with too much passion, not enough money, and a stubborn belief that the sport of drag racing deserved a publication that actually told its real stories. Not house-organ propaganda. Not bought-and-paid-for tech articles dressed up as journalism. Not coverage that started and stopped at the borders of one sanction or one manufacturer. A real, independent, unapologetic voice for ALL of drag racing. Pro Mod, no-prep, nitro, sportsman, big-tire, smalltire, NHRA, outlaw, and everything in between. I wanted to build the Rolling Stone of drag racing. I wanted to treat racers like rock stars.

I’ d be lying if I said I knew exactly what I was doing. I didn’ t. But I knew WHY I was doing it. And that“ why,” to grow and build the Great American Motorsport by celebrating the men and women who pour their lives into it, has been the North Star for every single one of these 200 issues.

It’ s wild to flip back to the letter I wrote 100 issues ago and see how much has happened since. When DI # 100 went to press in 2015, we were primarily a magazine. Today we’ re a multimedia platform that touches more than 4 million website visitors a year, sends Crew Chief Daily to 150,000 inboxes, reaches 855,000 social followers, generates more than 11 million annual video views, and produces some of the largest events in the sport. The World Series of Pro Mod didn’ t exist at # 100. Today it’ s the biggest, richest Pro Mod race in the history of the known universe.

The DI Winter Series didn’ t exist. Today its three crown-jewel races( Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, U. S. Street Nationals and WSOPM) anchor the sport’ s calendar. DI 30 Under 30 didn’ t exist. Today it has received over 35,000 nominations and birthed a generation of superstars. Since 2017, DI-produced events have paid out more than $ 1.36 million in cash to racers. Mortgage money. Engine money. Family money. Money that keeps people in this sport.

And here’ s the thing. The mission hasn’ t changed one degree. We still put human faces on the cover, not cars. We still refuse to write puff pieces in exchange for ad dollars. We still platform the no-name kid running 7s in his dad’ s truck on the same pages as a world champion. We still believe a high tide lifts all boats. We still believe that drag racing should be the biggest motorsport on planet earth, and we are working every single day to get it there.

I’ m not the same kid who sketched all this out on a napkin at a Perkins in Des Moines. That kid didn’ t have a wife, didn’ t have kids, didn’ t have a mortgage. Today I’ ve been married to my best friend Alisha since New Year’ s Eve 2012, I’ m a proud dad to Max( about to start his freshman year at TCU) and Sophia( the most creative 11-year-old you’ ll ever meet), and I’ ve got a few

Wesley R. Buck Founder & Editorial Director more grey hairs than I did at 21. But the fire is the same. The belief is the same. The chip on my shoulder for this sport and the people in it is the same. Maybe even a little bigger.

Here’ s something I didn’ t fully understand at 21, and maybe I’ m only just starting to understand today. Drag Illustrated isn’ t a media company. Not really. There’ s a media brand at the center of it – print, digital, social, video, live events – but what we’ ve actually built over 20 years, what I’ m proudest of, and what gets me out of bed every morning, is the community that’ s come with it. For two decades we’ ve worked to tear down the walls between the cliques and the silos in our sport. What’ s grown up in their place is a community of racers, fans, builders, tuners, promoters and brands bound by a shared passion, a shared enthusiasm and a shared never-ending desire to take this sport to new heights. It’ s the people, truly, who make this sport what it is. The media is just how we connect them.

A magazine doesn’ t get to 200 issues alone. None of this happens without Mike Carpenter, my right hand for going on two decades now, who has poured every bit as much of his life into this thing as I have. None of this happens without our team. Nate, JT, Nancy, Craig, Brett, Caroline, Van, Blake, Cody, and Kyle. Our photographers, our writers, our designers, all the people who show up every day and make this thing real. None of this happens without our advertising partners, the companies who believed in us back when we were a recycled-newsprint upstart and who still believe in us today. And none of this happens without you, the readers. The racers who tear pages out of our magazine and hang them on shop walls. The fans who shout“ Wes Buck Show!” at the track. The people who keep this sport alive with their hearts, their wallets, and their stories. Thank you. Every single one of you.

Two hundred issues in. Twenty years in. And I’ m telling you right now: we are just getting started.

To grow and build the sport. If it’ s the last thing I do. DI

I invite you to email me at wes @ dragillustrated. com and follow me at facebook. com / wbuck and wesbuckinc on Instagram.

PHOTO: LUKE NIEUWHOF

8 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 200