Drag Illustrated and Bradenton Motorsports Park announced today the creation of a three-race Pro Modified series known as the Drag Illustrated Winter Series. Featuring the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, the U.S. Street Nationals, and culminating with the World Series of Pro Mod, the Drag Illustrated Winter Series will bring the biggest names, best drivers and most competitive race teams in the world to Florida’s Gulf Coast for three of the biggest weekends in eighth-mile drag racing. Collectively, the Drag Illustrated Winter Series will pay out more than $300,000 in the Pro Mod division alone.
“To say that I’m excited about this is the understatement of the century,” said Wes Buck, Founder & Editorial Director of Drag Illustrated.
“Fans have always looked back fondly on drag racing’s early days in Southern California, but we’re about to create a new ‘golden era’ for this sport along the Florida Gulf Coast. It’s no secret that I believe Pro Mod to be the universal language of drag racing. In my eyes, this is a brand of drag racing that is unrivaled in action, excitement and competition, but perhaps most importantly in participation. There are hundreds of Pro Mod teams in North America alone, and it’s our mission to bring the best of the best to Bradenton Motorsports Park this winter to do battle.”
The inaugural Drag Illustrated Winter Series season will open with the $50,000-to-win Snowbird Outlaw Nationals on December 6-8, 2024, followed by the now $75,000-to-win U.S. Street Nationals on January 24-26, 2025, and ultimately culminate with the $150,000-to-win World Series of Pro Mod over the weekend of February 27-March 1st, 2025. Accompanying these substantial purse increases for the series’ individual events will be a championship points fund that will reward the series champion and top performers.
“There’s a shared vision for the future of drag racing here between Drag Illustrated and Bradenton Motorsports Park, and I’m super excited to continue the work we’ve already done to propel this sport that we all love to the next level. We won’t stop until we get there.”
The Drag Illustrated Winter Series will utilize the Pro Mod ruleset that has produced the closest competition in the history of the eliminator the last two seasons during the World Series of Pro Mod, which assembled 32-car fields of racers separated by as little as six hundredths of a second.
“Our mission at Drag Illustrated has been, and always will be, to grow and build the sport of drag racing, and that’s rooted in providing value to this community,” continued Buck. “We’ve strategically built out this new series in an effort to provide a perfect complement to the many well-established and successful sanctions, series and independent events that already exist in this space. We’re proud of and grateful for the strong relationships we have in this community with track owners, promoters, series officials, manufacturers, racers and fans, and see this as the natural evolution for the events side of our business.
“Above all, we’re here to provide the most action-packed ‘offseason’ that drag racing has ever seen for our fans and a can’t-miss opportunity for our racers to compete on a grand stage with world-class event production and organization. And, again, we couldn’t be more excited about the Drag Illustrated Winter Series, but I promise we’re just getting started.”
The Drag Illustrated Winter Series will continue the World Series of Pro Mod’s tradition of an invite-only format and will be contested on the outlaw eighth-mile.
This story was originally published on August 2, 2024.