{"id":101678,"date":"2025-07-11T16:18:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/dialed-in-red-whitmore-keeps-the-good-times-rolling-in-bristols-der-bracket-racing-series\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:18:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:18:29","slug":"dialed-in-red-whitmore-keeps-the-good-times-rolling-in-bristols-der-bracket-racing-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/dialed-in-red-whitmore-keeps-the-good-times-rolling-in-bristols-der-bracket-racing-series\/","title":{"rendered":"DIALED IN: Red Whitmore Keeps the Good Times Rolling in Bristol\u2019s DER Bracket Racing Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2009 when Red Whitmore insisted that he could transform Bristol Dragway\u2019s fledgling bracket series into a viable and successful program, he was reasonably sure he could pull it off, but he certainly didn\u2019t expect to still be doing it 17 seasons later!\u00a0<\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #193, t<\/em>he WSOPM Issue<\/em>, in March \/ April of 2025.]<\/p>\n

Bristol Dragway\u2019s then-president, Jeff Byrd, had already cancelled the bracket program when Whitmore \u2013 an employee of the oval track with a distant past in drag racing \u2013 persuaded Byrd to allow him one season to try and turn things around. Byrd, along with pretty much everybody else, was shocked when Whitmore did exactly that, and now he\u2019s hoping to keep the good times rolling for 20 seasons, and he\u2019s even made it something of a retirement goal. \u201cI\u2019ll be almost 80 years old at the 20-season mark, so that\u2019s what I\u2019m shooting for,\u201d Whitmore smiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Red Whitmore, founder of the DER Bracket Racing Series<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Even though the DER Bracket Racing Series that Whitmore founded and manages is seemingly hitting on all cylinders, he never gets complacent or thinks it can\u2019t be improved upon. From day one, Whitmore was a huge believer of allowing racers to vote on matters that directly affect them, and it\u2019s a practice he still embraces. \u201cThis is their series, I just manage it for them,\u201d he always insists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whitmore is keenly aware of changing trends, and he embraces the transition whenever he sees an opportunity. \u201cI put the points signup sheet online this year for the first time, and it really worked out well.\u201d He even offered a $10 discount to any racer who took the time to complete the signup sheet online. \u201cThe response was great, not to mention the information was so much easier to read since it was typed!\u201d he laughs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for the kickoff of the \u201c17th Round of the DER Series\u201d as it\u2019s affectionately known, Whitmore was contemplating how he should handle the points on the first weekend of the new season in late March, so naturally he put it to a vote! \u201cIt was proposed to make the March event a points race, and then drop one later in the year,\u201d Whitmore explains, \u201cbut the verdict came back to just leave it alone and make it a non-points race, so that\u2019s exactly what I did.\u201d The season opener was indeed heavily attended, although unfavorable weather showed up late in the weekend, forcing a cancellation of the last day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DER Bracket Racing Series is comprised of nine classes of competition and is mainly contested on the eighth mile, with the exception of Sportsman and Trophy, which compete on the full 1,320. Multiple classes of Jr. Dragster competition are available, along with motorcycles and all the other classes one would expect to see in a well-rounded dial-in series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In addition to the gathering in March, five more weekends are on tap in 2025. Each weekend, things get started on Friday with parking and test-and-tune, while Saturday and Sunday each have separate eliminators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whitmore is forever trying to accommodate his racers, so when they voiced their desires of wanting more prize money this year, he went to work on finding a solution. Raising the gate fee would have been one solution, but instead, the decision was reached to raise the buyback fee in Super Pro and Pro, thus increasing the payouts to third and fourth round winners, along with the runner-up, who gets a couple hundred more dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the May event is complete, DER will return in June with a pair of points races before taking off the month of July. After a single event in mid-August, the season finale is slated for September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI started out wanting to make one of the best bracket racing programs in the region and that continues to be my goal, and after all these years I feel like it\u2019s still a work in progress,\u201d Whitmore concludes.<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published on July 11, 2025. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post DIALED IN: Red Whitmore Keeps the Good Times Rolling in Bristol\u2019s DER Bracket Racing Series<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 2009 when Red Whitmore insisted that he could transform Bristol Dragway\u2019s fledgling bracket series into a viable and successful program, he was reasonably sure he could pull it off, but he certainly didn\u2019t expect to still be doing it 17 seasons later!\u00a0 [Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #193, the WSOPM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}