{"id":104991,"date":"2026-10-08T20:44:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/169-have-tried-seven-have-done-it-nobody-has-done-it-twice\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T20:44:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:44:05","slug":"169-have-tried-seven-have-done-it-nobody-has-done-it-twice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/169-have-tried-seven-have-done-it-nobody-has-done-it-twice\/","title":{"rendered":"169 Have Tried. Seven Have Done It. Nobody Has Done It Twice."},"content":{"rendered":"

Since a rainout in Charlotte turned a conversation into a race, 169 different drivers have entered the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod. Between them they account for 319 entries across seven runnings at Bandimere Speedway and Bradenton Motorsports Park. Seven of them have won it. Not one of them has done it twice.<\/p>\n

That is not an accident. It is the product.<\/p>\n

\"Seven<\/figure>\n

Mike Bowman got into the first one on a fan vote and beat the whole sport with a turbocharged Chevelle while the scoreboards sat dark and the time slips came out of the booth cut in half. Carl Stevens Jr. went 5.856 at 246 in 2018, the quickest and fastest anybody had ever run on the mountain, and Jim Bell still calls it the best race he has ever been to. Scott Oksas, who installed water heaters for a living and told anybody who asked, took an 11-car field apart in 2019. Spencer Hyde qualified 32nd of 32 in 2023 and beat Kurt Steding in the final, 3.643 to 3.652. Derek Ward\u2019s Firebird would not fire in the 2024 final, half the pit pushed it back for a starter, Jim Halsey waited rather than take the win, and Ward came back and beat him. Steve King qualified 30th in 2025 and won by a thousandth. Aaron Stanfield, a Pro Stock racer who had never sat in a Pro Mod, won the biggest one there is in 2026.<\/p>\n

Read the qualifying spots again. Thirty-two. Thirty. Fifteen. Eight. Three of the last four champions came from the back half of the field. Erica Enders has been beaten in this race twice, both times by the eventual winner. The chip draw is the reason. There is no ladder to protect the top qualifier and no soft first round for anybody. Sixteen billet chips, WSOPM Race Director Gavin Carter counting them down, and whoever you pull is who you run. Any of the 32 can win, and the history says the ones you would not pick usually do.<\/p>\n

The rest of the record book reads the same way. The quickest qualifying pass in event history is Eric Gustafson\u2019s 3.553 from 2026. The fastest is Mark Micke\u2019s 223.65 from 2025. The largest entry list is 80 cars, also 2025. And the number that matters most to anybody who has tried to make this field: from the No. 1 qualifier to the No. 32 qualifier, the spread has been less than five hundredths of a second. That is the most competitive Pro Mod field ever assembled, and it is the hardest one in the class to make.<\/p>\n

\"The
Every champion since 2017 has been handed a ring. Mike Bowman still wears his.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every champion of the Bandimere years took home a belt. Every champion since 2017 has been handed a ring, and Mike Bowman still wears his. Since Gene Pilot commissioned it after King\u2019s win, the traveling trophy goes home with the champion for a year and comes back to the winner\u2019s circle, where the outgoing champion hands it to the next one. King handed it to Stanfield in Bradenton. Somebody will hand it to the eighth name in Ennis.<\/p>\n

March 5-7, 2027. Texas Motorplex. One of 169 will do it again, or somebody new will make it eight.<\/p>\n

See all seven champions.<\/a> Get on the ticket list.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This story was originally published on October 8, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post 169 Have Tried. Seven Have Done It. Nobody Has Done It Twice.<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since a rainout in Charlotte turned a conversation into a race, 169 different drivers have entered the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod. Between them they account for 319 entries across seven runnings at Bandimere Speedway and Bradenton Motorsports Park. Seven of them have won it. Not one of them has done it twice. […]<\/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-104991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104991","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=104991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}