It\u2019s a cool spring day at Benson, North Carolina\u2019s GALOT Motorsports Park, home of the season-opening PDRA Summit Racing Equipment East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech. Derek Ward\u2019s 53-foot race transporter is situated near the front of the Pro Boost pits, coincidentally right next to Spencer Hyde, who proudly sports a large \u201c2023 World Series of Pro Mod Champion\u201d decal on the back door of his trailer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #188, the World Series of Pro Mod Issue, in May\/June of 2024.]<\/em><\/p>\n When Ward crossed the Bradenton Motorsports Park finish line first in the $100,000 final round of the 2024 Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod presented by Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage and J&A Service on March 3rd, he joined Hyde in the exclusive club of WSOPM champions. Like Hyde one year ago, Ward is now basking in the attention that comes with a win at the WSOPM. Brands are approaching him with offers of free or significantly reduced-price products, fans are making a point to stop by to congratulate him and buy a T-shirt, and photographers are capturing images of his screw-blown \u201968 Firebird.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling,\u201d Ward says of the newfound attention. \u201cI\u2019m not used to it, but I do like it a lot. I\u2019m just a small guy, I love racing, and I\u2019m trying to make a name for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward is similar to Hyde in that aspect as well. Hyde showed some signs of brilliance before his WSOPM win, including a regional Pro Mod championship in Canada. Ward won a couple Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Association (NEOPMA) events to secure the 2023 NEOPMA championship driving his screw-blown \u201969 Camaro.\u00a0<\/p>\n A late-season crashed looked to put a stop to his momentum, but working with brothers Jon Salemi of Resolution Racing Services and Jim Salemi of G-Force Race Cars, Ward sourced a \u201968 Firebird that he brought out at the World Street Nationals at Orlando in November. Off the trailer, the Firebird was as good, if not better than his Camaro. A few weeks later, Ward qualified No. 6 with a 3.623-second effort in the all-3.60-second, 32-car field at the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals at Bradenton. He returned to Bradenton in late January for the U.S. Street Nationals, where he qualified No. 2 in the 32-car field with a 3.604.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI give the credit to G-Force because my other car was a G-Force car and I think that was a 2012. This one\u2019s an \u201905, though it doesn\u2019t have a lot of runs on it,\u201d Ward points out. \u201cI actually took everything from my blue car \u2013 the wiring, the wheels, even the parachutes \u2013 and put it in this car. The first full pass we went a .62 in Orlando, so it was right there the whole time. It\u2019s a great car.\u201d<\/p>\n Also like Hyde, Ward suffered a broken chassis on his way to victory. Fortunately, it happened during a private test session a week and a half before the race. In Hyde\u2019s case, his team discovered the broken frame rail after the final qualifying session, leading to an overnight repair project. Ward had much more time, but it was still a mad thrash. Rather than leaving his operation at Bradenton and flying home as planned, Ward drove the truck and trailer back to his home shop in Frederick, Maryland, and took the car apart to prepare it for chassis work at G-Force Race Cars near Buffalo, New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn between that, I had to go out that night and push snow all night, then Sunday morning I woke up at 4 o\u2019clock in the morning and drove to Buffalo to G-Force and they worked on it all week,\u201d Ward says. \u201cJim worked on it and had to put a new four-link bracket in and pretty much back-halved the one side of the car to get it ready. I picked it up the next Saturday, got home Sunday, put the car together, and left Sunday evening to drive to Florida for the World Series.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward\u2019s troubles continued in pre-race testing when he wounded the screw-blown, Mike Stawicki Racing-built engine on his second test pass. His team swapped in a new engine and a fresh oil pump and prepared for Friday\u2019s first qualifying session, where it seemed another issue arose.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe went up there and had no oil pressure, so I cut it off and went back to the pits,\u201d Ward says. \u201cWent over everything, started it, had oil pressure, everything was good. Went back up there for Q2 \u2013 again, no oil pressure. I was like, \u2018I\u2019m not running this thing, I\u2019m not blowing it up.\u2019 We took it back to the pits, and come to find out the sensors were bad on the car. We had oil pressure. I ended up going and buying a little mechanical gauge and mounting it to my blower and we ran that all weekend for oil pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward finished Friday\u2019s three qualifying sessions outside the 32-car field. In the fourth session on Saturday, he threw down a 3.660 at 206.32 MPH to get into the show in the No. 24 spot. With the final night session left to run, Ward knew he wasn\u2019t safely in the field. He recorded a 3.637 at 206.57 to jump up to the No. 15 spot, just inside the top half of the quickest 32-car Pro Modified field of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were so excited just to qualify,\u201d Ward says. \u201cThe night before we were close to the bump. We just wanted to qualify to race. We have not not qualified for a race. It was just exciting to get into that race because of how big the stakes were.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward drew a fellow reigning series champion, three-time PDRA Pro Nitrous world champion Tommy Franklin, in the opening round. Franklin, who qualified third in his Musi-powered \u201cJungle Rat\u201d \u201969 Camaro, left the line just a thousandth ahead of Ward. The two remained side-by-side down the entire eighth-mile track, with Ward finishing first with his 3.70 at 206.26 to Franklin\u2019s 3.71 at 204.66.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFirst round was tough. Every round was tough, but I had Franklin first round,\u201d Ward says. \u201cWe were dead even on the tree and I ran a little bit faster. I got him by nine thousandths at the stripe. It was a really close race.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward was the second-quickest driver in the second round with his 3.684 at 205.98 to take out a tire-shaking Dustin Nesloney, the 2022 MWDRS Pro Mod champion. He lined up next to PDRA Pro Nitrous young gun Marcus Butner in the third round, winning on a holeshot with a 3.673 at 206.45 to Butner\u2019s 3.667. Ward then drew two-time NHRA Pro Mod world champion Stevie \u201cFast\u201d Jackson, who won Lights Out 15 in Radial vs. the World in his new screw-blown Motion Raceworks \u201cShadow 3.0\u201d the weekend before WSOPM. Eager to go 2-0, Jackson went red by .070, while Ward streaked to a 3.639 at 207.85 to move on to the final round.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody wanted Stevie to win,\u201d Ward says. \u201cHe got a little anxious and went red. He said he shook the tires a little bit down the track. We made a good run. Three out of the four cars went a .63 that round. The cars were pretty close together.\u201d<\/p>\n The excitement was only just beginning for Ward and his team. They serviced the car and agreed to give final-round opponent Jim Halsey and team some extra time to freshen the nitrous engine in Halsey\u2019s \u201968 Camaro. When the two drivers went to fire their engines for the final round, Ward\u2019s car wouldn\u2019t start. The Salemis quickly realized it was a starter issue and felt they could quickly fix the issue if race promoter Wes Buck, race director Gavin Carter, and Halsey would allow them to return to the pits. All parties agreed, and a thrash ensued.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m getting ready to get out of the car. Everybody was like, \u2018No, stay in it! We\u2019re going.\u2019 They were just pushing the car,\u201d Ward remembers. \u201cI was like, \u2018You know my trailer\u2019s parked waaay down there past the finish line, right?\u2019 They\u2019re like, \u2018No, we\u2019re going to Melanie\u2019s.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Anyone who could get a hand on Ward\u2019s Firebird pushed it back through the staging lanes to Melanie Salemi\u2019s pit area, where 2023 DI 30 Under 30 honoree Evan Salemi led the charge to get the car up on jackstands and ready for a new starter.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJim [Salemi] had the starter plate changed and got it ready. I went under there and stuck the starter on, but they did most of the work and got it ready for the car,\u201d Ward says. \u201cThey were like, \u2018Just go take a walk and calm down and get ready for the final.\u2019 They took care of me. I can\u2019t thank my crew and the whole Salemi crew enough for what they did to get me ready for the final round.\u201d<\/p>\n The team got the everything buttoned up and pushed the car back to the staging lanes, where Halsey and his Brandon Switzer-led team were patiently waiting. Both cars fired up and the drivers did their burnouts. Ward followed Halsey into the pre-stage beam. Halsey lit his stage bulb, then Ward flickered and fully lit his. The Christmas tree dropped and Ward was away first with a .047 reaction time to Halsey\u2019s .073. The two were together at the 60-foot mark, but Halsey\u2019s brand-new \u201968 Camaro started chattering the tires as it got up on the wheelie bars. Ward crossed the finish line first with a 3.625 at 208.17. Halsey followed with a 4.304 at 126.09.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an unbelievable feeling,\u201d Ward says as he thinks back to the moment his win light came on. \u201cWe took off and I didn\u2019t see the orange car at all. It was awesome. I was very happy, screaming in my helmet. My guys were screaming at me through the radio. It was an unbelievable feeling, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward\u2019s team, including girlfriend Mindy Miller, Mike Sawyers, Henry George Jr., and Dale Gilbert, went wild back on the starting line. After rounds of high-fives and hugs from the crowd gathered on the starting line and staging lanes, the team made their way down to the top end to collect Ward and the Firebird. The group then drove back through the pits and through the staging lanes to reach the winner\u2019s circle, where the celebrations rolled on.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a hell of a celebration,\u201d Ward laughs. \u201cThere was champagne and money flying everywhere. It\u2019s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience. It was a good night.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward, who bracket raced for years before moving up to Pro Mod several years ago, has learned how to tune and maintain his screw-blown hot rod with guidance from Jon Salemi, a noted blown alcohol specialist.<\/p>\n \u201cI maintenance the car at my house by myself,\u201d Ward says. \u201cMy girlfriend helps me and a couple of my guys can come sometimes to help me do a couple heavy things, but I do most of it myself at the house. Jon has his car and his other customers. Sometimes it gets to be too much, but at World Series, I gotta give all the credit to him and Evan because they did the eliminations for me. The car hauled ass.\u201d<\/p>\n Salemi is back on board with Ward this weekend at the East Coast Nationals. Later in the day, Ward will take on Hyde in a special final-qualifying-session grudge match between the two most recent WSOPM champions. Ward charged to a 3.555 at 211.76 to win the grudge match, set a new Pro Boost national E.T. record, and take the No. 1 qualifier award over a field that saw eight other drivers dip into the 3.50s.<\/p>\n \u201cI give a lot of credit to Jon,\u201d Ward continues, also thanking G-Force Race Cars and MSR Performance. \u201cI know how to get the car down the track and tune it, but not to the degree that those two do. They know a lot. One day, I might know as much as them. It\u2019s a lot to drive it, maintenance it, and tune it. Having somebody else that just tunes and can look at the racetrack, it\u2019s a better combination, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Between the 2023 NEOPMA championship, the WSOPM win, and the record performance in Pro Boost at the PDRA season opener, it\u2019s clear Ward is making big moves in the increasingly competitive world of Pro Mod. He\u2019s proving his mettle as a driver, and with support from people like the Salemis, he has a car that can help him carve out his own chapter in the history books.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is all I\u2019ve ever dreamed of since I was a kid,\u201d Ward says. \u201cI grew up drag racing and I\u2019ve always wanted to drive a Pro Mod and be one of the top guys in the sport. I would love to take it to the next level, and it looks like we\u2019re on the way to that.\u201d<\/p>\n The post It Takes An Army: Derek Ward and Company Fight Through Adversity to Join the WSOPM Champions Club<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a cool spring day at Benson, North Carolina\u2019s GALOT Motorsports Park, home of the season-opening PDRA Summit Racing Equipment East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech. Derek Ward\u2019s 53-foot race transporter is situated near the front of the Pro Boost pits, coincidentally right next to Spencer Hyde, who proudly sports a large \u201c2023 World Series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93952","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"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}