Aaron Stanfield, 2026 World Series of Pro Mod champion. Photo: Luke Nieuwhof
THE SHORT LIST
Seven runnings. Seven champions. Nobody has done it twice.
Seven names. That is the entire list.
In a sport that has been handing out trophies for the better part of seventy years, only seven drivers have ever won the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod. There is no points chase to back into here, no season-long body of work that quietly forgives a bad weekend. There is one race. There is sudden death every round. You survive it or you load up and go home.
That was always the idea.
It started on a mountain. August 5, 2017, at Bandimere Speedway outside Denver, a place racers call Thunder Mountain, where the air sits thin enough to rob a supercharged engine of several hundred horsepower before the car ever leaves the water box. Sixteen of the best doorslammer drivers on earth came to race for $100,000, winner take all, far and away the largest purse the class had ever seen. No runner-up money. No points. No soft landing.
And no scoreboards.
That was the part nobody could get comfortable with. Drag racers live and die by numbers, and Drag Illustrated turned the boards off and cut the time slips in half. During testing a crew member went headfirst into a trash barrel to dig out the shredded pieces of his driver’s slip, terrified somebody else might read it. Nobody knew what anybody had. Every driver had to assume the guy in the other lane was faster, and every team tuned accordingly.
The whole week leading up to it was high fives and hugs. Then it was time to race, and everything changed.
By the time the smoke cleared, the man holding the check was Mike Bowman, a California racer who got into the field on a fan vote and who had made the first five-second door car pass in the history of that racetrack days earlier, a fact almost nobody knew because of the blackout. He beat Steven Whiteley in a final round where both cars smoked the tires and Bowman got out of it first. They put a championship belt around his waist. He had last raced at Bandimere in 1995.
That set a pattern nobody planned. This race does not reward the favorite. It rewards whoever is willing to put it all on the line on that particular day.
Carl Stevens Jr. proved it in 2018, a tuner and engine builder nobody picked who improved on every single run and then, with $100,000 on the line and his crew telling him to leave it alone, went into the data and turned it up anyway for the final. He ran 5.856 at 246 mph, the quickest Pro Mod pass in the history of the mountain. A champagne cork hit him in the nose in the winner’s circle. That is how he knew it was real.
Scott Oksas proved it again in 2019. He drew Stevie “Fast” Jackson, the NHRA Pro Mod points leader, in the first round. Jackson red-lit by two hundredths on a run that would have been the quickest blower pass in Bandimere history and threw the race away at the tree. Oksas never looked back. “I install water heaters, that’s what I do,” he said, standing there holding a hundred grand. “I don’t race cars for a living.”
Then the race went quiet. The world shut down, Bandimere’s days were numbered, and for a stretch the race existed mostly as a thing people argued about at other racetracks.
It came back in 2023 at Bradenton Motorsports Park, and it came back bigger. The 16-car invitational became a 32-car field so deep that qualifying for it became an achievement by itself. The ladder was thrown out entirely and replaced with a chip draw, which means the two quickest cars in the building can meet in round one and there is not a thing either of them can do about it. Seeding cannot save you. A soft draw cannot carry you. Every pair is a main event.
If anything, that made the underdog thing worse.
Spencer Hyde qualified 32nd out of 32 in 2023, snuck into the show by a thousandth, drew the first pair on Sunday morning, and won the whole thing. Steve King qualified 30th in 2025, beat Cameron Hensley, Jeff Rudolf, Erica Enders and Jason Harris to reach the final, and took it from Stevie Fast Jackson by one thousandth of a second, the closest finish in the history of the race.
And in between, Derek Ward showed the sport something about itself. Ward pushed snow all night, drove to Buffalo at four in the morning to get a broken chassis fixed, made the field on his fifth qualifying attempt, and then, staged and ready for the $100,000 final round, his car would not fire. A bad starter. Everyone who could get a hand on the Firebird pushed it back through the staging lanes to Melanie Salemi’s pit while Jim Halsey and his entire team sat and waited for a competitor they had every reason to let fail. Ward won the race. Both of them won something bigger.
Aaron Stanfield came in 2026 having never sat in a Pro Mod before that winter, qualified eighth, and beat Peter Norton by three thousandths. A week later, at the Gatornationals, drivers who race for a living at the highest level of the sport stopped him in the pits to tell him they were proud of him. “I don’t think I’ve ever received that kind of acknowledgement from my peers,” he said.
The hardware has changed with the eras. A championship belt through the Bandimere years, and a traveling trophy since 2025. Gene Pilot, who owned the car Steve King won with, had a traveling trophy made, a Stanley Cup for Pro Mod. Each champion’s name gets added. Each champion keeps it for a year. And each champion hands it to the next one in the winner’s circle, which means the only people who have ever touched it are the seven who earned it.
On March 5-7, 2027, the race moves to Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, and somebody adds their name.
Seven men have done it in ten years. That is the entire list.
The Champions
Bandimere Speedway · Denver, Colorado
$100,000 to win
The first one. Bowman got into the 16-car field on a fan vote, then quietly made the first five-second door car pass in Bandimere Speedway history during testing, a fact almost nobody knew because the scoreboards were dark all week. In the final against Steven Whiteley both cars overpowered the track. Bowman gathered his up first. John Bandimere Jr. and Wes Buck strapped the championship belt around his waist. He had not raced the mountain since 1995.
Bandimere Speedway · Denver, Colorado
$100,000 to win
Nobody picked the tuner. Stevens improved on every single run of eliminations, beating Marc Caruso, Erica Enders, defending champion Mike Bowman by seven thousandths, and Michael Biehle to reach Danny Rowe in the final. His crew told him to leave the tune-up alone. He looked at the data, decided there was more in it, and turned it up with $100,000 on the line. He ran 5.856 at 246.26, the quickest Pro Mod pass in the history of the mountain. A champagne cork caught him in the nose in the winner’s circle. “This is real,” he remembers thinking. “This is really happening.”
Bandimere Speedway · Denver, Colorado
$100,000 to win
The draw handed Oksas the worst possible opener: Stevie “Fast” Jackson, the NHRA Pro Mod points leader, who promptly ran the quickest blower pass in Bandimere history and threw it away with a .020 red light. “That was the most scared I’ve ever been in my car,” Oksas said. “But after that it was just sweetness.” He ran a 5.882 at 247 mph and drove around Doug Winters in the final. “I install water heaters, that’s what I do. I don’t race cars for a living.” Scott Oksas died in March 2022. He is missed by everyone in this sport who knew him, and his name stays on this list forever.
2020 – 2022
The race goes dark. The world shuts down, Bandimere’s days run out, and for three years the race exists mostly as an argument at other racetracks. It comes back in Florida with twice the field and no ladder at all.
Bradenton Motorsports Park · Bradenton, Florida
$100,000 to win
The race came back, and it came back with 32 cars and a chip draw. Hyde qualified 32nd out of 32, made the show by a thousandth of a second after a week of converter and engine trouble, and then drew the very first pair on Sunday morning. His team found a broken frame rail after final qualifying and fixed it overnight. He never had the quickest car in any round except the last one. “Our goal all week was just to be there and make it a drag race,” said tuner Mark Savage. Hyde won four straight good drag races.
Bradenton Motorsports Park · Bradenton, Florida
$100,000 to win
Ward broke a chassis in testing, pushed snow all night, then drove to Buffalo at four in the morning to get it repaired. He hurt an engine in pre-race testing, chased a phantom oil pressure problem down to a bad sensor, and made the field on his fifth qualifying attempt. He beat Tommy Franklin by nine thousandths, then Dustin Nesloney, then Marcus Butner on a holeshot, then Stevie Fast Jackson. Staged for the final, his car would not fire. Everyone within reach pushed the Firebird back to Melanie Salemi’s pit for a new starter while Jim Halsey and his whole team waited. Ward came back and won it.
Bradenton Motorsports Park · Bradenton, Florida
$150,000 to win
King qualified 30th and then walked through a murderer’s row: Cameron Hensley, Jeff Rudolf, six-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion Erica Enders, back-to-back Pro Boost champion Jason Harris, and finally Stevie Fast Jackson. Jackson left first. King drove around him and won by one thousandth of a second, the closest final round in the history of the race. “I went through the finish line and I’m like, who won? Who won?” Team owner Gene Pilot was so happy he did burnouts in front of his house and tore the transmission out of his own vehicle.
Bradenton Motorsports Park · Bradenton, Florida
$150,000 to win
Stanfield had never sat in a Pro Mod before that winter. He missed the field at the Snowbirds, missed it again by three thousandths at the U.S. Street Nationals, then climbed from 61st to 8th on the final qualifying sheet at the WSOPM. He pedaled his way through the first round, out-drove Tommy D’Aprile when both cars shook, and beat Peter Norton in the final by three thousandths. A week later at the Gatornationals, drivers at the pinnacle of the sport stopped him in the pits. “I don’t think I’ve ever received that kind of acknowledgement from my peers.”
THE RING
2027 | The championship ring awarded at Texas Motorplex
A trophy goes on a shelf. A check gets deposited. A ring gets worn.
We have awarded a championship ring at the World Series of Pro Mod since the very first one, at Bandimere Speedway in 2017. Mike Bowman still wears his. There has been one every year since. What we have not done is make enough of it, and that changes now.
Ask a driver about the biggest race he ever won and he will tell you where the trophy is. Ask him about a ring and he will show it to you, because it is on his hand. It goes to the shop. It goes to the grocery store. It goes to his daughter’s wedding. And eventually it goes to somebody in his family who never saw the race but understands exactly what it means.
That is the difference between a prize and an heirloom.
Every professional sport that has built genuine mythology has an object at the center of it. Golf has a jacket. Hockey has a cup. Football has a ring, and no player who owns one has ever needed to explain why it matters. Pro Modified has had one since 2017.
You do not give it back. You do not put it away. The trophy travels. The ring stays.
THE TRAVELING TROPHY
Every champion of the three Bandimere years got a championship belt. When the race came back in Florida it needed a new object, and it got one. Gene Pilot, who owned the car Steve King won with in 2025, commissioned a traveling trophy for the race, a Stanley Cup for Pro Mod. Every champion’s name is added to it. Every champion keeps it for the year. And every champion hands it to the next one, in person, in the winner’s circle.
Steve King handed it to Aaron Stanfield at Bradenton in 2026. Stanfield hands it to somebody at Texas Motorplex in 2027, unless he becomes the first man to win this race twice.
The eighth name gets written March 5-7, 2027.
Texas Motorplex · Ennis, Texas
