Mike Bowman’s Odyssey to a $100k Pro Mod Payday

Ask someone about their best day ever and you might hear stories about when they met (or left) their spouse, when their kid was born, or when they achieved a long-awaited dream. From Mike Bowman, you might learn that his best day was something of a surprise.

If you rewind to the mid-’90s, street car racing was making big noise with competitors, hot-rodding media and the performance aftermarket. Pro Street was the top of the food chain, and the season-ending Fastest Street Car event at Memphis was its Woodstock. Winning a coveted Top Ten jacket was considered a lifetime achievement.

In the midst of all this, in 1995, a relative unknown was making the long trek from California to attend Memphis and other Pro Street shows around the country. With a back-halved ’68 Chevelle on nitrous and a Turbo 400 behind it, Bowman quietly won more than a few Super Chevy shows and big NSCA events, including Union Grove. Even with his success, Bowman labored in relative obscurity. Eventually keeping pace went beyond what his car could do, and it was time to step things up.

Bowman went to a full tube-frame car with a 700-inch turbo combination in 2000, making him one of the early big tire cars running such a combination. Boost control was a work in progress; the worst happened while racing at Commerce where his tires spun, sending him into the wall. Knocked unconscious, he woke up while being loaded into an ambulance, but that didn’t knock the desire to race out of him. He acquired a Monte Carlo just a few months later, but eventually took a breather in 2006.

The following year, he stayed closer to his West Coast home base, and won a handful of PSCA events, but he ultimately came to the realization that things were feeling like they had with the Chevelle. So, he sold the Monte Carlo and resurrected the Chevelle with Pro Mod in mind.

Bowman began 2010 with a Brad Anderson twin turbo bullet, becoming the first on the West Coast to dip into the fives while winning the NMCA West title. Proving that feat was no fluke, he finished second in 2013 and in the Top Ten the next two years before an ugly top-end crash KO’d his season. A combination of bad things created a driver’s worst nightmare: ’Chutes failed to deploy, sending him into the sand trap on fire with the driver’s door pinned shut against the barrier net. Not only was he now short a car, but his plans of racing in NHRA’s Real Pro Mod series were kaput.

Bowman proved to be resilient. In 2016, he returned from Jerry Bickel’s shop with a new Chevelle body from Andy McCoy Race Cars. His performance at the 2016 NHRA U.S. Nationals turned more than a few heads when he carded a sub-track record 5.821 with a best speed of 256.89 mph to qualify third. He followed up his Indy effort by qualifying sixth at the season’s final Pro Mod race in Vegas. In 2017, Bowman has been able to attend several more events and broke through with his first round win at Bristol. For a guy on a tight budget, little test time, limited race schedule, plus greater travel distances than others, he was making steady progress.

Even so, he wasn’t the first choice to attend the winner-take-all World Series of Pro Mod event at Bandimere Speedway in Denver. Bowman was invited at the last minute when the organizer realized there would be a short field of cars. Bowman faced the mother of all thrashes. He had to locate and then change the converter and gears, tweak the tune-up, and then drive to Denver—all in 24 hours! Once he arrived at the track he had to assemble a crew to assist him.

Bowman had his mojo working. He was the first to make an out-of-the-box full pass, which proved to be the first-ever five-second run by a doorslammer at Bandimere. The event’s unique “no scoreboard display” rules kept racers guessing as to how their competition was performing—and consequently what their set-ups should be—which worked to Bowman’s advantage. In the end, being able to focus on driving, rather than performance, won the day as he was on and off the throttle several times before crossing the finish line with a 6.274/238.70-mph win over runner-up Steven Whitely, who slowed to a 7.787-second pass.

This was like winning 10 NHRA Pro Mod races all at once, but I won’t feel whole until I can win an NHRA event. I’m far from done!—Mike Bowman

“The $100,000 will go quickly,” a serious Bowman says, “but I’m especially grateful that my wife Kristy, daughters Kassidy and Kayla and my stepson Bobby were all able to be there with me. I also have to thank Ray Coburn, Wes Buck, Harry Hruska, Brad Personnet, Chris Castanza, Marty Grinde, Alex Grinder, and Brian and Taylor Strange, as well as Jason Pettis Speed Shop who helped make all this possible.

“This was like winning 10 NHRA Pro Mod races all at once,” he continues, “but I won’t feel whole until I can win an NHRA event. I’m far from done!”

Until that happens, the $100 grand in his back pocket and that one-of-a-kind championship belt will have to suffice … as his best
day ever.

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Breaking the Mold

World Series of Pro Mod Event was Unlike any Other

When first announced, Drag Illustrated’s Wes Buck said it was going to be a historic event, and it turned out to be just that. Inspired by no-prep racing, TV’s “Street Outlaws” and other non-traditional events mixed with a promoter’s flair, the World Series of Pro Mod might have changed the shape and feel of drag racing for the near future. 

“Pro Mod is the universal language of drag racing, and it has a cult following in nearly every country in the world,” Buck says with excitement. “I wanted to get away from a race that just had numbers on a scoreboard. This sport is about stories, not stats. We wanted to throw some curveballs in to make it all the more interesting.”

Curve balls abounded, none of the racers had experienced what went on at this event. No clocks, no qualifying, and pairings done a month in advance, 14 of the sport’s best Pro Mod racers were invited, with the remainder of the field determined by a fan vote and a wildcard shootout beforehand. Throw in a winner-take-all $100,000 jackpot on a track 5,800 feet above sea level and there was little doubt that this was going to be a race like no other.

With online trash talk starting well before the event, social media greatly added to the hype. The world of drag racing was watching to see if this would be a success, and it didn’t take long for a response. Bristol Dragway had its own $100,000 top prize at a taping of “Street Outlaws” at the track on a Tuesday—and sold out. The demand to get in was so overwhelming, the track even issued a public apology to the fans who were turned away.

“By all accounts, the World Series of Pro Mod was a tremendous success,” Buck continues. “We achieved by doing something different and felt afterwards that we had planted a seed. Now, we’re looking forward to seeing it grow. If the racers’ were steering me, we’d have another half dozen of these soon. I’m a proponent of sustainable growth, but we’ll most assuredly have another event like this again in 2018.”

TECH SHEET

Car: 1969 Chevrolet Pro Mod Chevelle 

Chassis: Jerry Bickel Race Cars

Body: Andy McCoy Race Cars

Engine: Brad Anderson based 522 ci

Crankshaft: Sonny Bryant

Rods and Pistons: BME Rods, Diamond

Cylinder Heads: Brad Anderson

Valvetrain: Manton

Power Adder: Precision Turbo 88mm

Fuel: Methanol

Fuel Injectors: Precision Turbo 

Throttle Body: Accufab 105

Intake: Hogan’s Manifolds

Ignition: MSD Mag 

Ignition Wires: AFIS

Engine Management: Big Stuff 3

Data Acquisition: RacePak

Transmission: M&M/Rossler Turbo 400

Torque Converter: M&M

Wheels: Weld

Rear Tire: Hoosier 17×34.5

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