If sportsmanship needed an object lesson, then it needed to look no further than the Pro Modified finals of the 5th annual Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Modified on Sunday in Bradenton, Fla.

With $100,000 of winner-take-all prize money on the line, heralded Northeast Outlaw Pro Modified Association champion Derek Ward returned the favor of sportsmanship to opponent Jim Halsey.Ward’s 3.625 seconds at 208.17 MPH run defeated Halsey’s 4.304-second pass at 126.09 MPH in front of an overflow crowd on the starting line. 

Also headlining the professional winners were Matt Giangrande (Mountain Motor Pro Stock) and “Quick Nick” Schroeder (Pro 10.5). 
 
“It's incredible,” said Ward, the 2023 NEOPMA champion. “The field of drivers they have here is the best in the world. And we won it today. It's quite an exciting day. This is the biggest win of my career.”

Following the semifinals, Halsey discovered an engine issue and was prepared to throw in the towel, so as not to delay the event., Knowing there were other classes that could run, Ward extended Halsey the time to make it for the final. Once Halsey made it, and the two were prepared to start their cars for the final round, then Ward's car would not start. 

Halsey afforded Ward as much time as neccessary to change out starters, which took 40 minutes, and then they raced.

“It was stressful up until we got it started in the burnout box for the last final,” said Ward. “You have to forget everything when stuff like that happens. I have to say thanks to Jim Halsey for giving me time to do what I had to do to get up the start line. I don't even pay attention to all that stuff when it is happening. I'm looking at the tree and down track. That's it. I wasn’t thinking anything until we got that win light on the finish line.”

Giangrande, who started Sunday as the No. 8 seed, raced through a tough field of 16 Mountain Motor Pro Stock competitors to take the $25,000 top prize in the second annual Mountain Motor Pro Stock Invitational. 

Giangrande drove Enoch Love’s ‘19 Camaro to victory defeating Johnny Pluchino. In the final it was Giangrande’s 4.108 at 175.37 paired with an .025 reaction time getting to the finish line in front of Pluchino’s 4.137 at 175.71. 
 
“This is unbelievable,” Giangrande said. “This is definitely the biggest win of my career so far. I really want to thank Drag illustrated and Bradenton Motorsports Park. Of course, I want to thank my entire team – Jennifer, Tim, Wayne, Joe – and Enoch for allowing me to drive the car. We started off with no expectations and we wanted to just be reasonable.”

Racing on a narrow 10.5-inch-wide tire proved challengine for Pro 10.5 Challenge winner Schroeder and and the field on Sunday. But Schroeder, racing a screw-blown ’06 GTO , navigated is way the best and established low E.T. of eliminations with his winning 3.977 at 191.40 in the final round. He stopped Dan Norris in his brand-new, supercharged ’22 Mustang, in the final round, which slowed to a 4.192 at 181.54. 
 
“We struggled at first but we came through,” Schroeder said. “We changed gear ratios, four-link, and just tried something that my dad used to run when he used to run 10. 5 and it paid off. I do concrete work and it's just me and one other guy. It's pretty tough to run these things by myself, and I'm pretty young as you can see. I'll use this money to race the rest of the year.”
 
PDRA world champions Tim Molnar (Top Sportsman) and Steve Furr (Top Dragster) won the Top Sportsman Championship presented by FTI Performance and the inaugural Intercontinental Top Dragster Championship presented by FTI Performance, respectively. The two drivers collected $50,000 for their wins. “Fast” Freddy Perkins picked up the Top Sportsman Second-Chance win. Bradenton local racer Michael Carpenter won the $5,000 Super Pro Shootout. 

Jeff Rudolf won the Chicago-Style Pro Mod Second-Chance race, which paid $10,000 to win.