Drag Illustrated Issue 141, February 2019 | Page 80
CLOSE-UP
Kevin Prior
Paying Tribute to ‘The Professor’
K
evin Prior is a perfect example of how organized
drag racing can turn a young man’s wayward life around,
or at least his wayward driving habits. Prior, who grew up
in the Warrenton, Missouri, area had a fascination with
fast cars early on, and like so many before him, he used
the highways as raceways until he found himself just one point away from
losing his driver’s license. “My dad told me he wasn’t going to court with
me again,” Prior recalls. It was then Prior and his buddies started visiting
their local drag strips in eastern Missouri and realized that it made so
much more sense than their previous habits.
Prior first began racing his street cars, followed by a 340 ci Plymouth
Duster, which served as his first dedicated race car. “The Duster was ac-
tually a AHRA world record holder in 1977 in H-Production Automatic,”
P H O T O G R A P H
80 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
B Y
Prior says. He later raced a 1966 Chevelle, then a 1967 Camaro, followed
by a wild, wheel-standing 1969 Nova, which clocked 10.70s in the quar-
ter-mile in the early 1980s. “After that I actually quit racing for a while
and had a family,” he says. He tried to go back to the track as a spectator,
but it just didn’t hold the same mystique.
He was lured back to racing, however, in 1997 right after they complete-
ly refurbished his local Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis. “I went to
the track and saw a bunch of my buddies that I hadn’t seen in 15 years and
that’s all it took...I had a race car again shortly thereafter.”
It was his desire to go faster that lead him to the 1987 Oldsmobile
Firenza that he currently owns. “First time I ever saw the car my first
concern was whether or not I could even fit in the thing,” Prior laughs. He
stands 6 foot 4 inches tall and the Firenza is something of a pint-sized
V A N
A B E R N E T H Y
Issue 141