Drag Illustrated Issue 141, February 2019 | Page 81
race car in comparison to most of the others he’d owned. “I took a seat in
the car and liked it a lot.”
This Oldsmobile was originally built by Tommy Mauney for the previ-
ous owner, Jerry Wilkerson, who raced the car in Comp Eliminator, be-
fore being sold to Jeff Taylor. By the time Prior first learned of the car, it
had been parked for about 5-6 years before Prior bought it in 2013.
Immediately after buying it, Prior had the desire to transform the Fi-
renza into a Warren Johnson tribute car. He’s always been a fan of WJ, al-
though the two have yet to actually meet. They do, however, have a mutual
friend through which “The Professor” gave Prior his blessings to make a
tribute car, but with one stipulation: “Don’t make me look stupid!” Prior
actually talked to Johnson on the phone for about a half hour, and that’s
as close as they’ve ever come to meeting. “I’ve heard from other people
that Warren really likes the car,” smiles Prior, who debuted the Olds at
Missouri’s Sikeston Dragway shortly after it was finished.
The following year he competed at the World Series of Drag Racing in
Cordova, Illinois, where a 16-car field of Nostalgia Pro Stocks were gath-
ered. “I absolutely had a blast!” Prior says. He also towed the car to Wil-
kesboro, North Carolina, for the inaugural Don Carlton Memorial race
several years ago. He’s also entered a handful of ADRL events with the car
and won the meet in Martin, Michigan, this year.
“I didn’t necessarily put the car together to do the nostalgia circuit,” he
says, “but the opportunity is certainly there to tour and be a part of gath-
erings with similar cars of this era, and it’s been a whole lot of fun thus far.”
DI DI DI
- VA N A B E R N E T HY
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
February 2019
DragIllustrated.com
| D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 81