BY BRET KEPNER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
IAN TOCHER, ROGER RICHARDS, JOE MCHUGH, MARC GEWERTZ
AND
AUTO IMAGERY
Editor’ s Note: Throughout the 2025 season, drag racing historian Bret Kepner has been keeping tabs on the efforts of fellow St. Louis area native John DeFlorian in the Johnson’ s Horsepowered Garage NHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock division. DeFlorian, the shop foreman at Jerry Haas Race Cars, went on to win the world championship in a battle with reigning champion Johnny Pluchino that went down to the wire, ending with a triumph in front of DeFlorian’ s home crowd at World Wide Technology Raceway.
IN AN EPIC manuscript that approaches 12,000 words, Kepner chronicles the moments that led to the storybook ending to DeFlorian’ s 2025 season, from the night he took his high school daily driver to the local dragstrip for the first time to the thousands of miles on the road chasing the championship this season. The first quarter of that story appears here, while the second installment will run in DI # 198. The entire manuscript will also run on DragIllustrated. com.
DragIllustrated. com
151 Drag Illustrated