JOHN DEFLORIAN
Every drag racer has a dream. For some, just an event win at a local dragstrip is the ultimate goal. For others, a track point championship would be the achievement of a lifetime. For many, however, their dream is to escape the bonds of a working career and some way, somehow, become a professional drag racer traveling the country racing for financial gain before huge crowds in search of a place within the record books for elapsed times, speeds, major event titles and World Championships.
John DeFlorian is none of these … and all of these.
Within drag racing, John is acknowledged as one of the nicest humans in the sport. Polite, attentive and gracious to a fault, he seemingly has no bad habits. His youthful looks belie a man of sixty-four years old and he is as physically fit as any racer half his age. Mechanically, there is literally nothing he can’ t do. His public speaking ability is second to none making him a favorite with the drag racing press. Always willing to help a friend, fellow racer or novice journalist, he goes out of his way for anybody and anything. John is constantly sober, an animal lover and, above all, a family man. He speaks with never-ending enthusiasm and optimism which lead all his interviews to the realm of“ endlessly happy” while never criticizing or complaining but, instead, mentioning the best aspects of people and places which often have few. He is the prototypical“ great guy”.
John is classified as an“ obsessed drag racer”; he has given his entire adult life to the sport and spends every minute of every day involved with drag racing in each of its forms from theory to science to construction to maintenance to piloting the tow rig to tuning to driving the race car. He does all of this and more. It is his dream. It is also his real life.
DeFlorian has a marriage and it remains strong because he and wife, Liann, approach this demand on their lives together with equal desire and attention. They share the dream and the sacrifice which has enveloped both their individual lives and that which they share. Their children,( Johnny, 33, and Ashley, 34), understand the meaning of commitment after watching their parents share this devotion to the sport and the family. Their grandchildren,( Lucas and Brooks), will learn the definition of dedication through these lives, as well.
John DeFlorian’ s allegiance to this life is about to celebrate its fiftieth year. A native of a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, the town of Kirkwood, which is only thirteen miles from the Gateway Arch. His family was far from wealthy,( John grew up with no phone in his house), but they instilled within him a work ethic and determination which would serve him all his life.
At an early age, John became enthralled with anything motorized on wheels. In 1976, John shared his schoolmates’ infatuation with 1960s supercars enough to purchase a forest green 1969 383 Plymouth Roadrunner,( still sitting in his shop a half-century later), which became well-known on the neighborhood streets. At the insistence of friends, John took the MoPar three miles past the Arch over the Mississippi River to St. Louis International Raceway, an American Hot Rod Association-sanctioned quarter-mile dragstrip which hosted an AHRA National Event for almost twenty years.( The SLIR track was located six hundred feet west of the current World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, on a completely different plot of land). With his buddies on that night in 1977, John raced on a drag-strip for the first time. In an instant, his life changed forever.
John Deflorian raced when he had the time and attended many major events at SLIR, learn-
THOUGH MANY FANS NOW KNOW OF DEFLORIAN AS A MOUNTAIN MOTOR PRO STOCK DRIVER, HE ALSO COMPETED IN ADRL PRO NITROUS FOR SOME TIME BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A LATE-MODEL CORVETTE.
152 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 197