How one Nova bridges decades of racing, loss, and legacy for the Tolisano family By Madelyn Marconi

Johnny, a 2024 Drag Illustrated 30 Under 30 alum, had been searching for the Nova for quite some time. He eventually found the car on Facebook Marketplace in his dad’ s hometown of Wyckoff, New Jersey, and asked a friend to help make a connection with the seller. As it turned out, that connection wasn’ t even necessary.

“ The guy we bought the car from knew Dad because of his gas station. He knew of Joey and knew the whole past and everything,” Johnny says.“ He actually turned everybody else down because he wanted to make sure we ended up with the car.”

The Nova was soon loaded onto a transporter bound for Florida. During the week of John’ s birthday, Johnny, his fiancée, Paige Coughlin, and their families orchestrated the surprise reveal, leaving John in disbelief.

“ It’ s exactly the same,” John says.“ It’ s a really nice car; it looked like it just came out of the showroom. Our cars back then were fast, but they weren’ t real showpieces. We weren’ t into‘ show’ as much as we were into‘ go’ and setting records.”

Before the surprise, John had already built a racing legacy that began decades earlier.

He started racing at 17, evolving from late night street matchups into highly competitive NHRA national events throughout the‘ 70s and‘ 80s. His son Joey, who shared the same love for the sport, was always by his side as they traveled to racetracks across the tri-state area.

It didn’ t take long for John to earn his first national record, driving his 1969 Corvette in Super Stock J Automatic. Although tech officials later revoked the record over a minor valve technicality, John took it in stride, as he always does.

“ I said,‘ I don’ t give a shit, I’ ll reset it’,” he re-

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