Up until today, likelier scenarios have happened, like the cow jumping over the moon and the dish running away with the spoon.

Longtime Chevrolet Mountain Motor Pro Stock stalwart John Montecalvo confirmed he will be driving a Ford during the 2022 season in alliance with Hall of Fame drag racer Roy Hill and with sponsorship from Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School. 

“Yeah, I got all my Pro Stock friends saying Hell has frozen over and thinking I’ve fallen and hit my head,” Montecalvo said. “It’s got them all talking for sure.”

It’s not hard to understand why there’s a lot of talk going around considering Montecalvo, a multi-time series champion while racing IHRA, ADRL, and PDRA Pro Stock divisions, at one time was the only factory hot rod racer in those series receiving factory support from GM.

“I’ve always been loyal to Chevrolet, in particular to [engine builder] Sonny’s Leonard,” Montecalvo explained. “If you recall, we had the first Chevrolet Hemi engine out there, and I helped Sonny get that approved way back when through IHRA.”

Montecalvo recently sold his Camaro and saying goodbye was not easy. 

“Trust me, when that Camaro left, I was emotional,” Montecalvo said. “I had to go in the garage. It had actually brought tears to my eyes because, to me, it was an end of an era. It was the end of me being together with Chevrolet, and very emotional because of seeing that Sonny’s on the hood scoop. Sonny and I won a lot of races together.”

Leonard passed away on January 10, 2021.

“Sonny and I won championships together, and it’s emotional to me even talking about it now, Sonny was my friend,” Montecalvo said. “But times change. It just happens to be a good circumstance for me. When that Camaro left, I was actually thinking very seriously about retiring and quitting. I’ve had the car for sale for the past couple of months, and I was really considering hanging it up.”

A funny thing happened to Montecalvo on his way to retirement. His love for the straight-line sport was rekindled through several factors.

“I’ve got a chance to drive a 500-inch car, and that’s probably going to happen later this season,” Montecalvo said. “I’m still going to jump into one of those, but it’s different when you own your own team, and you own your own car. I don’t know. I always wanted that independence. This deal came along with Roy. I think it will be a good one, and I’m looking forward to having the same relationship with John Kaase; I’ve known him about as long as I did Sonny.”

They might be an odd couple of sorts, a successful business owner from New York’s Long Island and a Pro Stock legend of over a half-century from the sandhills of North Carolina. 

Montecalvo still gives a hearty chuckle when he recalls how he got to know “Uncle Roy” real well during the drill instructor days at Hill’s school. Hill has mellowed out considerably over the years, but for Montecalvo, the memories remain a fixture in his mind.

“I actually went to his school years ago, and I graduated, believe it or not,” Montecalvo explained. “Roy could be pretty hard back then. And actually, it was very entertaining for me because I could handle it, but there were a couple of people there that couldn’t handle it. They packed it up and left, but I stayed with it, obviously. But Roy taught me a lot at the school and some of the things that I still apply today that he taught me. Hey, back in the day, Roy was one of the superstars in Mountain Motor Pro Stock Racing. I’ve always followed Roy, his accomplishments. 

“Roy started out dirt poor, and he built himself a pretty good situation there. He was very competitive across the United States. Roy was right there with everybody else. Roy’s a pretty smart guy.” 

The only problem Montecalvo sees in his association with Hill is he speaks Yankee, while Roy comes from the land of the redneckinese. 

“We might need a translator sometimes,” Montecalvo said. 

Little did Montecalvo know when he drove Hill’s 1987 Thunderbird at the school, it might have been the first time he drove a Ford down the drag strip, but it wouldn’t be the last.

The challenge Hill laid out to Montecalvo was the first towards making him a championship driver. 

“He sent me out on the track with that old Thunderbird, and he had probably about 75 runs on those tires,” Montecalvo said. “And he said, ‘I want you to get it from one end to the other.” 

“I’m thinking to myself, hell it ain’t my car. I’ll get it to the other end. And I did. It moved around a little, but I got it to the other end. I think Roy was pretty impressed with that. There were a couple of people there that didn’t make it. Roy was famous back then for being hard on his students, and I appreciated that because a lot of the things he taught me stayed with me.

“I know the day I was there it was probably 95 degrees. He must have had me sit in the car for about 20 minutes before I was allowed to even start it. I was sweating bullets, but Hey, I raked and shoveled asphalt, so that really didn’t bother me too much. It bothered a couple other people. They had to leave, but it was a good experience.”

Along with Hill comes a longtime alliance with engine builder Jon Kaase. While on the outside, it might have appeared Leonard and Kaase were rivals, but those on the inside knew the two were very good friends. 

“Jon was always the competition, but I got to say Jon and Sonny were very good friends, and I don’t know how many people know that, but they both had a mutual respect for each other,” Montecalvo said. “They played golf together. They socialized together. John was the enemy from a competition standpoint, but as a friend, he wasn’t the enemy. John has always been a friend of mine. And just as well as Sonny would help anybody there, I’m sure if we were in a bind, Jon Kaase would’ve helped us. We’ve always had a good relationship together. I’ve always respected him. 

“It’s an emotional transition, but in some ways, it’s an easy transition because I’m dealing with a friend again like I was with Sonny.”

Being aligned with Hill, Montecalvo believes he still has lessons then he can learn. As he puts it, "The one thing about Roy Hill that no one can deny - he always did the most with the least.”

Additionally the team will continue to race with sponsorship from Lucas Oil and RAM Clutches.

“Everyone at Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School is thrilled about this new alliance with John Montecalvo,” added Hill. “I’ve known and competed against John for years. He and his wife Lois Anne are wonderful people, and John’s accomplishments behind the wheel speak for themselves.

“John has the ability, has the crew to run the car. And so I’m going to be happy and go to the races when I feel like I can and want to. I have a lot of parts to help keep it running, and he does too. And so we’re just going down the road together.”