Former Pro Nitrous driver Tony Wilson will realize a dream in 2024 when he takes over the driving duties for a new team in which he is partnered with Tim Wallace, Sr. The new team will race the NHRA Pro Modified tour with tuning from Jason Lee and Patrick Barnhill of PTP Tuning.
“Running the full NHRA series is a dream come true for me,” Wilson said. “That’s what I’ve always wanted to do. Getting to do this is huge for me and my family. It’s the top. It’s where we want to be. Tim’s going to provide us with all the best parts and cars we can ask for. Jason will provide the tuning. I think the team will be really good.”
Wilson and Lee have collaborated before when he served as a substitute driver for Lee and Eric Gustafson’s Coast Packing Pro Mod team at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. He made the most of the opportunity by driving his way to the final round of the rain-delayed NHRA New England Nationals, as well as the semifinals of the Bristol race. Essentially, this performance put him at the front of the line when the team pondered a driver for 2024.
“I was super excited to get involved,” Lee said. “Tim seems like a really good guy with a really cool car. We started throwing options on the table, and he did all of his homework. I highly recommended Tony because he had subbed for us last year and did really well on very short notice. We pretty much gave him about a week’s notice, and he stepped in and performed very well. Really liked his work ethic and his family. The team really works well with them, so he’ll make a great teammate.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Tim and Tony,” added Lee, who will also continue to drive and tune Gustafson’s Coast Packing Camaro in NHRA Pro Mod competition. “I think it’s a great opportunity for everybody, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do.”
Though Wilson has only raced in three NHRA Pro Modified races, he’s got plenty of experience racing quarter-mile doorslammers thanks to his status as an efficient test driver. He’s also competed in PDRA within Pro Nitrous and currently drives the family’s screw-blown Premier Concrete Solutions ’63 Corvette in PDRA Pro Boost and Piedmont Dragway’s Big Dog Shootout series.
Wilson is looking forward to driving Wallace’s show-quality ’55 Chevy, a car he’s confident in the team’s ability to make it competitive.
“I think we go out there with the expectations of qualifying in the top half of the field and just being capable of being there at the end,” Wilson said. “We want to make sure when we roll in the gate, we are capable of winning the race. With that being said, we have a lot of work ahead of us to get this car, this body, to run what it needs to run in the quarter mile. Our expectations are to be a top-half qualifier and to be contenders to win a race at some point.”
A nostalgia body proponent, Wallace will race a ’55 Chevy, which will continue to utilize Pro Line Racing/AJPE engines, and is on a mission to make it a contender in the ultra-competitive series.
“I’ve been trying to decide how I was going to go forward with this program, and I figured that between Jason Lee and Patrick Barnhill and Tony Wilson and all the different cars he’s driven that this would be a perfect situation,” said Wallace, owner-operator of the Boise, Idaho-based Westside Machine Racing Engines. “Plus, Tony is based in Mooresville, which makes it a little easier to get the car to certain races and to test. We have a lot of testing to do since we’re trying to take advantage of the 75 pounds that NHRA has given us [for vintage body styles]. We feel that when it’s all over with, we’re going to need more and something else to make it more competitive. But I’m determined to make this car competitive in the NHRA Pro Mod series. I think it’s time for the old body styles to make a re-appearance.”
Wilson will drive his Premier Concrete Solutions ’63 Corvette at the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod, March 1-3, at Bradenton Motorsports Park before beginning the FuelTech NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by Type A Motorsports season with Wallace Motorsports at the NHRA Gatornationals, March 7-10, at Gainesville Raceway.
