Special Section
TONY GILLIG MADE A NAME FOR HIMSELF RACING IN IHRA AND NHRA PRO STOCK IN THE 1990S , DRIVING A FAMILY-OWNED OLDSMOBILE CUTLASS WITH CONSIDERABLE SUCCESS . HIS CAREER CONTINUED THROUGH THE 2000S AS A HIRED-GUN WHEELMAN IN THE FUN FORD SERIES , SECURING A CHAMPIONSHIP IN HIS FIRST SEASON BEFORE RETURNING TO IHRA PRO STOCK FOR THE 2003-2006 SEASONS . HE MADE HIS LAST PASS DOWN THE TRACK IN EXTREME PRO STOCK IN 2011 , UNSURE WHEN HE WOULD RACE AGAIN . GILLIG MADE HIS TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE EIGHTH-MILE EARLIER THIS SUMMER AT THE PDRA FIRECRACKER NATIONALS AT VIRGINIA MOTORSPORTS PARK , WHERE HE MADE HIS DEBUT IN EAST SIDE AUTO TRANSPORT PRO OUTLAW 632 . DRIVING A THROWBACK ’ 96 CUTLASS POWERED BY A MADCAP-BUILT 632 CI ENGINE WITH A LIBERTY 5-SPEED AND RAM CLUTCH , GILLIG RACED JORDAN ENSSLIN AND NO . 1 QUALIFIER JOHNNY PLUCHINO BEFORE A CARBURETOR ISSUE BIT HIM IN THE FINAL ROUND .
During a break in the action at PDRA Drag Wars at GALOT Motorsports Park , Gillig sat down with DRAG ILLUSTRATED to talk about returning to racing , finding a new home in Pro Outlaw 632 , and racing with his family .
What was it about Pro Outlaw 632 that caught your interest ?
I think it ’ s pretty cool . I think it gives guys like us – guys who have been diehard Pro Stock fans and like to race naturally aspirated with a clutch – a place to race . We won ’ t race NHRA Pro Stock – it ’ s ridiculous . The Mountain Motor Pro Stock stuff here is pretty cool . I ’ ve done it in the past and did well . We wanted to do something maybe a little more low-key . This thing fit into some other classes , too . We have some Nostalgia Pro Stock stuff going on in the Midwest that this can fit into . If we had to , we could also run in A / Altered in Comp over in NHRA . We kind of built this thing with the intention of being able to run it other classes , too , rather than something specific like a mountain motor or 500-inch
Pro Stock car . Plus , we ’ re just NA guys that won ’ t run nitrous and won ’ t run automatics . This is a good fit for us and it came along at the right time . This class came along right when we were wanting to get back into racing , so we were lucky .
Your new Gillig-Wagner Motorsports Cutlass is a beautiful piece . What went into bringing it out for its debut ?
“ MY DAD IS THE BRAINS BEHIND THIS THING . MY BROTHER-IN-LAW , BILLY WAGNER , IS OUR CREW CHIEF . HE ’ S BEEN AROUND THIS STUFF FOREVER .”
We decided to build this car for the 632 class and we wanted to build a replica of our original Cutlass that we built in the ‘ 90s and ran in IHRA and NHRA Pro Stock . We quit racing in ‘ 01 and sold the car . We tried to buy the car back from the guy who bought it from us , but he wouldn ’ t sell it . My dad found this car out in Vegas . It ’ s an old Don Ness car that Mike Edwards drove in NHRA Pro Stock . We bought it , brought it home , stripped it and started over . Just completely and totally redid the car and put it together the way we wanted to do it . We had a motor built by MadCap . So far , so good . There ’ s only 15-16 runs on it , so we ’ re still trying
2 STREET RACE
44 PDRA660 . com