Interview by Mary Lendzon
Photos courtesy of Jeremy Lyons and by NMCA Staff
Jeremy Lyons has been a fan of racing for more than three decades.
In his youth, he watched other people pilot their cars down track near his home in Kentucky, and he went on to pilot his classic Chevrolet pickup truck down track.
Lyons then climbed into a Chevrolet S10 followed by a Malibu, and he was happily holding his own in bracket racing classes when he got the urge to try heads-up racing. He purchased Mitch Mika’s former Camaro in 2017, and because NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street captured his attention, he decided to give that class a go in 2018.
He fell in love with it immediately, and in his mind, there was no looking back. He leaned on fellow racers, family and friends, laughed a lot and learned a lot. He saw 4.50s and 157 mph in the eighth-mile, and was proud of what he accomplished in the Camaro.
But in 2023, when NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street racer Tony Gillig presented him with an opportunity to buy the Cutlass he and other racers famously campaigned, Lyons, who had to pass on a previous opportunity to buy the car, decided not to let the car he long admired get away from him a second time.
He proudly purchased the Cutlass, and pondered how he was the owner of a piece of history. Some suggested he let the car sit, but Lyons felt it was made to be raced and should be raced, and he set a course back to NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street.
Somehow, he was able to keep his plans under wraps until he ceremoniously unveiled the Cutlass under the bright lights at the Bluegrass World of Wheels in Louisville, Kentucky in January of 2024.
Discovering that there are people who are as passionate about the Cutlass and its history further inspires Lyons, who lives in Brandenburg, Kentucky. He pinches himself every day to be sure he is not dreaming before going out to his shop, which he calls Broken Crank Garage, to see the Cutlass that is now his. Friends and family, including his daughters, Abbee, Mekenzee and Bradee, know how much this journey means to him, and they are along for the ride with him.
Read on for more about Lyons and his plans for his storied Cutlass.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST EXPOSURE TO NMCA RACES?
I’ve known John Warren since 1995, when we were working for Dana Corporation in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and I started going to NMCA races back in 2014 or so as a crew member for John Warren, who was running Xtreme Street, and his brother, Andy Warren, who runs in Nostalgia Muscle. I was racing my 1980 Malibu with small-tires elsewhere at the time, but NMCA Nitrous Pro Street caught my eye.
WHEN DID YOU MOVE FROM THE 1980 MALIBU TO THE 1982 CAMARO?
When John Warren changed to a ProCharger combination, his nitrous engine came up for sale. It was a 565 big-block Chevy on a Dart block that Knieriem Racing Engines built, and I purchased it with plans of going to NMCA Nitrous Pro Street with my 1980 Malibu. I had help from AFR on a set of heads, and then I decided that it would be more engine than the 1980 Malibu could handle, plus the car had more of a small-tire set-up and wouldn’t work with big tires I would have wanted to run in Nitrous Pro Street, so I decided I wanted to buy a car to race in the class. and Andy told me that Mitch Mika was selling the 1982 Camaro he raced in the class. I liked it, so I bought in from Mitch Mika in 2017. Tim Knieriem finessed the engine so that I was ready for the class, and I started running it with nitrous in 2018. I had a PowerGlide by Chris Gootee.
WHAT WERE YOUR IMMEDIATE THOUGHTS ON NMCA ARP NITROUS PRO STREET?
My first Nitrous Pro Street race was at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Kentucky, which is my home state. The racers in the class were very welcoming and helpful, and they gave me all kinds of pointers. I ran the class for three years and was fortunate to place in the top-ten in points all three years. Dean Lee helped me lighten the car by 300 pounds, and helped me with all of my fab work, chassis work and tuning, and over those three years, we picked up almost four-tenths. We started out in the 4.90s and picked up to 4.50s. Craig Watson was a big help, too. As we were picking up, it became apparent that the Camaro’s chassis would need upgrades to be able to handle the power we were throwing at it, and I decided to I step back from racing from 2022-2023 for a little bit to focus on my job as an operations manager for SMS group, a service company that does maintenance for a steel mill in my hometown of Brandenburg, Kentucky. We had a start-up and had to build a building and I had to hire all of the people, so I was focused on that, but I raced the Camaro a little bit in Pro Street at Ohio Valley Dragway in Kentucky.
WHEN DID YOU TURN YOUR FOCUS BACK TO NMCA RACING?
I got a random message from Tony Gillig asking if I knew anyone who wanted to buy the Cutlass he raced in Nitrous Pro Street before moving to Mountain Motor Pro Stock. That got my attention because I had always loved that car and all of its history with it various drivers, but I wasn’t able to buy it at the time, and he sold it to Chuck Weck, who was also racing a couple other cars. Sadly, Chuck lost his life while racing one of his cars, and I reached out to Tony to make sure he was okay because I knew he was close to Chuck and would be understandably upset about his passing. A year later, on the Fourth of July weekend in 2023, Tony messaged me and asked if I knew anyone who wanted to buy the Cutlass as a roller, and I told him that I did. I didn’t want to be kicking myself in the butt for missing another opportunity to purchase the Cutlass. Since it was the Fourth of July weekend, everything was closed, and I had to wait until Tuesday before I could go to the bank and do other things I needed to do before I could get the car, and then my friend, Jonathan Fox, and I drove 7 ½ hours to Tony’s in Illinois to get the Cutlass.
WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD DURING THE LONG DRIVE TO PICK UP THE CUTLASS?
I was so happy on the way there thinking about how my two favorite drag racing vehicles are a Pro Stock Cutlass and a Pro Stock truck, and the Cutlass was an NHRA Pro Stock car. It was originally built as a Don Ness chassis for Mike Edwards, and after he drove it, Greg Anderson drove it, followed by Brad Wagner, and the car was in the final round at the U.S. Nationals against Warren Johnson. Tony Gillig drove it after Brad Wagner, and then Chuck Weck drove it five or six times before I bought it. The Camaro was a back-half car while the Cutlass is a tube chassis car, and RJ Race Cars updated it when Tony owned it. When we got to Tony’s, the Cutlass was sitting beside his Mountain Motor Pro Stock GXP, and it had been two and a half years since I had seen it. I hadn’t even asked for current pictures of it because I knew it would be immaculate. Chuck had changed the paint scheme to red and white with Gumout on the side. Tony walked around the car with me and gave me some valuable information.
WITH A PIECE OF HISTORY, AND YOUR HEART, IN THE TRAILER, WHAT WAS THE DRIVE HOME TO KENTUCKY LIKE?
I was in awe over the fact that I was taking it home. It was actually really emotional. We got home really late, put the car in the shop and went to bed, and I’ll tell you what, when I woke up, I told myself I had to go right to the shop to make sure the Cutlass was there and that I wasn’t dreaming. Most people would probably think I was crazy for being that into the car and its history.
YOUR DAUGHTER, ABBEE, IS ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST FANS AND SUPPORTERS. WHAT WAS HER REACTION TO THE CUTLASS?
When I told Abbee that I was going to buy the Cutlass, her eyes lit up and she was so happy because she knew I loved the car. She said she just knew we were going to be competitive in the car. I can’t even put into words how excited she was. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come when we picked it up because she works 7 p.m.-7 am. as a 911 dispatcher.
YOU CHOSE TO KEEP THE PURCHASE OF THE CUTLASS UNDER WRAPS UNTIL JANUARY OF 2023. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THAT?
It was such a big purchase and a big jump that I wanted some time to figure out my course of action. I sold the Camaro to help pay for the Cutlass, and while the plan was to put my Knieriem Racing Engines-built big-block Chevy in the Cutlass, an offer came up for me to buy a friend’s Nesbitt 632 cubic-inch engine so I bought that along with his FTI transmission. With that comes a switch from a five-speed transmission to an automatic transmission. Then when Tim Knieriem told me about the Bluegrass World of Wheels in Louisville, Kentucky in January, and how it would be fun to have some friends put their cars in the show together, we decided it would be a great place to unveil the car. The show had 600 entries and only 300 spots, but we got in and we were happy.
IT MUST HAVE BEEN EXCITING TO HAVE AN OFFICIAL UNVEILING LIKE THAT.
It really was. When we were unloading the car in the building, we had it covered, and we were trying to keep it covered, and a guy filming for the car show came by and asked what we were doing. We told him we were going to unveil it when the show opened, and within an hour, he had posted about the unveiling on the show’s social media. The morning of the unveiling, I had about 30 people standing around waiting for me to unveil the car, and we had about 70 people live on social media waiting for me to unveil the car, and John Warren was filming it for me. The car looked so beautiful under the lights, and it felt good to see that people were as interested in the car as I am. It was wild.
WHAT WORK HAVE YOU PERFORMED ON THE CAR?
We took the lettering off of it, put the 632 cubic-inch engine in it, fabricated new brackets and transmission mounts and put the transmission it. Where it had the clutch assembly, we had to change it around for the automatic transmission. Then we took the car to Mike’s Fab Shop in Indiana for headers, and I have some wiring to do. We hope to be testing by April. I don’t think we will make the NMCA race in North Carolina, but we will try hard to make the NMCA race in Illinois. Because this is a totally different car and it is on a different level than my Camaro, we have some stuff to learn, but we are looking forward to it. I expect to run better in the 60-foot and the top end of the track. If it is a couple tenths faster than my other car, that would be even better. I am hoping to be able to run right up there with the Fallon’s, the Liberty’s and the other racers in Nitrous Pro Street.
WHAT DOES BEING THE NEW OWNER OF THE CUTLASS MEAN TO YOU?
Just the thought of my owning this car blows my mind. I will be honest and say that sometimes, I could cry just thinking about it. Some people tell me it is just a car, but in my opinion, they don’t understand that it is a piece of history. The previous owners were meticulous about the car, and I’m going to make sure it remains a national treasure. I want to thank my daughter, Abbee, Craig Watson, Dean Lee, John and Andy Warren, Tim Knieriem and the rest of my family and friends who are supporting me in this. I can’t imagine doing this without them. They are special, and this is special.
Photos courtesy of Jeremy Lyons and by NMCA Staff
Jeremy Lyons has been a fan of racing for more than three decades.
In his youth, he watched other people pilot their cars down track near his home in Kentucky, and he went on to pilot his classic Chevrolet pickup truck down track.
Lyons then climbed into a Chevrolet S10 followed by a Malibu, and he was happily holding his own in bracket racing classes when he got the urge to try heads-up racing. He purchased Mitch Mika’s former Camaro in 2017, and because NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street captured his attention, he decided to give that class a go in 2018.
He fell in love with it immediately, and in his mind, there was no looking back. He leaned on fellow racers, family and friends, laughed a lot and learned a lot. He saw 4.50s and 157 mph in the eighth-mile, and was proud of what he accomplished in the Camaro.
But in 2023, when NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street racer Tony Gillig presented him with an opportunity to buy the Cutlass he and other racers famously campaigned, Lyons, who had to pass on a previous opportunity to buy the car, decided not to let the car he long admired get away from him a second time.
He proudly purchased the Cutlass, and pondered how he was the owner of a piece of history. Some suggested he let the car sit, but Lyons felt it was made to be raced and should be raced, and he set a course back to NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street.
Somehow, he was able to keep his plans under wraps until he ceremoniously unveiled the Cutlass under the bright lights at the Bluegrass World of Wheels in Louisville, Kentucky in January of 2024.
Discovering that there are people who are as passionate about the Cutlass and its history further inspires Lyons, who lives in Brandenburg, Kentucky. He pinches himself every day to be sure he is not dreaming before going out to his shop, which he calls Broken Crank Garage, to see the Cutlass that is now his. Friends and family, including his daughters, Abbee, Mekenzee and Bradee, know how much this journey means to him, and they are along for the ride with him.
Read on for more about Lyons and his plans for his storied Cutlass.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST EXPOSURE TO NMCA RACES?
I’ve known John Warren since 1995, when we were working for Dana Corporation in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and I started going to NMCA races back in 2014 or so as a crew member for John Warren, who was running Xtreme Street, and his brother, Andy Warren, who runs in Nostalgia Muscle. I was racing my 1980 Malibu with small-tires elsewhere at the time, but NMCA Nitrous Pro Street caught my eye.
WHEN DID YOU MOVE FROM THE 1980 MALIBU TO THE 1982 CAMARO?
When John Warren changed to a ProCharger combination, his nitrous engine came up for sale. It was a 565 big-block Chevy on a Dart block that Knieriem Racing Engines built, and I purchased it with plans of going to NMCA Nitrous Pro Street with my 1980 Malibu. I had help from AFR on a set of heads, and then I decided that it would be more engine than the 1980 Malibu could handle, plus the car had more of a small-tire set-up and wouldn’t work with big tires I would have wanted to run in Nitrous Pro Street, so I decided I wanted to buy a car to race in the class. and Andy told me that Mitch Mika was selling the 1982 Camaro he raced in the class. I liked it, so I bought in from Mitch Mika in 2017. Tim Knieriem finessed the engine so that I was ready for the class, and I started running it with nitrous in 2018. I had a PowerGlide by Chris Gootee.
WHAT WERE YOUR IMMEDIATE THOUGHTS ON NMCA ARP NITROUS PRO STREET?
My first Nitrous Pro Street race was at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Kentucky, which is my home state. The racers in the class were very welcoming and helpful, and they gave me all kinds of pointers. I ran the class for three years and was fortunate to place in the top-ten in points all three years. Dean Lee helped me lighten the car by 300 pounds, and helped me with all of my fab work, chassis work and tuning, and over those three years, we picked up almost four-tenths. We started out in the 4.90s and picked up to 4.50s. Craig Watson was a big help, too. As we were picking up, it became apparent that the Camaro’s chassis would need upgrades to be able to handle the power we were throwing at it, and I decided to I step back from racing from 2022-2023 for a little bit to focus on my job as an operations manager for SMS group, a service company that does maintenance for a steel mill in my hometown of Brandenburg, Kentucky. We had a start-up and had to build a building and I had to hire all of the people, so I was focused on that, but I raced the Camaro a little bit in Pro Street at Ohio Valley Dragway in Kentucky.
WHEN DID YOU TURN YOUR FOCUS BACK TO NMCA RACING?
I got a random message from Tony Gillig asking if I knew anyone who wanted to buy the Cutlass he raced in Nitrous Pro Street before moving to Mountain Motor Pro Stock. That got my attention because I had always loved that car and all of its history with it various drivers, but I wasn’t able to buy it at the time, and he sold it to Chuck Weck, who was also racing a couple other cars. Sadly, Chuck lost his life while racing one of his cars, and I reached out to Tony to make sure he was okay because I knew he was close to Chuck and would be understandably upset about his passing. A year later, on the Fourth of July weekend in 2023, Tony messaged me and asked if I knew anyone who wanted to buy the Cutlass as a roller, and I told him that I did. I didn’t want to be kicking myself in the butt for missing another opportunity to purchase the Cutlass. Since it was the Fourth of July weekend, everything was closed, and I had to wait until Tuesday before I could go to the bank and do other things I needed to do before I could get the car, and then my friend, Jonathan Fox, and I drove 7 ½ hours to Tony’s in Illinois to get the Cutlass.
WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD DURING THE LONG DRIVE TO PICK UP THE CUTLASS?
I was so happy on the way there thinking about how my two favorite drag racing vehicles are a Pro Stock Cutlass and a Pro Stock truck, and the Cutlass was an NHRA Pro Stock car. It was originally built as a Don Ness chassis for Mike Edwards, and after he drove it, Greg Anderson drove it, followed by Brad Wagner, and the car was in the final round at the U.S. Nationals against Warren Johnson. Tony Gillig drove it after Brad Wagner, and then Chuck Weck drove it five or six times before I bought it. The Camaro was a back-half car while the Cutlass is a tube chassis car, and RJ Race Cars updated it when Tony owned it. When we got to Tony’s, the Cutlass was sitting beside his Mountain Motor Pro Stock GXP, and it had been two and a half years since I had seen it. I hadn’t even asked for current pictures of it because I knew it would be immaculate. Chuck had changed the paint scheme to red and white with Gumout on the side. Tony walked around the car with me and gave me some valuable information.
WITH A PIECE OF HISTORY, AND YOUR HEART, IN THE TRAILER, WHAT WAS THE DRIVE HOME TO KENTUCKY LIKE?
I was in awe over the fact that I was taking it home. It was actually really emotional. We got home really late, put the car in the shop and went to bed, and I’ll tell you what, when I woke up, I told myself I had to go right to the shop to make sure the Cutlass was there and that I wasn’t dreaming. Most people would probably think I was crazy for being that into the car and its history.
YOUR DAUGHTER, ABBEE, IS ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST FANS AND SUPPORTERS. WHAT WAS HER REACTION TO THE CUTLASS?
When I told Abbee that I was going to buy the Cutlass, her eyes lit up and she was so happy because she knew I loved the car. She said she just knew we were going to be competitive in the car. I can’t even put into words how excited she was. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come when we picked it up because she works 7 p.m.-7 am. as a 911 dispatcher.
YOU CHOSE TO KEEP THE PURCHASE OF THE CUTLASS UNDER WRAPS UNTIL JANUARY OF 2023. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THAT?
It was such a big purchase and a big jump that I wanted some time to figure out my course of action. I sold the Camaro to help pay for the Cutlass, and while the plan was to put my Knieriem Racing Engines-built big-block Chevy in the Cutlass, an offer came up for me to buy a friend’s Nesbitt 632 cubic-inch engine so I bought that along with his FTI transmission. With that comes a switch from a five-speed transmission to an automatic transmission. Then when Tim Knieriem told me about the Bluegrass World of Wheels in Louisville, Kentucky in January, and how it would be fun to have some friends put their cars in the show together, we decided it would be a great place to unveil the car. The show had 600 entries and only 300 spots, but we got in and we were happy.
IT MUST HAVE BEEN EXCITING TO HAVE AN OFFICIAL UNVEILING LIKE THAT.
It really was. When we were unloading the car in the building, we had it covered, and we were trying to keep it covered, and a guy filming for the car show came by and asked what we were doing. We told him we were going to unveil it when the show opened, and within an hour, he had posted about the unveiling on the show’s social media. The morning of the unveiling, I had about 30 people standing around waiting for me to unveil the car, and we had about 70 people live on social media waiting for me to unveil the car, and John Warren was filming it for me. The car looked so beautiful under the lights, and it felt good to see that people were as interested in the car as I am. It was wild.
WHAT WORK HAVE YOU PERFORMED ON THE CAR?
We took the lettering off of it, put the 632 cubic-inch engine in it, fabricated new brackets and transmission mounts and put the transmission it. Where it had the clutch assembly, we had to change it around for the automatic transmission. Then we took the car to Mike’s Fab Shop in Indiana for headers, and I have some wiring to do. We hope to be testing by April. I don’t think we will make the NMCA race in North Carolina, but we will try hard to make the NMCA race in Illinois. Because this is a totally different car and it is on a different level than my Camaro, we have some stuff to learn, but we are looking forward to it. I expect to run better in the 60-foot and the top end of the track. If it is a couple tenths faster than my other car, that would be even better. I am hoping to be able to run right up there with the Fallon’s, the Liberty’s and the other racers in Nitrous Pro Street.
WHAT DOES BEING THE NEW OWNER OF THE CUTLASS MEAN TO YOU?
Just the thought of my owning this car blows my mind. I will be honest and say that sometimes, I could cry just thinking about it. Some people tell me it is just a car, but in my opinion, they don’t understand that it is a piece of history. The previous owners were meticulous about the car, and I’m going to make sure it remains a national treasure. I want to thank my daughter, Abbee, Craig Watson, Dean Lee, John and Andy Warren, Tim Knieriem and the rest of my family and friends who are supporting me in this. I can’t imagine doing this without them. They are special, and this is special.