NMCA’s John Warren Hopes To Pick Up 2016 Where He Left Off In 2015

We recently brought you news of Andy Warren’s changes for the 2016 NMCA season in his Nostalgia Muscle Car class Caprice. Well, Andy isn’t the only racer in the Warren household, as Andy’s brother John races this 1972 Nova in Xtreme Street. John has owned the car since he was 16, and tells us, “It was my first car.”

In Xtreme Street competition, John scored his first win at the NMCA Finals at Norwalk last year. That finish placed him fourth in points for the year. Going into the NMCA Finals, he was in the seventh spot, so he definitely finished out the year on a high note. “The car started coming around at Norwalk,” John says.

Since he started to sort some things out at Norwalk, he doesn’t have many changes planned for this year. “We figured some things out with the chassis, so I don’t want to change too much,” John adds. Probably the only change he will make, is sending the car’s Unlimited Products fiberglass front bumper to Alternative Chrome in Pennsylvania, for a chrome finish.

Otherwise, a Knieriem Racing Engines-built 565 cubic-inch big-block with a Kevin Neal nitrous system will remain under the hood. He’s going to keep the engine in service for another season since it doesn’t have very many passes on it. Behind the big-block will be an ATF Speed Powerglide, with a PTC converter inside, freshened by Bilbrey Transmissions’ Wayne Bilbrey. A Driveshaft Shop carbon fiber driveshaft will carry power back to a TRZ Motorsports Fab9 housing, that is filled with Strange Engineering axles. The Nova retains a leaf spring suspension, but uses TRZ-modified Caltrac bars, and mono-leaf springs from Calvert Racing, along with Afco shocks.

For this year, John is planning to run the entire NMCA season, except for the Bradenton event. “That’s a 17-hour trip for me,” John says. He parked the car after the Norwalk race, and he hopes to have it back out for testing in March, so he can pick up where he left off at Norwalk. Of course, that depends on how friendly the weather is around his Vine Grove, Kentucky, location. “Otherwise, I’ll be testing at our first NMCA event,” he says. Most of us know you want to have the testing done prior to a national event, but we also know Mother Nature can throw a monkey wrench in those plans.

If you want to catch John’s Nova in action, be at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia, April 7 through 10, for the 8th Annual NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals. That race features the stars of both the NMRA and NMCA at one event. John hopes you’ll be able to find him in the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle.