Tony entered the T in the ’63 NHRA Winternationals and won the Competition Eliminator title, his only NHRA national event title.Īlso debuting at the ’63 Winternationals was a new kind of dragster design by Art Center graduate Steve Swaja. Radical and innovative for its time, the car captured the August ’62 cover of HOT ROD-his third cover. The Fuller and Nancy combination was so successful that they combined their efforts again on a fiberglass ’25 T-bodied modified Roadster. Both Roadsters were later found and restored by Dan LaCroix. Another tenant was engine builder Ed Pink. The new car sported an injected 482 ci ‘nail head’ Buick and a chrome moly tube frame by Kent Fuller who occupied a shop in Tony’s complex. Five years later, a new Roadster appeared on the cover of the April 1962 issue of HOT ROD. At that time, the blown Roadster running on nitro regularly ran in the high 10s at speeds of around 130 mph. was used until his father, senior, passed away.Ī year after setting up shop, Tony’s ’29 Roadster graced the cover of the December ’57 issue of HOT ROD Magazine-it was the first of several covers. From that day to this, every race car of mine has had the number ‘22’.” The suffix Jr. That was his first drag racer… the original 22 Jr.”īut why 22 Jr.? In Tom Madigan’s book, The Loner, Tony had this to say, “Before my first real ‘racing’ roadster, I had built twenty-two street and dry-lake type ’29-’32 versions. The engine, transmission and rear end, and put it all in a ’29 roadster that he’d bought. So, I made a deal with him, and we took the entire driveline out of my Willys. He wanted to race a roadster, though, so that people could see his upholstery work at the racetrack. He saw how important the Willys was for promoting my shop, and he thought he’d do the same. I had already built him a hot flathead for his street roadster at the time, so we were friendly, and I guess he trusted me to do things right. In an interview with David Steele for the AHRF, Tommy had this to say, “Tony Nancy wanted me to build him a similar drag racer to promote his new upholstery business. When that folded, he went back to work but eventually was able to open another shop on Woodman and Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. Eventually, he was able to open his own shop, Hollywood Custom Auto Interiors at Gower and Santa Monica, close to Tommy Spark’s shop. It was tough going as back then you corrected any mistakes in your own time at your own cost. Upon his discharge, Tony worked a number of jobs learning what was then called the trimming or upholstery trade-the first paid just 25 cents and hour when sanding cars paid a buck.
He spent the final stages of the Korean war on a Pacific island serving his country.
Meanwhile, Tony was apparently advised by a local police officer to join the Marine Corps. Looking for a solution, he found Tommy Sparks who built him a fast flattie. As an adolescent, Tony was caught up in the street-racing scene and did well with a ’27 Roadster until a sick engine caused him to lose some races.
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