PDRA Pro Nitrous contender Tony Wilson will have a new look on his Musi-powered ’68 Camaro when he competes at Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend, as he’s partnered with Kevin O’Brien and Greenbrier Excavating & Paving for the 2025 Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series season. The Travis Mills Foundation PDRA Mid-Atlantic Showdown presented by Red Line Shirt Club, May 1-3, will be the first race with Greenbrier’s signature white, green, and black colors on Wilson’s car, which is now also partially owned by O’Brien. Together, Wilson and O’Brien intend on competing for the Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous world championship.
“I’m very excited to chase the championship this year,” Wilson said. “Having Kevin and the O’Brien family on board just allows us to race hard – harder than we normally can. We can make all the runs in a race – all the test runs, all the qualifying runs – and we have parts and a spare motor, so we can actually run the car like we need to run it and get the data we need to try to be successful throughout the whole year.”
O’Brien, son of PDRA team owner and Elite Top Dragster driver Alan O’Brien, decided to partner with Wilson after becoming good friends with him over the last year and a half. Wilson, who operates a concrete business, has also worked with Greenbrier on concrete projects in West Virginia. The opportunity to collaborate in racing with an already proven car was tempting for O’Brien, who’s seen his father find success in the PDRA. Most notably, the elder O’Brien won the 2023 Pro 632 world championship with Jeff Melnick driving the team’s Greenbrier Excavating & Paving ’20 Camaro.
“My dad is 100% dedicated to the PDRA deal,” Kevin O’Brien said. “He works his ass off, him and [engine builder] Barry Allen, on those cars. I wanted to do this deal with Tony and my dad. Tony and I are running it, but I rely on a lot of advice and info from my dad. We race as a family just like Tony does. That’s another reason why Tony and I get along. My whole family and crew and his whole family and crew, it works good for both of us because we’re all kind of tight-knit.”
Wilson has competed off and on in Pro Nitrous since making his debut in the class in 2016. He started the 2025 season with a throwback “K-Town Hustler” look on his ’68 Camaro at the PDRA East Coast Nationals, where he qualified No. 12 and reached the semifinals after a first-round win over reigning world champion Fredy Scriba. That has him No. 4 in the points standings going into Virginia, where he’ll debut the Victory Vinyl-wrapped look featuring diamond white with carbon fiber and Greenbrier green accents.
Between that strong start and the new partnership, Wilson’s confidence is high as he continues what he believes will be his best season yet in the nitrous-only Pro Modified category.
“We’ve had a long history running Pro Nitrous, and the O’Briens have a history of really trying to go out and do things their way,” Wilson said. “They look outside the box, and I think that’s good for the class. It’s good for me. They’re willing to try stuff when there’s times that I wouldn’t try it because I didn’t financially have the capability to try things, but the way they race, they’re OK with trying stuff and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. It just puts us at another level because we have the backing to try things.
“I would say this is the first year that I actually feel like we can run the full series and put a maximum effort into our season,” continued Wilson, who joined O’Brien in thanking Pat Musi Racing Engines, Todd Tutterow at Ty-Drive, Liberty’s Gears, Tommy Lee at T. Lee Performance, Hoosier Tires, MVM Wheelie Bars, Modern Racing, Butler Built Seats, Speedtech, and Prowire. “We’ve not been able to do that because until now, it’s been financially backed by myself and just a few friends here and there when we could get help. In this day and age, it’s hard to do it on your own.”
There’s no shortage of strong competition in Pro Nitrous this season. Scriba, three-time world champion Tommy Franklin, and a slew of veterans are joined by a substantial rookie class that includes two-time Pro 632 world champion Amber Denton, past Elite Top Sportsman world champion Tim Molnar, and 2024 Elite Top Sportsman championship runner-up Tim Paap, who won in his debut at the East Coast Nationals. That competition level will just make it that much more rewarding when Wilson and O’Brien find success in their new partnership.
“We are absolutely going after the Pro Nitrous world championship,” O’Brien said. “Pro Nitrous is one of the toughest classes out there, but we have a car that can and will win. We have great horsepower from Pat Musi and parts from some of the best companies in the business. I can’t wait to get started at Virginia this weekend.”
This story was originally published on April 28, 2025. 
