Larry Morgan Racing

LARRY MORGAN RACING

From Single Phase To Three Phase At 200 mph

By Gary Baker, Director of Marketing & Public Relations

Imagine driving a car from Newark, Ohio to Las Vegas, Nevada in less than 9 hours. Or picture yourself driving from Newark to Chicago in 105 minutes. This would be possible only if you drove an average of 200 mph. Most of us will never travel that fast in a car. But Larry Morgan has done it, one-quarter mile at a time, thousands of times. Larry spent 30 years as a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro-Stock racer and is one of the most successful drivers of all time.

Gary Baker, Director of Marketing & Public Relations

Larry Morgan still enjoys getting behind the wheel and traveling across the country to NHRA races. His major focus, however, is his custom CNC machine shop. Larry Morgan Racing builds racing engine blocks, heads, manifolds and most any custom motor parts. Walking into the business, you are greeted with an impressive number of trophies and awards before heading into the machine shop. Larry earned 10 NHRA Pro Stock victories, 19 NHRA event victories, and 48 NHRA final round appearances.

Here are a few of the many championships Larry Morgan earned as driver:

• $25,000 Mr. Gasket Challenge three times.

• $50,000 Budweiser Shootout

• 2015: Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals winner

• 2012: Top ten finish

• 2010: Debuted Ford Mustang and reached finals at Summit Nationals

• 2009: Raced to Victory at Las Vegas; Posted career-best speed

• 2008: Logged three runner-up finishes, including Indianapolis

• 2007: Posted career best time competing in the inaugural Countdown to the Championship.

• 2006: Runner-up finish at St. Louis and reached three semifinal rounds

• 2005: Reached semifinal round in Englishtown

• 2004: No. 1 qualifying position at Atlanta, snapping an 11-race top qualifying streak by Greg Anderson; First top-five points finish since 1993.

• 2002: Won first race, Sonoma, since 1994; earned a $25,000 bonus for winning the Motel 6 “Who Got The Light” award for posting the smallest margin of victory during the season (.0002 seconds)

• 2001: Debuted the Dodge Neon at Denver.

Larry’s love for machines started long before his professional racing career began. As a young boy, he took apart the engine of a riding lawn mower and completely rebuilt it (with more power). Larry laughed as he told us he rebuilt the motor until it went 30 mph. Larry’s love for speed has served him well—he made a career out of it. Larry Morgan Racing manufactures quality custom parts for pro-stock, pro-mod, pro-nitrous, pro-boost, top sportsman, top dragster, pro extreme and grudge racing.

Dave Elk has worked with Larry for years building engines. He continues to build parts by hand on a manual mill. Larry’s son, Nick Morgan, uses the latest technology to produce high-quality parts. Nick has always been a fixture in Larry Morgan Racing. Larry remembers him getting off the school bus as a little boy and running straight to the shop. He’d see what they were working on, then start projects of his own.

Pictured from left: Dave Elk, Larry Morgan, Nick Morgan

As an adult, Nick uses high end technology to design custom engine blocks, heads, manifolds, and most any custom motor part. He graduated from COTC, in the CNC machining program. Recently, Larry added two large CNC machines and Nick put his skills to use right away. Each machine is larger than a pickup truck but works much like a big 3D printer. Thanks to Nick’s design work and the new CNC machines, they no longer need to buy parts for their engines. Instead they can make their own custom parts in Newark, Ohio.

Nick Morgan

After buying the large CNC machines, Larry knew he needed to upgrade his electric service to support the new machines. Larry Morgan Racing was using a phase converter to convert single-phase to threephase power on his own and was maxing out the capacity of the equipment. He worked with Josh Filler, Electric Engineering Manager, and John Strathman, Senior Staking Technician, to upgrade his single-phase service to a three-phase service. By upgrading to three-phase service from The Energy Cooperative, Larry Morgan racing can run all their machines at once, achieving higher efficiencies and producing more engine products in less time.

Trophies from Larry's collection