Despite first-round loss, Morgan excited to improve in Epping

EPPING, NH – Larry Morgan put down his best pass of the weekend in the first round of the Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to beat Erica Enders-Stevens.

During qualifying, Morgan had trouble getting down the track and got out of the groove in the first session, ending up in the other lane. In the first round of eliminations against Enders-Stevens, Morgan’s Lucas Oil Pro Stock ran a 6.563 at 211.76, which was better than any of his qualifying runs.

“We got loose in the middle of the track,” Morgan said. “And I was so excited that I was going down the track. I probably better not say, but I was really excited. At least we got down the track and we hadn’t done that all week here, so I’m pretty happy with that.”

Morgan and Enders-Stevens cut almost identical lights with Morgan recording a .051-second reaction time and Enders-Stevens with a .052-second reaction time.

After qualifying 15th, Morgan overhauled the car on Saturday night and realized the setup was off.

“We spent two hours on the starting line with the car,” Morgan said. “We put some new test tires on with Goodyears in the front, and they’re a little bit smaller and we didn’t realize that and got the crank centerline down too low.

“You want the crank centerline down if you’re on a real good track, and this was really not a real good track. We just got behind the eight ball. We didn’t even realize it; we thought the tire was the same until we started measuring the car up. It dropped almost half an inch and that’s a lot up there.”

Morgan will look forward to an improved setup at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals, June 26-29, at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago.