FireAde pro Larry Morgan breaks out of mini-slump with round-win in Bristol

BRISTOL, TN – FireAde driver Larry Morgan didn’t make many fans happy at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals on Sunday at Bristol Dragway, but he snapped out of a mini-slump with a first-round victory over Allen Johnson.

Morgan won on a holeshot over local favorite Johnson before losing on a holeshot to Gray Motorsports teammate Shane Gray in the second round.

But the win over Johnson, who lives about an hour away from Bristol Dragway, was an important one for Morgan. Johnson had gotten the better of Morgan in the first round of the last two races, but Morgan ripped off a .006-second reaction time to pull off the victory.

“I got out of that first-round crap, thank God,” Morgan said. “That was good to beat a guy who’s been beating up on me for two races.”

And even though Morgan lost to Gray in the next round, Morgan was still smiling.

“That guy (Johnson) is as tough as they get,” Morgan said. “It’s his home track, and I hated it for him, but I wanted to make sure he took care of his family and friends. I didn’t want them to be disappointed that he couldn’t spend time with them.”

Morgan’s pass of 6.708 seconds at 206.92 mph was more than enough to hold off Johnson’s 6.692-second run at 206.42 mph.

“We ran good that round,” Morgan said. “I just blew the tires off second round. Had I listened to what Jeff Perley said, I probably would’ve been in good shape. We slipped the clutch so much in the first run, but it got through there. Had we taken gear ratio out, we probably would’ve done better.

“It spun up so hard, my light was horrible. If I was locked down and had traction, I’d have been good, but it is what it is.”

Morgan’s light was .051-second to Gray’s .012, and his pass of 6.730 seconds at 207.11 mph couldn’t get by Gray’s 6.745 at 205.07 mph.

But after a trying weekend, Morgan was happy to get out of Bristol with a round-win.

“We had trouble with an engine and we had trouble with the weather,” Morgan said. “We lost a computer for one run, too. But we got all that stuff fixed up, and we ran good today. We’re fine.”