MORGAN DETHRONES PS MOUNTAIN KING JOHNSON
No one saw this coming – except Larry Morgan.
The veteran driver upset Allen Johnson in the finals at the Mile High Nationals Sunday at Bandimere Speedway.
The two drivers had a 1 minute 45-second staging duel, and then on a holeshot Morgan captured the surprising win over Johnson. Morgan clocked a 6.944-second time at 199.02 mph and edged Johnson’s 6.930-second effort at 199.23 mph.
The difference was at the starting line. Morgan had a .014 reaction time compared to Johnson’s .035 reaction time.
“What a wonderful race,” said Morgan, who uses Gray Motorsports engines.
The burn down at the starting line isn’t something Morgan had planned.
“I don’t even what I’m going to do when I go up there,” Morgan said. “I had no idea until I went up there and I thought it sounds like he doesn’t want to stage first so I think I am going to make him stage first. After about a minute into the staging battle, I guess you would call it, I got on my radio and I said to my guys I don’t think he wants to stage and nobody said anything. Then Justin (Elkes, Morgan’s crew chief) got on the radio and said I think he wants to now and you could hear his engine. It was good for the fans. Our class needed something. It’s getting boring, but with the new rule changes and a little bit of that, they are going to want us to do that every race, and I don’t know if that will happen, but it was a lot of fun for us.”
This win was Morgan’s second of the season, he also won at the Four-Wide Nationals March 29, in Charlotte, N.C., but this was his first traditional two-wide victory since Las Vegas’ fall race in 2009 when he beat Rickie Jones in the finals.
Morgan, who has been competing in Pro Stock since 1987, now has 12 career national event wins. Morgan is now sixth in the point standings, three behind fifth-place Johnson.
“This probably was my best win all year,” Morgan said. “The Four-Wide was cool because it was Four-Wide and you got to kick three guy’s (as***) at one time. Coming up here and racing Allen, I give those guys all the respect in the world, those guys have been in the finals I don’t know how many times (in Denver) and nobody will ever do what he’s done up here, and I commend him for that. I came up here (and tested) and Justin (Elkes) wanted to do well on the hill and everything we did fell into place. We couldn’t make a bad run, and I was excited to get back up here and I’m just happy for everybody who is involved with us.”
Morgan beat Joey Grose, Jason Line, reigning world champion Erica Enders-Stevens, and Johnson in consecutive rounds Sunday.
Johnson was trying to win his fourth Mile-High Nationals title in a row, and his seventh in nine years. Johnson, the 2012 Pro Stock world champ, also saw his 15-round win streak at the Mile-High Nationals end with his loss to Morgan.
Before Sunday, Johnson last lost at Bandimere when he was beat in 2011 finals by Mike Edwards.
The match-up between Morgan and Johnson was a repeat of the finals at Chicago July 12, which Johnson won.
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