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Top Stock’s New Captain: Morgan Captures Second Title
The final round was wheels-up, Ford versus Chevrolet, automatic versus stick car. Morgan leaped off the line first, .558 to a .584. Good mid-range power kept him in the lead for the early part of the race, but Mercure is well known for being the only car seriously threatening the 130 mph barrier. The big high-gear horsepower wasn’t quite enough to dip into Morgan’s lead. Taking a lesson from Al Corda, Morgan added insult to injury by bailing at the finish line, closing the race up to .028 seconds on the brakes. 10.30 E.T.’s flashed on both scoreboards, but the Ford’s 118 mph dive against Mercure’s 129 mph charge told the tale.
It was "mate in three" for Morgan, who raced the Team Checkmate stables in the final three rounds. In the quarter-finals, it was Mark Yamarino who tried his luck against the Ford. "Big Y" was sharp on the tree with a great .513 reaction time, leaving Morgan sitting on the line by almost a tenth of a second. Despite his best run of the weekend, a 10.57, Yamarino was wrangled up by Morgan, and walked with a quicker 10.35 at only 113 mph.
The same trick applied in qualifying. Morgan nailed down the no. 1 position in the first session, belting out a 10.294 at 126.57 mph. On his second and final qualifying run, the nose went down hard long before the finish line, and the sweet music of the motor faded as the Mustang coasted across the line. Many were concerned that the lone Ford in the field had broken, but the sweet music drifting through Morgan’s head was, "You Can Call Me Al." With Al Corda mysteriously absent, didn’t someone have to play the top end head games? Speaking of head games, Morgan quipped at the pre-race meeting at the GM Performance Parts trailer that he would be in a Chevrolet at the next event. When pressed about it, Morgan replied, "No, I’m serious! I have a friend with a 396 Camaro that we want to play with. We’ve figured out some things with the Mustang that we think will apply to the Camaro." Sure, next thing you know, he’ll be bringing out his dirt-track car. Even if he did, don’t bet against him. The Morgan International Race Engines team is one of the hardest working teams out there.
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Norwalk,
OH – The fierce factory musclecars returned to the birthplace of
their class for the 2001 season’s fourth installation of the GM
Performance Parts Top Stock series. Matt Morgan proved in front of a
capacity crowd that his dominating win at the GM Performance Parts U.S.
Class Nationals was no fluke. Making good use of the provisional wheelie
bar, the white ’69 Mustang reared high in the sky, time after time,
bring Norwalk fans to their feet. By the finals, the only car left with a
chance to stop the steamroller was the Team Checkmate ’68 Camaro of Paul
Mercure, who qualified a distant second behind Morgan.
In
the semi-finals, Morgan defeated another Team Checkmate car, the ’69
Camaro of Top Stock co-founder, Mike Keener. Keener’s clutch .523
holeshot, was impressive, but he just did not have the power through every
gear to make up the distance put on him in the mid-range by Morgan’s big
bark Ford. Morgan advanced to the finals with a 10.33 to Keener’s 10.44.
In the other semi-final match, Mercure faced no. 6 qualifier, Bobby
Brannon, never one to be taken for granted. With a few hundredths of a
second to make up against the faster Team Checkmate car, Brannon took a
shot at the tree, and left the red bulb glowing on the tree by ten
thousandths of a second, a .490 red light. Mercure went on to the finals
with a 10.35 at 128 mph.
Morgan
garnered the complete focus of the crowd in round one. Newcomer and no. 16
qualifier Sonny Shipmon broke the driveshaft in his 472 Hemi crate motor,
four-speed ’72 Barracuda on his only qualifying run. Morgan was left
with the bye run. He thrilled the crowd with a mountainous wheelstand, but
shut the car off just before the finish line to keep the competition
guessing.
Although
he didn’t show up in the late rounds of eliminations, the run of the
event had to go to Tom Rix for an astounding 10.366/126.49 effort in the
first round of eliminations in his giant ’70 Buick Grand Sport. Look for
the Buick to be a major player in the future.
Many
new faces graced the GM Performance Parts Top Stock field, including the
aforementioned Hemi of Sonny Shipmon, the Camaros of Aaron Greene, Paul
Carr, Bert Powell. John Cavataio returned to the scene with another Team
Checkmate Camaro, and Jason McCormick was at the wheel of the Belvedere,
as his usual Challenger was on the injured reserve list. Mike Walter made
just his second event with a GM 385 Fast Burn Crate Engine, after taking
time off to develop his program, and Aaron Allison debuted his normally
F/SA-classed ’68 Camaro in Top Stock, also with the GM 385 Fast Burn
Crate Engine.
Two
races remain on the schedule for GM Performance Parts Top Stock, including
the CARQUEST Autumn Nationals at Rockingham Dragway, NC, Sept 21-23, and
the Mopar Performance Parts World Finals at Red River Raceway, LA, October
12-14.