10/24/2022
Bunker Hill Dragstrip
From 4WD to 4 Time Track Champ
By Cori McMillen
There are people who literally race their whole lives dreaming of winning just one track championship. There are also people like 2022 Bunker Hill Dragstrip Top Eliminator champion, Shawn Morgan, who didn’t even think about drag racing until the age of 32 and in the last 15 years have won an impressive 4 track championships.
At 32 years old, Shawn was enjoying life. He had been married for 7 years to his wife Chrissy, whom he met in high school.
They had two young boys and he was very passionate about four wheel drives. He owned two 1972 Blazers, which he spent years collecting parts for. Shawn reminisces back about those two Blazers.
“One was crappy, but I drove it a lot, and one that I had spent over 5 years restoring every piece of metal on it.”
In 2007, in what would ultimately be a life changing experience, a friend invited Shawn to Bunker Hill to hang out. That one trip to the track gave him the bug to give drag racing a try. After his first pass down the track, Shawn went home, sat in his garage and stared at his Blazers and thought.
“I can’t turn these into a race car….so they have to go”.
Everyone that knew Shawn and his passion for his Blazers, was stunned. He sold both of them and everything that went along with them. He did a little research, and the very next week purchased his Vega Wagon, which he still races in the modified class, as a roller. A year later he purchased the 1969 Chevy Camaro, which he also still races and was the car he won the 2022 Top Championship in. Soon after that, the Morgan family would add a jr. dragster to their racing program, which has since been traded for a Sportman car that his son Jesse races.
Shawn has had much success in his short time as a drag racer. His first track Championship came in 2014 in the Sportsman class. In 2018 and 2019 he won back to back championships in the Modified class. He took a couple of years off from points racing, and came back in 2022 without skipping a beat, winning the Top Championship, which took him to the IHRA Summit Super Series World finals in Holly Springs, MS. Unfortunately, Shawn lost in round two by a small .0015 margin of victory to the driver who eventually won the event. He left Mississippi making Bunker Hill Dragstrip proud and with no regrets. Based on Shawn's track record, it’s pretty inevitable that he will get another shot to race for the world title one day.
Shawn is extremely thankful for everyone who believed in him and who has supported him on this racing journey that he started so late in life. He is especially thankful to his wife Chrissy. “Racing was never even on the radar in our lives, then suddenly it was ever. I owe her a lot of gratitude and appreciation for being so adaptive and supportive to something as demanding as the drag racing life.”
He also appreciates NMC Companies for their continued and long time sponsorship support.
“Without either of them, none of this would’ve been possible. Also would like to thank Dishon Transmissions, Diamond Engine and Machine, and Joe Wiles/Wildman”.
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