8/18/2022
Bunker Hill Dragstrip
Shawn Morgan's Surprise
Bunker Hill veteran bracket racer and current Top ET points leader, Shawn Morgan got quite the surprise at last weekend’s Summit Super Series points race at Bunker Hill Dragstrip, Indiana’s first dragstrip, when he was called to the tower during time trials.
Morgan, who has been racing with his 17 year old son, Jesse at Bunker Hill, since Jesse was 2, was greeted in the tower by his son, who he had not seen since July 3rd of this year, and his face lit up brighter than it does when he parks his car in the Coan Engineering winners circle.
They say a family that races together, stays together. It is hard to explain to someone not involved in drag racing, the family dynamic of a family who races together. Like many racing families, Shawn Morgan, whose first pass down the dragstrip was in 2008, and his wife Chrissy, started bringing their children to the track from the time they were toddlers.
It didn’t take long before it was apparent that Jesse, their oldest son, would follow in his daddy’s footsteps. In 2014 Jesse started racing jr. dragsters, and continued to race a jr. dragster through the end of 2020. In that short time he won a lot of races and was a 4 time consecutive Jr. Dragster Track Champion Champion 2016-2019.
Jesse wasn’t the only successful Morgan on the track during those years. Shawn was also extremely successful. He was the track champion twice. Once in the Mod class, and once in Sportsman.
When Jesse was old enough to get a drivers license, he decided it was best to end his time in Jr. Dragsters and start racing in the Sportsman class. It didn’t take long for success to follow him into his new class. After racing in Sportsman for less than a year, at the prestigious Bunker Hill 65th Anniversary race, the Morgan family couldn’t have scripted a better outcome.
Shawn won in the Top ET class and Jesse won in the Sportsman class, putting this father and son duo in the winners circle together for the first time, with both of the Morgans driving “big” cars.
\There is no doubt, Shawn and Jesse will always share a father and son racing bond, but in 2022 racing for the Morgans was not what they were used to. 2022 was the first year that they didn’t spend every weekend racing together. It was the first year that Shawn didn’t have his “fist bump buddy,”(something they did before every run), with him at the track.
Over the years Jesse had also developed a love and talent for music. This year he auditioned and was accepted to march with the Madison Scouts, a marching band that’s a DCI-World Class Drum Corps. He spent the summer touring the country with the marching band, instead of racing with his dad.
As you can imagine, after racing with his son every weekend for so many years, it wasn’t easy for Shawn.
“I bought 2 Madison Scouts hats this year. One is to wear and the other I bring to the race track and have it in the pit every weekend. I sent him real time Saturday updates, knowing he would see them when he could.” explained Shawn. But like most racers would agree, it just isn’t the same when your family isn’t physically at the track with you, especially when they were there for so many years.
When Shawn’s wife and Jesse’s mom, Chrissy, reached out to the track for help to surprise Shawn with Jesse’s homecoming, the track personnel were eager to help.
“One thing my husband and I are all about is family,” said Cori McMillen, co owner of Bunker Hill Dragstrip.”We were not only honored but excited to be a part of this special reunion between father and son, both who consider Bunker Hill Dragstrip their racing home.”
When Shawn walked into the tower last weekend and saw Jesse standing there his face lit up. There was no doubt that in that moment the fact that he was and is currently leading the Top ET class in points, and could potentially end the season as track champion, giving the
Morgan family a track championship in every class, was the last thing on his mind. The sense of security of having his son back at the track and his family together again is all that mattered. It is still up in the air on whether Jesse will make it out to the track to race before the end of the season, but one thing is for sure, he will be there for that fist bump and to cheer his dad on as Shawn battles it out on the track remainder of the season with hopes to end 2022 as the Bunker Hill Dragstrip Top ET track champion.
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