Over the years, many names and faces have made history in endurance racing. The name Tommy Morrison is one of the most recognizable. His career includes Corvette racing experience in the SCCA Showroom Stock series, IMSA GTO events, Escort Endurance Series and the Corvette Challenge Series.
Morrison began racing Corvettes on his own, with little or no sponsorship. But Morrison’s day in the sun would come, as would the opportunity of a lifetime. Morrison made history when he and a team of hand-picked endurance drivers set three world records in March 1990 using a Morrison Motorsports ZR-1 with a stock LT5 engine. The Morrison team — which also included Chevrolet's John Heinricy, Jim Minneker and Scott Allman, and drivers Kim Baker, Don Knowles, and Scott Lagasse — set new land-speed and endurance records at time trials at Fort Stockton, Texas . . . some of which had stood for half a century.
Morrison’s 24 hours averaging more than 175 miles per hour bested the previous record, set in 1940, by nearly 15 mph. The ZR-1 set a new world record for both 5,000 miles and 5,000 km. It was a proud moment for Chevrolet and for Morrison. An ad run soon after the event proclaimed “In 24 hours, we did what nobody could do for 50 years.”
Morrison has been one of Corvette’s top promoters for more than three decades, and Morrison Engineering still races Corvettes in endurance races across the country.
