Bobby wanted to spend more time with his family and business, so we talked to Lee Shepherd about driving our car. We'd raced against Lee's lime-green Chevy II station wagon at hole-in-the-wall tracks from Arkansas to Oklahoma, so we knew his ability. A self-taught cylinder head porter, Lee was as good with a grinder as he was with a 4-speed.  He won Modified Eliminator at the '74 Winternationals with our pumpkin-orange Maverick, and we were on our way.

        In 1972, Buddy and I rented a stall in a industrial park in Arlington, Texas; Lee opened Shepherd Racing Heads next door. Gradually we acquired the equipment, the people, and the knowledge to turn our hobby into a real business. We had a virtual production line building small-blocks for doorslammers and dragsters.

        After our first taste of success with that mongrel Maverick, we bolted our drivetrain into a borrowed Stingray Corvette, strapped Lee into the driver's seat, and got serious about racing. In 1976, we took the giant step to Pro Stock following the standard Chevrolet recipe: a 331ci small-block in a short-wheelbase Monza. We had a pretty rough initiation to professional racing: Lee crashed in Englishtown, 

and we couldn't get the trick factory cylinder head castings we needed to be competitive.

        It wasn't until we built an unconventional long-wheelbase Camaro that we started to win consistently: in ten races in 1980, that red-white-and-blue Z28 racked up six wins and three runners-up. The following season we developed a small-displacement big-block that won six more times and powered Lee to his first of four straight NHRA Winston championships.

        In the five years from 1980 to 1984, a Reher-Morrison car reached the finals in 44 of 56 NHRA national events. In 1983 and 1984, Lee swept the NHRA and IHRA Pro Stock titles. He won every race on the NHRA tour at least once, and compiled a 173-47 won-loss record. Lee is still ranked 15th on the list of all-time NHRA winners with 29 career victories in Pro and sportsman classes.

        Bruce Allen joined our team after Lee's death in a testing accident in 1985. Bruce continued the record of success at Reher-Morrison Racing Engines, capturing another "Mountain Motor" championship and winning 12 NHRA races in 30 final-round appearances. He finished third in the NHRA standings three consecutive seasons, was