Morehouse has racing in blood

Driven to win; Morehouse has racing in blood
Kevin Morehouse, hands-down
the most successful modified
driver in the area, was born to
race.
And it shows.
“My dad [John] used to race
back in the Coshocton County
Speedway days. And I just kind
of got into it,” he said.
Morehouse, who primarily
drives on Hilltop Speedway at
Millersburg and Muskingum
County Speedway at Dresden, is
coming off his most successful
season in 2009, in which he won
52 races, including 22 features.
His next closet competition won
seven races.
He had $38,000 in earnings last
season.
On his career, Morehouse, who
drives an open-wheeled modified
with an upgraded diamond chassis, has 58 feature wins, including seven so far this season.
Morehouse credits a comprehensive and detailed maintenance regimen as reason for his
success.
“We are very particular on our
cars,” the Hanover, Ohio resident
said. “We don’t just bring our car
home, throw it in the corner and
bring it back out Saturday night
to race.”
After a slow start a season ago,
Morehouse – now in his sixthyear racing modifieds – has
seemed to put that behind him,
winning six straight features and
seven of 10 to open the season.
“We struggled a little bit last
year coming out the box,” he
said. “And now we won six in a
row.”
Morehouse is determined to
beat his 22 feature-win season
in 2009, but faces a bit of a chal-
Kevin Morehouse continued
lenge. Not from other drivers,
but rather track schedules.
“We ran Hilltop on Friday
nights a lot last year and then
Muskingum County Speedway on Saturdays,” he said.
“We won eight features at
Hilltop on Friday nights, and
10 at Muskingum on Saturday.
That’s 18 features out of our
22. But now Hilltop went to
Saturday night.”
This shift is forcing Morehouse to venture out and find
new races, a move he’s excited
about.
“It will make us better,” the
37-year-old said. “We want to
hit the bigger shows and see
how good we are compared to
everybody else.”
Morehouse got a glimpse of
that last year, testing his skills
at a $15,000 show at Tucson,
Ariz.
“We enjoyed that. It was an
experienced. But we were like
peons out there. We showed up
in a little in-closed trailer and
about 80-90 people had stackers with extra cars, motors, everything. We just had what we
had.”
Morehouse, and his company Morehouse Logging, serve
as his majority sponsor. Although, his goal is to one day
have a sponsor.
“The biggest thing in racing
is having a corporate sponsor.
It would be nice to have one.
Will it ever happen, I don’t
know,” he said.
Having a sponsor would allow Morehouse to switch from
modifieds to late models, a
move he badly desires.
“I love to do late model racing, but I would have to race
for somebody else,” he said. “I
can’t figure out why I can’t get
a late model ride. I don’t know
if it’s the economy… our record is there.”
While owning his own company is his primary job, Morehouse said he very much feels
racing is also his job.
“I look at it as a second job.
Anytime you get into racing
today, it’s not just a hobby.
It becomes another full-time
job,” said Morehouse, who
has owned and operated Morehouse Logging at Hanover for
17-years.
Morehouse has a small track
on his property, but said he’s
out-grown it. Now he practices
at Muskingum County Speedway.
“Muskingum County Speedway is 15-minutes from my
house,” he said “and we’ve
actually done some testing
for American Racer tires and
Hoosier tires there before. We
take advantage of that. That’s
how we do testing on our own
cars.”
Jonathan Scholles is an awardwinning sports writer who has
covered Holmes County sports
for over five-years, including
two of the four Hiland Lady
Hawks Division IV state championships. A Walsh University
graduate (2005), Scholles is
the sports editor for The Budget newspaper in Sugarcreek,
as well as a correspondent for
Ohio’s largest prep website,
JJHuddle.com. Scholles, a
Dover native and Tuscarawas
Central Catholic alum, currently resides in Akron.