INTERVIEW | SCCA’s Pirelli World Challenge Car Owner Charles Morgan

Editor’s Note: We are very happy to present this exciting interview with Charles Morgan, Co-Founder of TruSpeed Motorcars, a premier source for air-cooled Porsches in the United States; and Co-Owner, along with his son Rob Morgan, of the #45 PrivacyStar Porsche and the #46 Entrust/TruSpeed Porsche racing in the Pirelli World Challenge Series. It’s an exciting series and we recommend it to our citizens interested in Motorsports, see the video at end of this post and find out why.  Both he and his son race their cars alongside team member and official Porsche Factory Driver Patrick Long (#45 PrivacyStar Porsche). Success has not been elusive to the 67-year-old racing enthusiast. Charles graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has always had a passion for designing, building and racing automobiles and motorcycles. Professionally, he was the Company Leader (CEO) of Little Rock-based Acxiom Corporation. He is also an active pilot in Falcon and Citation jets.  Most important of all he and his son Rob share with all of us true Porsche Passion! We hope you enjoy!

Question #1

911Nation:  Hello Mr. Morgan, thank you for your taking the time for this interview. 911nation.com is a lifestyle blog focused on everything Porsche, so most of our questions will deal with your thoughts and experience with Porsche, your vast Motorsports experience and the Motorsports lifestyle to share this important aspect of Porsche experience that makes for exhilarating moments.

To start off, we would like to get down to the brass tacks!  You have over 30 years of experience in the automotive & motorsport industry; and you have driven in almost 300 road courses in almost every type of modern road racing series, why Porsche?

CM: Porsche is world renowned for being successful in racing, and even though I have only recently started racing Porsche in the past few years, I have always been very impressed with their reliability and consistent performance. We have chosen to align ourselves with Porsche primarily for selling, servicing, and racing of the vehicles.

Porsche has a great track record of success in many different categories of racing and allows for drivers to be anywhere from amateur to experienced to the highest level in racing. In professional racing, we can race Porsche in the World Challenge and then race the same car in the Pirelli Cup. It’s great because we can translate this professional experience and expertise directly to customers who are driving in amateur and lower level racing venues.

Porsche has a raw amicability. You can find the cars anytime there is a road race going on whether it is all professionals weekend or amateur weekend. Due to their extreme reliability, they are one of the lowest cost racing experiences for such a high performance car.

Question #2

911Nation:  As you may imagine, many of our readers, myself included, can remember the first time they confronted Porsche.  My first Porsche memory takes me back to early childhood where I recall sitting in the back of my father’s red 1968 911 L Targa with black leather interiors, as if waiting to hit the road.  Can you share with us your first Porsche experience?

CM: My first Porsche experience is kind of a funny story that I do not share frequently. It was a short experience that occurred in Texas in the early 1980s where I was racing in a non-Porsche. I got to talking with some people that I know who at the time had a brand new Porsche – new engine and everything. When I mentioned to them that I had never been in a Porsche they offered me with the chance to do a couple of laps in the new car.

I did two laps and then stopped because the engine did not sound right. It turned out that the engine was a piece of junk as it had eaten its own bearings and was minutes away from exploding. It was a modified streetcar made for racing and it did not even have 10 laps. Despite the fact that Porsche is the most reliable racing car in the world, I managed to blow up the engine on my first racing experience!

Question #3

911Nation:  There is no denying that with Porsche, the bloodlines run deep.  Even 60+ years later (and despite some unfortunate feuding), the Porsche Brand evokes a strong sense of camaraderie amongst fellow enthusiasts, but especially between father and son.  This is the case in my family, where my two brothers and I share a great passion for Porsche and Motorsport with our father, as my father and grandfather did before us.  What can you tell us of your experience with your son Rob and how both of you have connected through automobiles and Motorsport?

CM: Rob always wanted to race and I was happy that he did. In those days, it was hard to get a racing license before the age of 16 or even 18, but despite the law, I would not allow Rob to actually race until he was 18 so that he could have a normal childhood. Once he hit age 18, I used racing as an incentive and told him that if he did not finish college, his sponsorship would dry up. During Rob’s college years, he did race on weekends and over the summer and that enabled him and I to spend a lot of time together. Back then, I saw that he had plenty of talent and definitely enough to be a successful driver.  When he finished college he was offered a paying job to drive in a Ferrari, and at the last minute his co-driver was unable to drive in the long distance race so I was able to stand in and we were able to race together.

Rob’s interest in racing gave us a chance to spend a lot of time together. When the kids were growing up, I had a lot of business obligations and our shared interest in racing gave me plenty of time to spend with Rob, so that we could really get to know one another. My daughter, Caroline, also went to racing school, but decided it was not for her so racing has always been something we have done as a family both when the kids were growing up and to this day.

It is amazing because Rob and I can spend an entire weekend in a motorhome and not have a fight, but I am not saying that we always get along – we are family. We have developed such a strong relationship through racing – he respects my input and knowledge on racing and I respect his driving talents.

Question #4

911Nation:  Being anything, but new to racing, team ownership and race-day strategy, what drove you to form yet another team to compete in the Pirelli World Challenge Championship Series?  Can you tell us a little about the process leading up to the team’s launch? What kind of legwork did you and your son Rob Morgan do prior to launching the team, preparing the cars, securing sponsorship and signing Patrick Long? All of which put your teams in a great position to compete for the Championship?

CM: TruSpeed has been in the business of selling Porsche and when we moved into a new facility a couple of years ago we wanted to get into Porsche racing to compliment it as a way to promote the business and also to get more into the business of racing. The first thing we had to do was decide the series.

We initially looked at doing a lower level series like Patron. I actually raced in the Patron series and Rob ran a race or two in the World Challenge Series. After looking into the different operations we decided on the Pirelli World Challenge. Our first series was last year where I drove one car and Rob drove the other. Our goal behind doing the races ourselves was to understand the races and to see if we could build a business strategy around this specific type of racing.

After spending our first year with the series, we decided that we wanted to make a serious effort with the Pirelli World Challenge. The next thing we had to do was to figure out who was going to do the driving. I definitely wanted to do some of the driving, but did not want to do an entire season. We decided we needed to hire one professional driver and that Rob could drive the second car. We talked about a lot of different drivers and threw a lot of really good names around. We considered Kelly Collins who drove the PrivacyStar car at the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah because Patrick was in Europe.

Rob said to me “don’t think I am crazy, but what if we went after Patrick Long?” I thought sure why not, but did not imagine that he would do it for any reasonable amount of money because he is one of the best. We know a couple of people who know Patrick and we decided to give him a call to feel it out and see if he would be interested. When Rob talked to him, he said that he had been looking for a series where he could be a solo driver and showcase his talents. After many conversations with Porsche Germany and US, they agreed to let him run the World Challenge as long as he could maintain his prior commitments, which are huge. He went across the Atlantic 38 times last year and raced 220 days. Patrick is a great person, smart and really nice to work with.

Question #5

911Nation: Your #45 PrivacyStar and #46 Entrust/TrueSpeed team’s had successful runs in the series last few races, with a 5th and 6th finish at Long Beach and a big victory at the series opener in St. Petersburg.  What went down at Miller Motorsports Park outside Salt Lake City, Utah?  Can you share any race day strategies with our readers?  For example, we know for at Miller, Patrick Long did not race and that you took the helms of your #46 Entrust car, how, if at all, does the race-day strategy change to account for the new driver Kelly Collins and his driving style and your own?

CM: During the race at Miller Motorsports Park, Kelly was in the PrivacyStar car and I drove the Entrust car. Kelly has not spent much time in a Porsche and he had to carry Patrick’s reward weight – 145 pounds over weight. With my old age, I am not very fast to begin with so we did the damn best we could under adverse conditions. The long straight aways at Miller Motorsport Park are not ideal for racing Porsche, better tracks are at Tampa and Long Beach, but our car and drivers are doing their best to get up to speed. We did our damn best and, like always, we hold our heads high!

Question #6

911Nation: TruSpeed was founded in 2001 by you and your son Rob, from where you sell street and race ready Porsche’s of all kinds (even collectibles).  In 2009, TruSpeed moved into a new 28,000 SF facility where you keep a significant inventory.  We know they are probably all special and worthy in their own way, but which one of TruSpeed’s current Porsche inventory is the best deal on earth?  Please explain why..

CM: TruSpeed has had many unique and wonderful cars over the last 10 years from Jerry Seinfeld’s 1997 Turbo S to a 2010 Ruf CTR3.  I would say the best deal we have today would be on one of our Vintage Speedsters.  These cars are a lot of fun and a lot of look for the money!  The cars can be purchased new in the upper $20′s, and a person can build their own car to spec, just like ordering a new car.  Not to mention, you get the new car smell when you get inside!  The authentic Porsche Speedsters can cost over $200k for a nicely restored car.  A car needing restoration will still cost you over $100k.  What is nice about the Vintage Speedster is you can still have the look of the original car and the fun of driving the original car for a fraction of the cost.  Not to mention, the Vintage Speedster will driver better and stop better.  You will not worry about parking this car in a crowded parking lot either!   I know it is not a 911, but it is still a great car for the money and it falls in line with the Porsche Heritage.

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Question #7

911Nation:  Our most popular post, entitled “Stories | Do-It-Yourself Porsche?” features the artwork by artist Hannes Langeder that recreated his own version of the GT3 RS using tape, plastic pipes, aluminum foil and bicycle wheels.  Having designed, built and raced your own automobiles, what insight can you share about Porsche engineering & construction?

CM: I can share a fair amount of insight about Porsche engineering and construction because I have done a lot of race engineering as a mechanical engineer. I am pretty confident in saying that Porsche has built some of the most refined racecars that have ever existed on the planet. In terms of price performance they have refined and relined the basic 911 package. The car has good handling and all the components and pieces you have to have for a successful racecar – it is predictable and it stops very well. Last but not at all least, you do not spend all your time fixing the car. Porsche has great attention to detail and if they find something that is unreliable, they make it reliable. We drive them hard and harder and they still do not break. In my early days running the long distance races, there would be 75 cars at the start and 20 of them would be Porsche, at the end of the race there would be 35 cars still running and half of them would be Porsche. These cars just do not have any big weakness – the German engineering has continued to breed Porsche as an extraordinary racecar. The early cars did not handle as well, but the modern cars GT3 variety are fine handling cars and do not have any “bad habits” as we drivers say.

Question #8

911Nation: In the same post, we discuss the artist’s tongue-in-cheek eco-friendly message.  That said, Porsche seems to have reinvented itself and it’s strategy by forging ahead and pushing hybrid technology to the cutting edge?  What are your thoughts about Porsche’s recent advances in Hybrid technology? And how do you think it’s impacting (and/or will impact) Motorsport?

CM: I think this eco-friendly question pertains to all motorsport even outside of Porsche. Every automotive manufacturer from Bentley to Porsche has built a hybrid racecar and they have even been given permission to race them in some venues. The handwriting is on the wall, there will be hybrid or some kind of green vehicles racing, but I do not think that anyone has a clear vision of how to make these racecars in the most practical way. If it’s going to perform well and really be green, it could be very costly. I do not think the eco-friendly path is very well defined yet, but ultimately I think we are looking at having a gas/electric hybrid for racecars. I do think that racing will be impacted by green and I think we will see more green racecars in the near future. I did not even realize until today that some of the large luxury carmakers are building prototype electric cars for their entire lines. It is going to happen, but then question is when and in what format.

Question #9

911Nation: We have heard accounts that Porsche AG is holding back from introducing the mid-engine Cayman into Motorsport, possibly for fear of challenging the dominance of the legendary 911.  Do you have any support from Porsche for your GT3 Cup cars?  If so, what kind of support does Porsche AG provide your team?  Also, would you ever form a team to race the Cayman?

CM: We would probably not participate in any other series than the World Challenge. If the Cayman was allowed to participate in the series, we would probably race it, but I do not have any knowledge into the plans that Porsche has for the car. Porsche has definitely given us moral support, but not in the engineering or financial sense.

Question #10

911Nation: We would like to conclude with a question that will encourage our readers to enjoy their rides.  911nation citizens are extremely fond of their daily drives through city streets, weekend drives on backcountry roads, and driving vacations across the USA and Europe, where they get to stretch out their Porsche’s legs (when not on the track).  What are your favorite driving roads in the USA and/or Europe?  Please explain why..

CM: I do not have a favorite in Europe, but my favorite driving road in the US is definitely highway 23 North of Ozark, Arkansas and intersects at highway 16. This particular road goes through the Ozark National Forrest, up several mountains and then through a couple different varieties of road. The drive takes you through Huntsville and ends up Bidville, Arkansas. The ride itself is very exiting with overhanging trees, twists up and down the mountains, some long straight sections and even some places that are a complete tree canopy over the highway.

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