Larry Sexton has had an intimate role in the race circuit for more than 50 years, and besides his grandchildren, there still isn’t anything else that excites him like racing, cars & engines. Larry grew up just minutes away from Tennessee State Fair Grounds; he was 13 years old when racing first came to Nashville. Larry first competed at Nashville throughout the early 1960’s achieving several futur
e wins! In the late 1960’s Larry gave into the drag racing bug and jumped in with both feet. Building all out race cars from the ground up. He raced several vehicles in many classes throughout the mid 80’s. Of course Larry built all of his own chassis, suspensions, & engines. He was very well known for his high- revving small block engines, and also very fast. HE set 9 NHRA and IHRA world records at tracks such as Atlanta, Gainesville, Indianapolis as well as Union Hill and Riverside. Larry also has been building cars & engines for other competitors and car lovers for more than 40 years. He started his machine shop on 5th Ave in Nashville. Today he works out of his huge 4,000 sq ft squeaky clean shop in White House, Tn. Where he’s been for the past 17 yrs. He is still in high demand as a car and engine builder, specializing in racing chassis work , suspensions, engine builds and rebuilds as well as his bullet proof 2 speed racing power glide transmission. Larry still loves racing and has no regrets. In addition to his world records, Larry counts among his accomplishments many developments in the area of racing suspensions and transmissions. He improved the popular Hurst vertical gate shifter, making it stronger and smoother. He also worked on the Nash 5-speed transmission. He was the first to try and perfect the 4-Link suspension. In addition he developed the Koni SP-1 and others. Larry also built a V-12 K Motor for the 1935 Lincoln that won the Great American Race in 1991. One of the things that Larry is most proud of is his “racing team” that he assembled. Throughout his racing career Larry’s Crew consisted of his wife Betty, his daughters Samantha, Trish, Angela, and himself. They traveled as a unit all over the country to go racing. Betty, Larry’s wife of over 40yrs is perfectly capable of tearing down and rebuilding a transmission but also adapt at her love of doll making. Larry explains it as “We’re still on our honeymoon; she has always supported me in everything, working along right beside me.”
Originally written by Brian Ferrell
Updated by Tame’ Taylor
