Interview by Mary Lendzion
Photos by NMCA/NMRA and courtesy of Larry Geddes
When Larry Geddes was fourteen, he started watching his neighbor work on his 1956 and 1957 Fords.
The cars had big-block engines with three deuces, and in addition to being attracted to them, Geddes had all kinds of questions about them.
He wanted to know how they worked, how much horsepower they had and how easy or hard they were to work on.
Then, he turned his focus to having a car, specifically a Ford, with a comparable combination, in the years to come.
Geddes went on to have a 1955 Ford, followed by many more cars from the automaker in the years that followed. In most, he rowed the gears of a manual transmission, and relished every moment, but it is the 1990 Mustang LX that he purchased new and has piloted at tracks across the country ever since that helped put his name on the motorsports map.
He has competed in NMRA ARP Open Comp and NMCA MagnaFuel Open Comp for decades, and he earned NMRA ARP Open Comp championships in 2003 and 2004.
He is still going strong in the category that is so close to his heart, and has no plans to move into another category or out of his 1990 Mustang LX powered by a Ford Performance Parts 363 Boss engine and a Dynamic C4 Mighty Mite transmission and TCT converter.
When Geddes, who long relied on a manual transmission before moving to the automatic transmission in 2023, is not racing his car to consistent low 11s, he delivers baked goods for a grocery store chain near his home in Barnesville, Ohio, on a part-time basis. When he is not doing that, he spends time with his wife of 47 years, Erma.
Read on for more about Geddes, who is happy, humble and honored by many for the racer and remarkable person he is.
WHAT WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD IN COLUMBUS, OHIO LIKE?
I had go-carts and minibikes, and then I got a car when I was 15, even though I didn’t have a driver’s license yet. It was a 1955 Ford, and then I had more cars throughout high school, and that drove my mom crazy. My cars were pretty much all Fords with manual transmissions, and I had several Falcons. That was in the 1960s, and the cars I was buying were just about $100. One of my favorites was a Falcon Sprint with a 260 cubic-inch engine and a four-speed.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST RACE CAR?
In the early 1970s, when I was right out of high school, I had a 1965 Mustang Fastback with a 289 cubic-inch engine and a four-speed, and I changed the exhaust and put loud mufflers on it. The big thing at the time was to get the glass-packed mufflers and dual exhaust. That was the first car I took to the track, and the track was National Trail in Columbus, Ohio. The track was about 30 miles from home. The first time I went, I caught on right away and couldn’t wait to keep doing it. My friends and I were racing what we could, and trying and learning.
WHAT DID YOUR MOM, CARMA, THINK OF YOU GOING TO THE TRACK?
Believe it or not, taking my car to the track was not a problem for her, but she did make me promise not to buy a motorcycle. I respected her wishes, while also appreciating the fact that some of my friends had motorcycles. After that 1965 Mustang Fastback, I went to a 1969 Mustang that I bought in 1971, and that became my drag car for many, many years. I put a 351 cubic-inch Cleveland in it with a top-loader four-speed, and I raced it at National Trail in Columbus and at Marion County and Dragway 42. I raced in a series called AHRA, which had a lot of categories and was good for the little guy. Back then, we were class racing, and one of the classes I raced in was called Production. I was running high 11s.
HOW LONG DID YOU HAVE THE 1969 MUSTANG?
I sold the 1969 Mustang in 1978 and then took some time away from drag racing until 1990. It was work-related. The company I worked for, Nationwise Auto Parts, out of Columbus, Ohio, had me on the road a lot. After that, my wife, Erma, and I bought the NAPA Auto Parts store in Barnesville, Ohio in 1983. We owned it for 16 years, and sold it in 1999. It was in that time that I started my company Geddex, as an afterhours job.
YOU HAD SOME VERY POPULAR PRODUCTS WITH GEDDEX. WHAT WILL YOU TELL US ABOUT GEDDEX?
I was marketing and selling Geddex products to Summit Racing Equipment and Jegs and other companies, and after we sold the NAPA Auto Parts, we tried to expand the Geddex products and offered different colored dial-in markers and wheelie bar markers. That was important because crew chiefs could then tell which wheelie marks were made from their drivers. I sold the company in 2015 to Gary Varney. I always felt proud to have had that opportunity to bring that product out. It came out of a need as a racer. Shoe polish leaves a mark and Geddex Dial-In does not. Not many people know that my first batch of Burnout Guard was in an aerosol can, and the first batch of cans had a leak, and we could not have that happening, so we moved to the pump bottle.
WHEN DID YOU PURCHASE THE 1990 MUSTANG LX THAT YOU RACE NOW?
I bought it brand-new in 1990 from a local Ford dealer near our home in Barnesville, Ohio. I test drove one and then ordered mine new. I wanted a 5.0L, 302 cubic-inch engine with a five-speed transmission. You could get what they call a 201A package with air and power windows and mirrors. I wanted white for sure, because I always had white cars, and I wanted a black interior. I ordered it in December and got it in early April. As soon as it came off of the truck at the dealership, I didn’t let it go through clean-up at the dealership because I wanted to clean it myself.
DID YOU KEEP IT STOCK FOR A WHILE, OR DID YOU START MODIFYING IT RGHT AWAY?
I kept it stock for a little while, but not for long, because there was so much I could do to it. I added underdrive pulleys, swapped cams, changed the rear end ratio and other things, and I had it at the track within a month. I would drive to National Trail, change the tires and bypass the power steering to free up horsepower. Back then, if you wanted traction, you bought sticky tires, and I had a set of McCreary tires. The car ran 12.40s with air-conditioning and cruise control, and I loved that it still had all of the creature comforts.
WHEN DID YOU BEGIN TO REALLY RAMP UP YOUR RACING PROGRAM?
Things started getting more serious when I replaced the stock engine with a 347 cubic-inch engine, and raced at the Civil Wars in 1997 at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina. They had an Open Comp class and that was my first exposure to Open Comp. Then I raced in bracket classes at various tracks, and I raced Fun Ford Weekend just twice. I raced in World Ford Challenge, and I won at that event in 1998 at Beech Bend Raceway in Kentucky. That is where I met Steve Wolcott for the first time.
WHEN DID YOU BEGIN COMPETING IN NMRA ARP OPEN COMP?
That was at the race at Maple Grove in Pennsylvania in 2001, and I won. I was lucky enough to win because I had a little experience running the category at Civil Wars and World Ford Challenge. I like the .500 pro tree. I immediately knew that NMRA would be a great place for me to be, and I have been with the series ever since. I have also competed in NMCA MagnaFuel Open Comp, but I consider NMRA home.
RULES OF THE CATEGORY REQUIRE RACERS TO KEEP ONE DIAL-IN FOR THE WHOLE RACE. HOW DO YOU FOCUS ON ACHIEVING THAT THROUGH WEATHER CHANGES AND TRACK CONDITION CHANGES?
I like that aspect of the class. It is important to me. That is part of being a driver’s class. You have to be on your game and adjust your car without using throttle stops, air shifters or electric shifters. It is a transbrake, footbrake class, and that is why I like it so much. I use a secured weight box, and some racers will pull timing. It is very challenging and so competitive, and the top end packages are tight.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE COMPETITION AND WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO STAY COMPETITIVE IN NMRA ARP OPEN COMP AND NMCA MAGNAFUEL OPEN COMP?
It is some of the toughest competition I have ever seen, and you have to be as dialed in as your car at all times. I was qualified in the lead spot with a .002 reaction time after two rounds of qualifying at the race in Michigan last year, and I told my friends that someone was sure to have an even better reaction time and get by me in the final round of qualifying, but nobody did and I remained the number one qualifier. At a different event, I had a .004 reaction time and I qualified in the ninth spot, so not really that close to the top. It is tough competition.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN COMPETING IN THE CATEGORY?
I would ask him or her about their car, and give them the basic parameters of the class. I would tell them that it is based on a fixed index minus a tenth and lay it all out for them. There are a lot of bracket racers who say Open Comp looks easy, but it is not, and I would tell them that so that they are prepared and not surprised. You can race what you have at home and start learning.
HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED MOVING TO A DIFFERENT CATEGORY?
No, I really haven’t. This is where I am staying. It just suits me, my car and my equipment, and I’m really happy where I am at.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR GOALS FOR 2024?
I don’t want to make any mental mistakes on the starting line, and I want to learn from losses. I want to make a run at the championship.
WHO HELPS YOU ALONG THE WAY?
I appreciate the support I receive from great companies like MAHLE, National Parts Depot, Richmond Gear, VP Racing Fuels, Dynamic Racing Transmissions, Weldon, Mickey Thompson and Bellstores, which is a new marketing partner that I am proud to say that I just recently welcomed. I am looking forward to another great year of racing.
(Interview from June 2024 Fastest Street Car)
Photos by NMCA/NMRA and courtesy of Larry Geddes
When Larry Geddes was fourteen, he started watching his neighbor work on his 1956 and 1957 Fords.
The cars had big-block engines with three deuces, and in addition to being attracted to them, Geddes had all kinds of questions about them.
He wanted to know how they worked, how much horsepower they had and how easy or hard they were to work on.
Then, he turned his focus to having a car, specifically a Ford, with a comparable combination, in the years to come.
Geddes went on to have a 1955 Ford, followed by many more cars from the automaker in the years that followed. In most, he rowed the gears of a manual transmission, and relished every moment, but it is the 1990 Mustang LX that he purchased new and has piloted at tracks across the country ever since that helped put his name on the motorsports map.
He has competed in NMRA ARP Open Comp and NMCA MagnaFuel Open Comp for decades, and he earned NMRA ARP Open Comp championships in 2003 and 2004.
He is still going strong in the category that is so close to his heart, and has no plans to move into another category or out of his 1990 Mustang LX powered by a Ford Performance Parts 363 Boss engine and a Dynamic C4 Mighty Mite transmission and TCT converter.
When Geddes, who long relied on a manual transmission before moving to the automatic transmission in 2023, is not racing his car to consistent low 11s, he delivers baked goods for a grocery store chain near his home in Barnesville, Ohio, on a part-time basis. When he is not doing that, he spends time with his wife of 47 years, Erma.
Read on for more about Geddes, who is happy, humble and honored by many for the racer and remarkable person he is.
WHAT WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD IN COLUMBUS, OHIO LIKE?
I had go-carts and minibikes, and then I got a car when I was 15, even though I didn’t have a driver’s license yet. It was a 1955 Ford, and then I had more cars throughout high school, and that drove my mom crazy. My cars were pretty much all Fords with manual transmissions, and I had several Falcons. That was in the 1960s, and the cars I was buying were just about $100. One of my favorites was a Falcon Sprint with a 260 cubic-inch engine and a four-speed.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST RACE CAR?
In the early 1970s, when I was right out of high school, I had a 1965 Mustang Fastback with a 289 cubic-inch engine and a four-speed, and I changed the exhaust and put loud mufflers on it. The big thing at the time was to get the glass-packed mufflers and dual exhaust. That was the first car I took to the track, and the track was National Trail in Columbus, Ohio. The track was about 30 miles from home. The first time I went, I caught on right away and couldn’t wait to keep doing it. My friends and I were racing what we could, and trying and learning.
WHAT DID YOUR MOM, CARMA, THINK OF YOU GOING TO THE TRACK?
Believe it or not, taking my car to the track was not a problem for her, but she did make me promise not to buy a motorcycle. I respected her wishes, while also appreciating the fact that some of my friends had motorcycles. After that 1965 Mustang Fastback, I went to a 1969 Mustang that I bought in 1971, and that became my drag car for many, many years. I put a 351 cubic-inch Cleveland in it with a top-loader four-speed, and I raced it at National Trail in Columbus and at Marion County and Dragway 42. I raced in a series called AHRA, which had a lot of categories and was good for the little guy. Back then, we were class racing, and one of the classes I raced in was called Production. I was running high 11s.
HOW LONG DID YOU HAVE THE 1969 MUSTANG?
I sold the 1969 Mustang in 1978 and then took some time away from drag racing until 1990. It was work-related. The company I worked for, Nationwise Auto Parts, out of Columbus, Ohio, had me on the road a lot. After that, my wife, Erma, and I bought the NAPA Auto Parts store in Barnesville, Ohio in 1983. We owned it for 16 years, and sold it in 1999. It was in that time that I started my company Geddex, as an afterhours job.
YOU HAD SOME VERY POPULAR PRODUCTS WITH GEDDEX. WHAT WILL YOU TELL US ABOUT GEDDEX?
I was marketing and selling Geddex products to Summit Racing Equipment and Jegs and other companies, and after we sold the NAPA Auto Parts, we tried to expand the Geddex products and offered different colored dial-in markers and wheelie bar markers. That was important because crew chiefs could then tell which wheelie marks were made from their drivers. I sold the company in 2015 to Gary Varney. I always felt proud to have had that opportunity to bring that product out. It came out of a need as a racer. Shoe polish leaves a mark and Geddex Dial-In does not. Not many people know that my first batch of Burnout Guard was in an aerosol can, and the first batch of cans had a leak, and we could not have that happening, so we moved to the pump bottle.
WHEN DID YOU PURCHASE THE 1990 MUSTANG LX THAT YOU RACE NOW?
I bought it brand-new in 1990 from a local Ford dealer near our home in Barnesville, Ohio. I test drove one and then ordered mine new. I wanted a 5.0L, 302 cubic-inch engine with a five-speed transmission. You could get what they call a 201A package with air and power windows and mirrors. I wanted white for sure, because I always had white cars, and I wanted a black interior. I ordered it in December and got it in early April. As soon as it came off of the truck at the dealership, I didn’t let it go through clean-up at the dealership because I wanted to clean it myself.
DID YOU KEEP IT STOCK FOR A WHILE, OR DID YOU START MODIFYING IT RGHT AWAY?
I kept it stock for a little while, but not for long, because there was so much I could do to it. I added underdrive pulleys, swapped cams, changed the rear end ratio and other things, and I had it at the track within a month. I would drive to National Trail, change the tires and bypass the power steering to free up horsepower. Back then, if you wanted traction, you bought sticky tires, and I had a set of McCreary tires. The car ran 12.40s with air-conditioning and cruise control, and I loved that it still had all of the creature comforts.
WHEN DID YOU BEGIN TO REALLY RAMP UP YOUR RACING PROGRAM?
Things started getting more serious when I replaced the stock engine with a 347 cubic-inch engine, and raced at the Civil Wars in 1997 at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina. They had an Open Comp class and that was my first exposure to Open Comp. Then I raced in bracket classes at various tracks, and I raced Fun Ford Weekend just twice. I raced in World Ford Challenge, and I won at that event in 1998 at Beech Bend Raceway in Kentucky. That is where I met Steve Wolcott for the first time.
WHEN DID YOU BEGIN COMPETING IN NMRA ARP OPEN COMP?
That was at the race at Maple Grove in Pennsylvania in 2001, and I won. I was lucky enough to win because I had a little experience running the category at Civil Wars and World Ford Challenge. I like the .500 pro tree. I immediately knew that NMRA would be a great place for me to be, and I have been with the series ever since. I have also competed in NMCA MagnaFuel Open Comp, but I consider NMRA home.
RULES OF THE CATEGORY REQUIRE RACERS TO KEEP ONE DIAL-IN FOR THE WHOLE RACE. HOW DO YOU FOCUS ON ACHIEVING THAT THROUGH WEATHER CHANGES AND TRACK CONDITION CHANGES?
I like that aspect of the class. It is important to me. That is part of being a driver’s class. You have to be on your game and adjust your car without using throttle stops, air shifters or electric shifters. It is a transbrake, footbrake class, and that is why I like it so much. I use a secured weight box, and some racers will pull timing. It is very challenging and so competitive, and the top end packages are tight.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE COMPETITION AND WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO STAY COMPETITIVE IN NMRA ARP OPEN COMP AND NMCA MAGNAFUEL OPEN COMP?
It is some of the toughest competition I have ever seen, and you have to be as dialed in as your car at all times. I was qualified in the lead spot with a .002 reaction time after two rounds of qualifying at the race in Michigan last year, and I told my friends that someone was sure to have an even better reaction time and get by me in the final round of qualifying, but nobody did and I remained the number one qualifier. At a different event, I had a .004 reaction time and I qualified in the ninth spot, so not really that close to the top. It is tough competition.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN COMPETING IN THE CATEGORY?
I would ask him or her about their car, and give them the basic parameters of the class. I would tell them that it is based on a fixed index minus a tenth and lay it all out for them. There are a lot of bracket racers who say Open Comp looks easy, but it is not, and I would tell them that so that they are prepared and not surprised. You can race what you have at home and start learning.
HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED MOVING TO A DIFFERENT CATEGORY?
No, I really haven’t. This is where I am staying. It just suits me, my car and my equipment, and I’m really happy where I am at.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR GOALS FOR 2024?
I don’t want to make any mental mistakes on the starting line, and I want to learn from losses. I want to make a run at the championship.
WHO HELPS YOU ALONG THE WAY?
I appreciate the support I receive from great companies like MAHLE, National Parts Depot, Richmond Gear, VP Racing Fuels, Dynamic Racing Transmissions, Weldon, Mickey Thompson and Bellstores, which is a new marketing partner that I am proud to say that I just recently welcomed. I am looking forward to another great year of racing.
(Interview from June 2024 Fastest Street Car)