Mopar® Magazine Contributor Shepard Inducted into Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame

The crop of 2009 inductees into the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame included a name Mopar Magazine readers are very familiar with: MM Performance Writer Larry Shepard. The Shelby Township, Mich., resident was among a group of ten inductees scheduled to be honored during a ceremony on November 1 in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.

“When I first heard that I was going to be inducted into the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame, I was overwhelmed,” said Shepard, a renowned former Chrysler engineer. “It is such a great honor. But at the same time, I know that it is really a team award and much of the credit goes to the many people that I worked with at Chrysler, Mopar, Direct Connection and Mopar Performance. I have been lucky to work with many great people and I’ve had great teachers. My thanks to all!”

Shepard’s career at Chrysler began in 1968. He organized and spoke at Chrysler Drag Racing seminars which took place in major cities each year from 1968–79. Shepard was the assigned factory engineer that assisted on Bob Glidden’s 1979 Pro Stock championship when Glidden competed with his Plymouth Arrow, and also assisted on Darrel Alderman’s Pro Stock Dodge Daytona in 1990–91 and 1994. Shepard worked as engineer for the design of the current Mopar HEMI Pro Stock engine and was fundamentally responsible for “bringing back the 426 HEMI” with new parts availability. He also was the engineer/developer of thousands of high performance and racing parts for Mopar.

Ramchargers and Chrysler racing legend Tom Hoover has referred to Larry Shepard as “our minister of information.” Shepard spent 33 years at Chrysler, from 1968–2001, and is a prolific author, with over 35 technical racing and engine design/building books to his credit. He has written his “Tech Insider” columns in several magazines for more than 20 years.

For more information on the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame, visit www.mmshof.org