Larson began drag racing as a 16-year-old at Linden, New Jersey in a chopped fenderless 1932 Ford coupe.[2] Over the next ten years, he consistently won at local tracks using that car and later a 1954 Oldsmobile and a 1932 Chevrolet A/Gas coupe.[2] In 1965, he switched from the coupes to a 1963 Ford Cobra and immediately set records in NHRA's A/Sport and AA/Sport classes.[2] He used the car to win the NHRA Winternationals, Springnationals, and U.S. Nationals.[2] Larson was working at a Chevrolet dealership at the time and he formed a Chevrolet-based Funny Car team with Greg Sutliff, the dealership's owner.[2] They built a fiberglass-bodied 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle and toured the country in match races.[2] Larson had a 7.41-second run in 1968 in his Logghe Camaro which broke the all-time Funny Car elapsed time (e.t.) record.[2] In 1969, he received national recognition when he won the Super Stock Nationals at York, Pennsylvania.[2] He added a "USA-1" license plate to his Chevrolets, painted the dragster car red, white, and blue and added "USA-1" decals to the side.
Larson did not have a major sponsor until he found Datcon/Sentry in 1985.[2] In 1988, he switched from Chevrolet to Oldsmobile and teamed up with world champion Joe Amato.[2] The two shared information. Larson won his first national funny car win at the Cajun Nationals.[2] Larson hired Pennsylvania sprint car racer Maynard Yingst as his crew chief to tune and set up the car and moved Don Milletics to the chief engineer position.[3] Larson started 1989 by winning the Winternationals.[2] He won at Springnationals, Mile-High nationals, Seafair nationals, Fallnationals, and the Winston Finals, plus finished second at five additional events.[2] He led the season points standings from start to finish to claim the 1989 NHRA Funny Car national championship.[2] He was voted Car Craft magazine's Funny Car Driver of the Year.[2]
Larson raced his first Top Fuel car in June 1992. He took over "Big Daddy" Don Garlits' car and won 4 IHRA National events when Garlits retired due to a detached retina.[4] Garlits closed his operation in 1995. Larson helped Garlits work on his dragster during his 2002 comeback.[5]
