Bakersfield Speedway
Shannon closes in on first Western Allstars title
By Kevin Kovac
Western Allstars DIRTcar Late Model Series
Chris Shannon gives son J.D. a lift earlier this season. (K.C. Rooney)
Chris Shannon must only start the Western Allstars DIRTcar Late Model Series season finale Sept. 20 at Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway to clinch his first career tour championship. But of course, the 41-year-old driver from Merced, Calif., isn't looking to do the minimum necessary. He wants to end his memorable Western Allstars campaign with a flourish in the $2,000-to-win feature event.
"I think it would be the cat's meow if we can pull off a win in the last points race," said Shannon, who is still chasing his first career victory on the 3-year-old series. "It would be the perfect cap on our season."
A remarkable string of consistency has put Shannon in position to capture his first points title of any kind since he raced go-karts 25 years ago. He owns 13 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes in 17 Western Allstars events. "We haven't won a race this year, but we've been good just about everywhere we've run," said Shannon, who owns three runner-up finishes this season, including one on May 24 at Bakersfield. "I think we've shown that we're capable of winning, so we just have to take that next step and get the job done.
"I'm hoping Saturday night (at Bakersfield) will be our night to get that win. We've had some good runs there this year (four top-fives and a seventh-place finish in five starts), and we've been working on our car all week trying to get it right for Saturday night."
Shannon spent most of the 2008 Western Allstars schedule chasing Bobby Hogge IV of Salinas, Calif., who leads the tour with six wins, in the points standings. But Hogge's absence from the last tour event at Bakersfield allowed Shannon to grab the points lead by 54 markers.
Now Shannon enters Saturday's season finale with control of his own destiny. He sits on the verge of winning the West Coast's most high-profile dirt Late Model championship just three years after ending a decade-long hiatus from racing.
A former competitor on pavement with the NASCAR Southwest Tour in the early- to mid-'90s, Shannon stepped out of the cockpit after the 1995 season to focus on his long-running family business, Shannon Pump Co., and raise his family. He returned to the track in 2006 in the DIRTcar Modified division before moving the following year to the dirt Late Model class, which he had dabbled in during the early moments of his career.
Shannon, who campaigns a family-owned Victory Circle Chassis machine that carries power from a motor built by Steve Allen Racing Engines of Murphy, N.C., is now firmly entrenched as rising star in the West Coast dirt Late Model ranks.
"These Late Models are the most exciting cars I've ever driven in my life," said Shannon, who finished second in the 2007 Western Allstars DIRTcar Late Model Series points standings. "I'm really looking forward to racing them for a long time."
Shannon will face plenty of competition in Saturday night's program at the high-banked, one-third-mile Bakersfield oval. The list of pre-race favorites is headed by Hogge, who has won three Western Allstars events this season at Bakersfield, and A.J. Kirkpatrick of Castroville, Calif., who owns two wins at the track in '08, including last month's Labor Day Classic. Drivers who will be out to defend their home turf on Saturday include Bakersfield residents Zack Forster, who sits fifth in the Western Allstars points standings, John Piker, Robert Sanders and David Childress.
