Chris Shannon Claims First JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Win at Whittemore

Chris Shannon earned his first career JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour victory on Saturday, winning the Fourth Up North 104 at Whittemore Speedway.

Shannon inherited the lead with 51 laps to go, following an incident involving Chase Burda and Steven Ulman as they battled for the top spot. From there, Shannon led the rest of the way and took the checkered flag in the contest.

Shannon started at the rear of the field after pulling out of post-qualifying impound to diagnose what he called a "gremlin" on his No. 32. While he and his team weren't able to completely resolve the issue, they clearly did well enough to give him a winning car on Saturday night.

"It was still not 100 percent," said Shannon in victory lane. "We've still got a gremlin in there somewhere. It's way better than qualifying, for sure. I'm glad we pulled out and took this hot rod to the front.

"I didn't think we were that good, but he just kept reading me gap after gap after gap. I'm like, alright, I guess we are that good."

The win is also a critical one as Shannon is part of a three-way battle for the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour championship. Shannon entered the evening tied for second in points with Keegan Sobilo, eight points behind Billy VanMeter.

"We gained a few on them, at least," said Shannon. "It's not like they had a bad night, but we're going to celebrate."

VanMeter finished second, preserving some of his points advantage with the runner-up finish.

"My slide earlier with Ulman heated up the right rear, and I never really got it back," said VanMeter. "Overall, the car was pretty good. I think if that doesn't happen, we could compete with Shannon. I probably could have kept the lead from him. It's unfortunate, but I'm happy he won. I'm happy that I came out of Whittemore my first time and have a perfectly good car and a P2."

Burda rebounded from his incident near the halfway mark for a third-place finish. At one point, he thought he could contend for the victory in spite of the spin, but the wear on his tires from the impromptu slide proved too much.

"I kind of thought so at the beginning when we were sixth on that one restart and got to fourth," said Burda. "I think just when he got into me, I was trying to save it and I killed the right rear, kind of doing that, or overheated it.

"I was trying to save as much as I had, because I knew we had one more yellow. I got around the 77. I just couldn't get around Billy or Shannon, doing it the right way. Hats off to Shannon. They bust their butts every weekend and they definitely deserve it, and Billy had a good run."

Despite the battle ending in contact and a spin, with Ulman accepting blame for the collision, Burda shared how much he enjoyed the fight for the lead before that.

"It was cool racing with Ulman there," said Burda. "I don't think I've ever really raced someone that hard for 20 laps and not lean on each other or whatnot. Just sucks that's the way it ended."

Sobilo finished fourth, with Dylan Stovall rounding out the top five.

The next stop for the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour is Owosso Speedway for one of its biggest races, the Masters of the Pros 200. Both Kevin and Keelan Harvick are slated to appear in the prestigious Pro Late Model event on Wednesday, July 16.

-Photo credit: Eric Young/CRA

Fourth Up North 104 Unofficial Results