Connor Cantrell
Age: 17
Home: Valencia, CA

Connor was born September 9th, 1990, and he turned 9 years old on 9-9-99 (and you wonder why he likes 9). On his first birthday he received a ride-on car he would spend practically every moment on until his 2nd birthday when an electric powered car took its place. That kept him occupied until he was six when a 50cc motorcycle took over, and by age seven an old fun kart launched his passion for car racing. Connor started racing officially at age 8 at Saugus Speedway in the Los Angeles Kart Club where he won the Jr-1 Championship two years later. From there it was on to the National Circuit in IKF Region-7 and the World Karting Association where he was also very competitive and posted a 4th place National ranking in his final year with the WKA West.

Stock Car Racing has always been the goal, but he needed to be 14 in order to get past karting. He did however try ‘Mini-Cup’ at age 12 where half-sized stock cars could be raced, and more suited for kids. In his first race there he completely blew away the field at Orange Show Speedway not once, but twice, and then decided lapping the field was not much fun or improving him as a driver. It was back to kart racing until a more competitive venue could be found.

In 2005 he became eligible for Legends Cars (14 yr old minimum). The Series was open to anyone 14 and over so adults were part of the program and Connor competed against men two, and three times older than himself. These cars race Nationwide, are very popular, very competitive, and many of today’s top stock car drivers have come from that series. 2005 was supposed to be a transition year from the Karts to the faster and heavier Legend Cars but Connor wasted no time at all as he posted six top 10's including a win, a 3rd place finish in the Season Point Standings and he won the Rookie of the Year Award. The Win and the Rookie of the Year Award are both Irwindale Speedway Records as Connor became the youngest-ever driver to accomplish those feats at Irwindale. For 2006 in his second year in the Legend cars Connor picked up where he left off by posting two more wins at Irwindale, a win at Orange Show Speedway in his one and only visit there, and then finished 16th out of 74 at the National event in Georgia.

The Legend Cars no doubt prepared him for full size stock cars, and in 2007 Connor was once again at Irwindale Speedway in the King Taco Super Trucks. As a rookie in both full sized trucks and the 1/2 mile the challenge was big but Connor again rose to the occasion by posting ten Top 10's including a 4th place finish, a 3rd place finish, and four 2nd place runs. He also grabbed yet another Rookie Of The Year title and 4th place in the season point standings out of over forty competitors. For 2008 he hopes to contend for a Super Truck Championship and possibly run a few races in a Late Model Stock Car in preparation for 2009.

Connor has a true passion for this sport, and whether or not the big time is ever attained you can rest assure he will be racing some-thing, some-where, for life!

Connor also does well in school and enjoys Snowboarding, Skateboarding, and Wakeboarding in his spare time.

He is an 11th grader, and has two younger brothers, and one younger sister.