TULSA, Okla. — Shannon McQueen has been driving midgets for a long time and as she stood outside her trailer inside the Tulsa Expo Center Wednesday a simple glance around reminded her how much had changed.
She first came to the Chili Bowl in 2005 and was invited to participate in a special event for female racers. It turns out that most of the women really weren’t thrilled with the idea.
“We were all kind of like, ‘Hey, we don’t want to be segregated,’” McQueen recalled. “We thought we’re here, and after all, we all put our suit on the same way.”
McQueen’s parents got her in a quarter midget by the time she was six. They saw the handwriting on the wall. She weighed 36 pounds and it was already clear that she wasn’t going to be a future volleyball or basketball star.
The goal was simple, the McQueens wanted their daughter to develop a competitive edge. That mission was soon accomplished. As a five-foot-tall dynamo, in 2011 McQueen became the first woman to win a Bay Cities Racing Ass’n midget championship and pulled off the same feat in the USAC Western States Midget Series one year later.
Yes, she has been a trailblazer and as she looks around at the number of women competing at this year’s Chili Bowl it makes her smile.
“Every year there are more women and I have had the pleasure of having some really good shoes in my car like Harli White. Kaylee Bryson drove for me before she went over to Toyota and did a phenomenal job and, obviously, I have raced with Michelle Decker for a long time,” McQueen said. “When I finally step out of the seat, I really want to develop a female driver and give someone the opportunity.”
For McQueen, it all comes down to creating opportunities, but she realizes this is the ultimate bottom-line game.
“Once you put your helmet on no one knows if it is a guy or a girl,” McQueen said. “Look at Kaylee Bryson. You go and talk to her, and she is very mild and quiet, then she puts a helmet on, and she becomes a beast behind the wheel. There has never been a female driver on the pole at the Turkey Night Grand Prix and there she was along with Taylor Reimer on the front row. That was just huge.”
For McQueen, who is a successful accountant by day, the long-term goal is to give back to the sport.
“I am fortunate to have a lot of firsts behind my name,” McQueen said. “If Kara Hendrick would not have gotten killed, I don’t think that would have happened for me because she was a phenomenal talent. I’m so grateful to have had people like Kara kick down doors for me, and I plan to carry on that tradition and help others.”