Shannon Meakins

Shannon is married to Kali Hovey – #22 and has amassed quite the travelers history. Both Shannon and Kali have travelled extensively with more trips to come.

Shannon has had 18 years of personal involvement in speedway. He started out racing at the tender age of 12 years old in the Standard Saloons Juniors and by 14 years old, he was racing Standard Saloons and ASCF Juniors on the same night and then driving in Crash N Bash the next weekend. He had obviously accrued a lot of experience in various classes by the time he turned 18.

At age 18/19 he met the 2 loves of his life.

SDAV Hot Rods and Kali Hovey – #22.

The Hovey’s gave him his first taste driving a Hot Rod.
Being “young and bullet proof” he gave it a go and the rest they say is history.
Within a year he had brought his own car and officially joined the Hot Rod family. He has never looked back.

Shannon has won some of the most prestigious awards in racing. The ones that mean the most to him are winning SDAV’s The Victorian Title, The Legends Cup, Club Championship, Thunder Down Under Series, King Of The Rods Show Down and being back to back winner of The Ray Welsh Memorial and for the Standard Saloons, King Of The Valley and The Lachlan Howie Memorial.

His greatest rival is none other than SDAV’s own president Phil “The Dark Horse” Jenkins – #3 because “you kinda know what most drivers are going to do and how they are going to drive but with Phil, he could be right next to you or right on your rear crash bar and you wouldn’t have a clue till it’s too late…”. Or if you ask some past commentators it is Dean West – #4 where the rivalry is so real between them, they hate each other. Nothing could be further from the truth though! Dean and Shannon are great mates.

When asked who his most respected competitor was he answered he respects all his fellow competitors because “it takes time, effort and balls to do what we do..” A truer story has never been told. To race a Hot Rod takes tremendous skill, strength, determination and courage. But his most respected competitors are Russell Hovey – #25 because of not only what he does on track but also what he does off track. 

His favorite food is scotch fillet steak with mushroom sauce and chips and he loves a top shelf bourbon or Irish whiskey – just don’t ever offer him a scotch! His favorite dessert is warm sticky date pudding. He doesn’t really have a favorite sport but when asked who his favorite football team was, he chose the Geelong Cats because his Nana would disown him if he didn’t.

Shannon is sponsored by Pizza Box Norlane and Ribeau Transport.

When you come to the pits you may think you’re about to meet Peter Parker with his Spider-Man car but in reality, while Shannon may be a superhero in Kali’s heart, he is also a really top guy who is always more than happy to stop for a quick chat and let you have a photo opportunity with his awesome car.