Cris Dahlgren

Cris Dahlgren (born January 10, 1962) is a former American race car driver who drove the #98 super sportsman at Stateline Speedway in Busti, New York and Eriez Speedway near Erie, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Henry W. Dahlgren a Dairy farmer in Busti New York and Sondra Nelson a retire home health care specialist living in Frewsburg New York.
Career
Dahlgren began racing around his fathers barn on his tricycle at age 4 and showed his mechanical interest by disassembling and re-assembling it. He was given a mini-bike at age 8 and later a 90cc Kawasaki street bike to ride in the pasture at age 12. When Cris turned 14 he had three field cars and was ready to move to real racing. His father stated once when asked about why he let Cris race "Cris was getting crazy on his motorcycle and I just figured that being inside a car was a lot safer!" Henry allowed Cris to help bale hay and sell it to pay for his first race car. The car was a Sportsman car that Cris built but incidentally never drove. in 1977 Cris began construction on a 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Cadet class car. He had made friends with new neighbor and long-time sponsor Joeseph W. Casel at Casel auto wrecking. Cris campaigned the Monte Carlo for two years before building a 1972 Chevrolet Nova. This was the first unibody car in the class at stateline. Cris had to specially re-inforce the frame to get it to pass tech. In 1983 Cris moved to a 1973 Nova with a full frame using the Nova Frame stub and fabricated rear section. Rules had been changed to allow for this type of car. Cris raced with the like of Brad Clark, Chub Frank, Ed Osborn and Terry Uplinger, and Pat McGuire.
Cris had a limited racing schedule after graduating from college in 1895 and ran a Pontiac Lemans until a short layoff. When Cris returned to Jamestown in 1988 he bought a TCB chassis from driver Les Lyon and built a Buick Regal to run with first a small block Chevy then a Buick 455 engine. While cris had little success with the 455 as it was never machined and balanced properly he did run a few good races with a 327 engine. His best run was a post season race at Stateline in 1991 where he ran 2nd the entire race and repeatly bumped the leader (track chamoion uplinger) to pass. While this tactic seemed to be poor sportsmanship Cris was simply trying to rattle uplinger into making a mistake so he could pass on the inside. Uplinger held firm and Dahlgren settled for second.
After another layoff to start a family, Cris returned to stateline with the second full season of the new Super-Sportsman class cars. Cris had a specially modified home built 3.1L engine and came away with the 1998 track championship in the class. 1999 saw another change in Cris causing a limited schedule again but he won several races that year. Cris then switched to a new idea for a smaller lighter chassis with new sponsor Keogh Electric however Cris never tuned the chassis properly to realize the chassis full potential. He did win several races with it before retiring after the 2001 season.
When asked if he would race again: "I don't see myself making that type of commitment. However when I retire in 2020 I may just pull a Dick Litz and be a 59 year old out there with the kids!"
Personal Life
Cris married the love of his life, Judy (Lapp) Dahlgren in 1993. He raised her two children Ricky Dahlgren (b. 1985) and Melissa Gifford (b. 1988) and had a natural daughter Jennifer in 1993 with Judy.
After being schooled at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, Cris lived in Cleveland Heights with two former roommates. Just out of school, he worked at a local eatery called Turkey Ridge prior to spending about 4 years as a manufacturing engineer before returning home to Jamestown New York. Cris then spent about 5 years as an auto Mechanic at Casel Auto before going to MSS to be a fabricator. MSS is Motor Sport Service in Jamestown New York and specializes in Saab performance equipment. It is owned by Jack and Pat Lawwerence as a LLC.
Cris found his final calling as a Professional Fire Fighter in 1999. He worked on the trucks as a firefighter until 2007 when the Fire Alarm and Maintenance Supervisor position became available and Cris fell back to his Mechanic/Fabricator/Engineer work history to work in this position. Cris completed the NEIMSA school for 100mil and Level 1 technician at the end of October 2009.

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