Shea Holbrook is finding the proper balance as a driver and team owner, but when the green flag waves, she’s only focused on racing.
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In December of 2009, when we first meet with Shea Holbrook, her teen years were barely behind her, yet she was already a luminescent blip on racing's radar. She had just won her class in a FARA 3-Hour endurance race and then followed that up with a second place in a 6-hour race. Holbrook had also managed to raise a huge chunk of money for the Susan G. Komen charity. At the time we declared "...she is without question the real deal - a champion both on and off the track."
Shea Racing Touring Car and Touring Car B-Spec Honda drivers earned valuable championship points at Lime Rock.
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We didn't have to wait long for her to make good on that prognostication, when barely sixteen months later, she won the 2011 Long Beach Grand Prix in the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car division. Mind you there were many other racing victories and milestones between these events - the point is, Shea Holbrook's racing IQ continues to evolve at a blistering pace.
Shea Racing is now a burgeoning four driver team, and the Shea Racing Touring Car and Touring Car B-Spec Honda drivers recently scored valuable points to move up in the Pirelli World Challenge Championship at the Lime Rock Grand Prix. Shea Holbrook also improved her position in the No. 67 Honda Fit, as she started eleventh, and worked her way up to a fifth place finish in race one. In race two she ran as high as third place, ultimately finishing fourth, just shy of the podium. And, that's where we started our conversation this time around.
Lime Rock is infamous for being physically and mentally tortuous, yet you figured it out quickly, how'd you do that?
"Luckily, I was able to test prior to the race weekend which helped tremendously, as it takes a lot to be fast at that particular track. In a TCB car you're flat out from the exit of T3 to the braking of T1, and Lime Rock only has 7 turns! It's one of those tracks where you either have them or not, and by "them" I mean "steel ovaries!"
P.J. Groenke was a bit of a wild card in the beginning said Shea Holbrook, but he quickly bonded with the team.
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How does it make you feel to have your entire team put together such a solid showing at Lime Rock?
"It feels great knowing the hard work the team has put in, paid off during that race weekend. Shea Racing isn't a new team, but we're new to a multi-car program. Without our drivers, Jon Miller (Touring Car driver), P.J. Groenke and Brian Fowler (Touring Car B drivers) and partners like TrueCar, Lucas Oil, Hendrick Honda, Radium and K&N Filters we wouldn't have the platform we're able to present today."
It appears as though you're all jelling together very quickly as a team, how's the team spirit right now?
"We really do have a close-knit group of people at Shea Racing. My family plays a very large role, as my dad (Team Principal, Jeff Holbrook) and I own the team, and my mom is in charge of all the logistics, and as we all know, "logistics" can mean many things and many different jobs. Plus our crew guys we practically adopted."
"Jon Miller and Brian Fowler I knew previously, and I knew they would make great additions to the team. P.J. Groenke was the wild card, and we actually met for the first time in person at the first race. We have a solid bond now and want to see everyone succeed, even if we're competing against each other."
Shea Holbrook and Groenke are more than happy to offer a joint autograph.
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How do you like having the team and do you feel it helps your overall efforts on the track?
"There's different ways of looking at owning and racing for your own team. From my experience, and in talking to others in similar situations, the key to everything is proper balance. I recently had a great conversation with Sarah Fisher, ex-IndyCar driver and now team owner, about balance. One thing she mentioned that I couldn't agree with more, was about delegating jobs and trusting people to do their respected jobs."
"One person can't do everything on the team, and when they try, that's when avoidable mistakes start to happen. I've been working on proper balance and I give 100% to both jobs, but when it comes time to do my job as a racing driver, I'm solely focused on that. I didn't really expect so many people to come up to me to talk about the growth of the team and what it's like for me. It reminds me how much I love the people in this industry, because they see the whole picture and what it takes collectively. It puts a really big smile on my face to hear people talking about Shea Racing and the drivers and our sponsors as a whole. We're still somewhat the underdogs and everyone wants to cheer for the underdog. The crew doesn't look at Shea Racing as something I built - they look at it as something we built together - and that's as they should."
What's up next?
"We just finished Round 9 and 10 with Pirelli World Challenge at Mid-Ohio and had a solid points weekend. I scored another top-5 finish securing a 6th place in the TCB Championship. Jon Miller sits in 6th in the TC Championship and P.J. Groenke is 5th and Brian Fowler is in 21st. Currently, we're back in Florida at our home shop, working on cars getting them prepped for the Sonoma Grand Prix August 22-25th." |
