Team E3 Racing winner Shea Holbrook hit the Richard Petty Driving Experience at age 16 and never looked back.
Shea Holbrook recently experienced the “best five laps of my life,” she says. While walking the paddocks at the Homestead-Miami International Speedway during a Formula and Automobile Racing Association event, she spotted her dream car – an Audi Sport Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) racecar. As luck would have it, she knew the team and car owners, and thus scored the chance to take it out on the tracks for a few laps.
“The sensation of driving the ‘Batmobile’ came over me because everything is pushed back a few feet,” Holbrook writes in her racing website blog. “I’ve never felt more comfortable in a racecar than driving this one. Cool, calm and collected I roll out of the pits. Getting a feel for the car, aggressively grabbing the upshifts with my foot to the floor and then punching the downshifts as fire lights under my butt (exhaust comes out the side of the car rather than the rear) I feel at ease.”
Holbrook’s passion for racing is evident just from reading that quote. And it’s clear that she’s a natural at her sport. That’s why she’s the latest Team E3 Racing Tier 1 winner.
Holbrook first discovered her passion for driving at age 16. While her friends were just happy to get their driver’s licenses, she was ratcheting things up with a Richard Petty Driving Experience at the Daytona International Speedway. And that was it – She was hooked. Soon, Holbrook was racing high performance driving events throughout Florida and gunning for her Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) license. She since has been road racing competitively nationwide, with event ranging from sprint races to 25-hour enduros.
The gorgeous Groveland, FL resident holds several firsts in her racing career. In 2008, she became the first female alternate for the 2008 VW Jetta TDI Cup, and in 2011, she became the first woman to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach in a touring car during the 2011 Pirelli World Challenge season – making her one of just four women to ever win at the track alongside Katherine Legge, Dancia Patrick and Simona De Silvestro. Other bragging rights include the Sobre Rodas Talent of the Year Award in 2007; Women in the Winners Circle (Lyn St. James Foundation) recipient of the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Scholarship in 2008; Optima Batteries Best Standing Start Award and the Sunoco Hard Charger Award in 2011; and Living Legend Honoree Award at the Live Your Legacy Summit in 2012.
Holbrook is a formidable competitor off the tracks as well. She’s an accomplished national competitive water skier holding numerous state, regional and national titles. But she’s got a soft heart when it comes to charity. Her team, Shea Racing, partnered with Frito Lay Corp. to raise $12,500 for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and has helped to raise thousands of dollars for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, which benefits Duchenne muscular dystrophy – a condition that affects her own family. As if that’s not enough, she recently earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Interpersonal and Organizational Communications with a minor in Marketing from the University of Central Florida. For her accomplishments was featured in the Women in Motorsports SuperCars Super Show Exhibit and Teen Vogue magazine.
From all of us here at E3 Spark Plugs, congratulations and welcome to the team, Shea!
