Shea Racing Achieves Success with a Podium Sweep at New Jersey Motorsports Park
Orlando, FL (June 3, 2014) – Shea Racing’s exciting and successful weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park with the Pirelli World Challenge included their first all-team top-five finish, podium sweep and strides up the championship ladder in respected classes.
Shea Holbrook, driver of the No. 67 TRUECar/Lucas Oil/Radium/Women’s Sports Foundation/Hendrick Honda Civic Si, took her third pole position and third win of the season in TCA, now comfortably sitting second in the championship points. Holbrook qualified on pole with a fast lap of 1:31.022 and average speed of 88.989 MPH for Saturday’s Round 5 and ultimately took the checkered flag by a margin of 6.687 seconds. “It was important we do well this weekend as it’s a point’s race for the championship,” said Holbrook. Holbrook started third in Round 6, executing passes and hunting for the top spot where she took the lead on Lap 8. In addition to two first place finishes, Holbrook also was awarded the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for gaining four positions from start-to-finish, and the StopTech Brake Late, Finish First Award for her pass of new teammate Jason Cherry for the lead.
New addition, Jason Cherry, in the No. 13 Autism Society of America/Avpro/Purposeful Architecture Mazda MX-5 had a stellar start to both races, gaining five positions in Round 5 and three positions in Round 6. Both starts were awarded the Optima Batteries Best Standing Start Award. Cherry continued to demonstrate excellence behind the wheel and accomplished a third place finish in Round 5 and a second place finish in Round 6. Cherry has achieved a podium finish in three out of six races in the TCA class, two of which have been with Shea Racing.
“It’s great to get back on podium after some tribulations in Canada. I’m absolutely looking forward to the remainder of the season working with Shea Racing and partners,” said Cherry.
The TCB races were full of wheel-to-wheel action for P.J. Groenke and Paul Holton. The competitive field ran within 0.5 seconds of each other on multiple occasions throughout the weekend.
P.J. Groenke, in the No. 66 Verax.ca/Tundra/Mulligan Gold Honda Fit had an amazing comeback weekend finishing fifth and sixth while being awarded the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for taking seven positions from start-to-finish.
“We never had a dull moment, we definitely had more pack racing this weekend than we’ve had before making it just as exciting to watch as driving probably! Although I didn’t quite get the results I was looking for the performances were great,” said Groenke.
TCB rookie driver, Paul Holton, of the No. 65 Radium/TRUECar/Lucas Oil Honda Fit, made massive strides of improvement running quick all weekend with a fastest lap of 1:40.730. Holton captured fourth in Round 5, his best finish of the season to date, leading Laps 11-15 of Sunday’s Round 6 race where he ultimately finished in seventh position. Holton’s performances have moved him to third in the TCB Championship.
“I’ve proved to myself I can run up front but I’ve also taken into recognition the few mistakes I made which I’ll improve upon. I just can’t thank everyone enough for helping me get here and I’m more determined than ever leading into Road America,” Holton said.
On June 19-21 the Pirelli World Challenge will return the picturesque road course at Elkhart Lake’s Road America for the first time since 2009. The weekend will be the second of four all-class weekends this season.
Shea Racing currently ranks second in the TCA championship with Shea Holbrook’s 639 points, Jason Cherry third with 575 points, Paul Holton with 458 points now sits in third in the TCB championship and P.J. Groenke sixth with 391 points.
Follow the team on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and for more information visit www.SheaRacing.com
Watch on TV
MAVTV Special One-hour TC, TCA, TCB Broadcast from New Jersey Motorsports Park! Date TBA in June.
About Shea Racing:
Shea Racing is a four-driver, four-car professional auto racing team in the Pirelli World Challenge dedicated to achieving paramount success by providing extraordinary racecars and trackside service, incredible branding and marketing efforts and developing a strong foundation to support talented drivers and to elevate our partners. The 2014 season marks the team’s fifth year racing in the series.
