St. Petersburg, FL – Holbrook’s 2011 World Challenge race season kicked off this past weekend on the high speed Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 1.8 mile temporary street course. With prior track experience at St. Petersburg, Holbrook and team were ready to take to the streets in their No. 67 Honda Civic Si fueled by MYPLUGGZ.com, Lucas Oil, K&N Filters, and Wealth Shield Financial.

Holbrook has created quite the fan base for herself and team throughout the past year and it showed at St. Petersburg. Car and trailer rolled in early Wednesday and by Thursday fans were asking, “Where’s Shea!” Round one of the World Challenge season started Saturday as a record braking 48 cars took to grid. Holbrook qualified 13th with a best lap time of 1.29.6. “I knew I had more in me and the car. We tested the weekend before and the crew put a great set up on the car. I also knew I could get a great launch off the start of the race. Nothing could hold me back,” Holbrook said. Holbrook was right about having a great start. By lap seven Holbrook confidently held onto 7th place. This street course has many blind corners especially the seven to nine complex. An incident happened in turn nine which caused a three car pileup, and Holbrook being the third car got caught up in the mess. “I was having an amazing race till this happened. I’m just happy everyone was okay. It was a hard hit.” Holbrook gave a wave and smile to the crowd of fans who rose to their feet and clapped as drivers walked away.

At this point the race weekend was over for Shea Racing. If you know Shea, you know she’s never sitting still. Holbrook four hours later, still in her racing suit, walked the paddock trying to find a ride for Sunday’s race. The Compass 360 Honda team had a spare car at the track. Team owner, Jeff Holbrook worked a deal to get his driver back into the seat but there was one problem, they didn’t have the funds to do so. And so it became a “Cinderella Race Story.” Through fan support Holbrook gathered funds to put her back into the race. “I did something entirely out of my character. Last year I met the greatest fans and one family in particular, the Gilbert family. I tracked them down late Saturday, told them my situation and asked for help. Mr. Gilbert smiled and told me he wanted “Gilbert Girls” on the side of the car.”The new car put Holbrook to the back of the pack and in a car she had never raced in. Starting 16th in touring car Holbrook was able to get to mid pack by the third lap. Caution flags came out and as cars gather for the restart Holbrook defended her line. “For a car I’d never raced in I felt extremely comfortable. I had to bring it home for the team and the Gilbert family,” Holbrook said.

Holbrook proudly finished 8th place and climbed out of the car with a fist pump to the Gilbert Girls watching. It’s not too often that you hear of a story like Holbrook and the Gilbert Girls. It just proves World Challenge has the best sports car fans in America. Holbrook is off to the Streets of Long Beach for round three, April 15-17, 2011.

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