Mr. Jason's Wild Ride flipped the car over seven times before coming to rest. He walked away. | There are good days and there are bad days. Then there are really bad days. For Shea Holbrook, Jason Fichter, and the team at K&N-supported Shea Racing that day was Saturday during the first Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) race of the season at Virginia International Raceway.Jason, who is Shea’s teammate, and drives an identical TC-class Honda Accord, was approaching a slower car in the multi-class race when the door was shut and he was left with nowhere to go but the edge of the track. What he hadn’t anticipated is that it would quickly turn into a slide across the grass, then catch his wheels in some obtrusive aspect of the terrain and initiate a series of seven gut-wrenching flips. Following a few positions behind was Shea, who watched the entire sequence unfold and can be seen driving her race car up next to his within moments of Jason’s car landing on its wheels. Jason walked from the car, was taken to the track medical center, and then to the local hospital, where he was diagnosed with some bruising, particular on his coccyx. There was no evidence of a concussion. 
Shea Racing Driver Jason Fichter seen here in an interview during the previous season | As the crash was captured by Fox Sports it appeared on websites around the world, often with the word “lucky” describing Jason’s escape. In fact, luck had nothing to do with it. First off Shea credits the strength and integrity of their race-prepped Honda Accords, which are not heavily modified from their street cousin. Second is the roll cage structure. The team knew how to fabricate a cage but wanted the strongest, stiffest cage possible. They brought in Brian Nightingale of Race Craft, a legendary cage designer and fabricator. Rumor has it that when Brian was four years old he was given a sent on Tinker Toys and immediately started building a roll cage. Seriously, it’s hard to find a top team on the Pirelli World Challenge grid where Brian didn’t have a hand in their cage design and fabrication. 
New driver Sarah Montgomery has honed her skills in Mazda MX-5 Cup competition | Shea said that when they got the car back to the shop and the team had a chance to evaluate what, if anything, could be salvaged from the car that they measured the roll cage and found it hadn’t been displaced a single millimeter by the brutal rollover. Shea feels vindicated authorizing the extra expense of having brought in Bill in that what he created was truly a survival cell.The third factor Shea points out is that both car and driver are equipped with the latest safety equipment – internal padding, racing seat, harnesses, etc. Clearly a factor in Jason’s emerging from the car on his own power was his wearing of a HANS device. Shea is a big believer in the HANS device and suggests them to her students when she’s coaching them on track days. In fact, she became a HANS dealer just so she could have a few units in stock if a customer needed one, and as it’s not a profit center for her, tries to make them as affordable as possible. 
Honda now offers a Civic Si body-in-white for road racers, rally drivers, drag racers, and more | After Jason’s crash during Saturday’s race, the race was stopped and restarted. Shea finished 20th.On Sunday, the second day of the double-header, Shea still managed to finish 16th behind a phalanx of 10 factory-built BMW M235iR models, a Porsche Cayman, three factory-built Audi RS 3 LMS, and a Lotus Exige. Surprisingly her fastest lap was within about 3 seconds off the fastest of the BMWs, and was just 22 seconds in arears at the finish. 
Tom Gorman debutted the new Civic Si in its professional debut in the Pirelli World Challenge | What should have been the headline of the weekend was that Shea Racing was named Honda’s Anchor Team for All Touring Car racing in North America and in addition the team was running two TCA Honda Civic Si race cars in the TCA class. One, driven by team newcomer Sarah Montgomery, is a well-developed ninth-generation Honda Si. The second car is the new tenth-generation Civic Si driven by team stalwart and 2016 TCB Champion Tom O’Gorman, and was debuted at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, and is also available from Honda Performance Development as a body-in-white. 
For the time being, Shea Racing will be a one-car team in PWC TC, but likely not for very long | Besides featuring a more sophisticated chassis, the tenth-gen car is also turbocharged. Concerned about letting the fox into the hen house, PWC officials had been very conservative in the Balance of Performance (BOP) measures they’ve applied to the new car and it may take several races for the right formula to be arrived at for the car to be truly competitive. As it was a two race weekend for the TCB class as well, Tom finished ninth on Saturday and 11th on Sunday. Sarah put in an excellent effort in her first Pirelli World Challenge with the team to finish fifth on Saturday and 10th and second Civic in a class dominated by Mazda MX-5s on Sunday. Shea Racing will next compete at the Pirelli World Challenge weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (formerly Mosport Park) outside of Toronto in both TC and TCA classes. It’s unknown at this time if and when the second Accord can be rebuilt. And building a new car in the middle of the racing season is a difficult task for even the best-staffed teams. So it remains to be seen when Shea Racing will next be entering a Honda Accord. In the meantime, Shea will continue to take on the challenge of the BMWs and Audis and do her absolute best to represent Honda, Bubba Burgers, her other sponsors, and of course, K&N Filters. |
