Holbrook: Racing Return “Gift” to Myself in Homecoming Weekend

Photo: BSI Racing

Shea Holbrook said being back in the driver’s seat in professional racing for the first time since 2019 feels like a “gift” to herself after a five-year hiatus saw her focus on expanding her BSI Racing team and start a family before returning to make her Toyota GR Cup North America debut at Sonoma Raceway this weekend.

The 34-year-old was a regular in Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car competition and most recently taking part in the 2019 W Series season, and American Formula 3 racing before she purchased BSI Racing in 2021, having started a family with her husband Nick Chorley.

This weekend will mark Holbrook’s return to pro racing as she competes BSI’s No. 67 Toyota GR86.

“It’s been an awakening,” Holbrook told Sportscar365. “I kind of feel a little bit like 2008 when I first started driving again, because it’s been so long.

“It’s been just over five years, but it’s good. I haven’t athletically challenged myself since I had kids and started the business on the BSI side of things. So the challenge is awesome, and that’s the part that I enjoy.

“I don’t really have intentions to be back for long. This is more for fun and just rewarding for me. My 35th birthday is coming up, and this is my gift to me in some ways so it’s cool. I’m excited.

“This is a little bit of a homecoming, too. Greg Gill, Staci [Langham], and everybody that runs this series are people that knew me in the infancy of my career when I first started. It’s a homecoming for me and Toyota welcomed me with open arms.”

While Holbrook doesn’t anticipate a full-time return to racing, she has commemorated her GR Cup entry as a mother of two this weekend with special designs on her fire suit and a “Mom Life” livery on her GR86 machine.

“I have my kid’s drawings on my suit,” she said. “I would have never have done this years ago. I have this ‘mom life’ livery [on the car]. It’s for me. It’s strictly for me and I think it’s kind of cool.

“You don’t see female drivers that come back after they have families. Just because your mom and you’re a business leader and you’re an owner doesn’t mean that you have to stop following your dreams and passions of why you came into the industry.

“I want to put the business first, but I wanted to get back in a car for me. That ‘mom life’ livery is a testament to remember why you’re here in the first place, why you fell in love with the industry, why you fell in love with the sport.

“The reason why I gave up racing for as long as I did was because I didn’t want to take away any percentage from building the business, building the programs, working on my drivers, working on customer support and factory support and aligning ourselves and manufacturers.

“On top of it, what people forget is I have to go home and be a mom. 
I have two really young kids. I have a three and a five-year-old, so there’s no sleeping. We’re 100% all the time.”

As the team owner of BSI, Holbrook not only oversees a three-car GR Cup stable, but also a significant presence on the MX5-Cup grids and single GSX class entry in IMSA’s VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.

“BSI and being BSI built is about developing the youth of the sport and developing the future champions of the sport,” she said.

“GR Cup has become that breeding ground. It’s so much harder to go to a spec series and compete every single weekend head-to-head against some of the youngest developing drivers in the country.

“It’s proven in GR Cup, anybody in the top ten truly can win. The driving product that comes out of GR Cup and these spec series just completely amplifies how good you can become in that next category.”