Dernières Nouvelles

Shea Holbrook in a light moment before the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park race

Take the Pirelli World Challenge and the K&N-sponsored Shea Racing Honda team. Immediately after their race ended on Sunday they had to load-up and drive from Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Ontario, Canada, to Lime Rock Park in rural Connecticut, ready to load in on Thursday morning. That’s not much of a break for anyone. But Shea Racing was undeterred and unperturbed.

In Canada, the good news was that Shea Racing's Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car program earned the first victory of the season with Tom O’Gorman driving the new Honda Civic Si, starting from the pole to win Sunday's Touring Car A race.

O'Gorman earned the pole position not through qualifying but by setting the fastest lap in Saturday’s race. In addition, he brought his Honda Civic Si home to a fourth-place finish.

O’Gorman was actually lucky to be in Saturday’s race at all. Several laps into the race, several cars collided and collected O’Gorman as he had the bad luck to be in the same area of the racetrack. The race was red-flagged. The problem that faced Shea Racing is that the Civic Si had not yet reached showrooms so repair parts were extremely limited.

Just as it looked all was lost, a Honda of Canada employee drove by in a new Civic Si. Happy to assist (of course, as A. he’s from Honda, and B. he’s a Canadian) the team start disassembling his street car with the promise they’d put it all back together when they were done. “We basically needed everything forward of the radiator from the passenger car. Body work, arm supports, and various front end parts to put the race car back together again,” O’Gorman said.

Tom O'Gorman gave the new Honda Civic Si its first victory in Pirelli World Challenge

Where the weekend had been pretty lucky for O’Gorman, it was hardly the case for new recruit to Shea racing, Sarah Montgomery. On Saturday she barrel-rolled her Civic and while uninjured in the crash, but was unable to answer the bell for Sunday's race. If you’re keeping track, that’s two cars rolled in two weekends.

Team owner and driver Shea Holbrook ran her Honda Accord from 19th on the starting grid to ninth in Saturday's TC race, but then she had her own drama. "What I thought was a tire going down was actually a caliper on fire," Holbrook explained. "Rubber coming off of the rain tires collected in the caliper and caught on fire. No problem except that I couldn't turn the car!"

The entire Shea Racing team was looking forward to a drama-free weekend at Lime Rock, a race that’s run on a tight schedule as racing is not allowed on Sunday at the facility. Everything had to be squeezed into two days.

Tom O’Gorman moved into fourth in the standings with his 2017 Honda Civic Si as he took third after starting fifth. Tom nearly scored a podium finish in Friday’s race as well, but a valve stem was broken in contact with another car in Turn Three, forcing him into the pits with a by-then flat tire.

Team boss and driver, Shea Holbrook, demonstrated her and the Honda Accord’s competitiveness in both Touring Car events. Shea made up three positions from her starting position in Friday’s opening race and gaining five spots over her grid position in Saturday’s event. The tight 1.47-mile race course made passing opportunities hard to come by, but Shea made the most of the opportunities that presented themselves in both races.

Shea's Touring Class Honda Accord gets a full alignment to maximize performance

“We made some minor handling changes for race 2, which made my Honda Accord virtually flawless,” reported Holbrook. “I was able to put the pressure on a little harder, and I know we could have run higher, but we feel good about our consistency on what was our best weekend of the season so far.”

After two races jammed together the team will have a lengthy midseason break to prepare for its next event, as the Touring Cars do not compete again for a couple months at Utah Motorsports Campus.

Drivers from the K&N Pro East Series gather at St. Jude Children's Hospital

Before the race at Memphis International Raceway, the K&N Pro Series East drivers who participated had a chance to visit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital with the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program.

Rev Racing owner Max Siegel promotes the Drive for Diversity program helping ethnic minorities and women drivers and pit crew members start their careers in NASCAR.

Before the race on Saturday, the drivers and Rev Racing personnel visited the hospital campus to boost the spirits of the children and families who are sick and battling health problems, and to learn more about how they can make an impact and to educate themselves on what St. Jude does.

Drive for Diversity drivers at St. Jude Children's Hospital

K&N also distributed tickets to over 50 St. Jude and family members. The race on Saturday was the Memphis 125 at Memphis International Raceway, won by K&N Pro Series East driver Harrison Burton. K&N also gave one family the chance to be in the infield and spend time with the drivers and specific NASCAR personnel.

“It’s a privilege to engage St. Jude in this way and to provide this opportunity to families and staff through our organization,” said Hodges.

Chad Wienen roosted his way back onto the podium at Muddy Creek Raceway

In moto 1, Wienen got a good jump off the gate but as the lead pack came around the first turn, he was pushed to the outside. He dropped back into fourth place where he was planted for the remainder of the first lap.

Wienen maneuvered his way into third before the end of the second lap. From there, he continued to pressure the rider in second until he was able to make a pass with 5 laps to go. Wienen went on to take second place in moto 1.

More excitement and drama were in store in the second moto. As the gate dropped for the second race, Wienen once again got a good start off the gate. However, halfway up the Muddy Creek holeshot he was hit from the side and almost came off of the machine. When Wienen was able to recover and regroup, he was well back in the field.

Wienen is in hot pursuit of the AMA ATV MX Pro National Championship

Just before the halfway point in the moto, Wienen worked his way into fourth where he remained for three laps. He was able to make a pass into third where he found himself four seconds behind the rider in second.

Wienen started clicking off the distance on his Yamaha YFZ450, and with one lap to go he was less than a second behind the second position racer. Unfortunately, he was unable to make a pass before the checker came out. He finished with a well-earned third in the second moto.

"I was fortunate to get on the box this weekend after a near get off in the moto 2 start,” Wienen said. “I felt good on my Yamaha this weekend.”

Wienen is excited to get his ATV onto very familiar ground for the next round of the AMA ATV MX Pro National Championship. The series reconvenes at Sunset Ridge MX in Walnut, Illinois.

Chad Wienen is flying high on his K&N-equipped Yamaha YFZ450

To get more performance out of your late model Yamaha YFZ450, take a look at the K&N YA-4504 performance air filter.

ATV MX Pro National Championship Leaders:

1st - Chad Wienen – 208 points

2nd - Joel Hetrick - 201 points

3rd - Jeffrey Rastrelli – 164 points

4th - Thomas Brown – 162 points

5th - Nicholas Gennusa – 153 points