Tom O’Gorman Earns Lime Rock Podium With New Honda Civic Si
• Backs up previous week’s Touring Car A victory with podium finish
• Shea Holbrook gains spots in both weekend Touring Car events in Honda Accord
• Contact in opening race dashes hopes for two podium finishes for O’Gorman
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (May 30, 2017) – Shea Racing’s four-car Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car program was reduced to just two Hondas after rollover incidents in each of the year’s first two weekends, but the team soldiered on in its march toward the front of the grid last weekend at Lime Rock Park.
Tom O’Gorman extended his recent run of successes by putting his 2017 Honda Civic Si on the podium for Saturday’s race, finishing third after starting fifth. The Shea Racing pilot nearly scored a pair of podiums, as he ran as high as second in Friday’s race before he suffered a broken valve stem after contact in Turn Three, forcing him to pit with a flat tire.
The podium finish moved O’Gorman into fourth place in the standings, and came on the heels of his scoring the team’s first win of the season with the Civic Si a week ago in Canada.
“With the release of the all-new Civic Si, now on sale on dealer floors, we certainly wanted to couple that with a podium finish,” said team owner Shea Holbrook. “We’re in a very good position with the Civic Si and we have our eyes set on a championship.”
Team owner/driver Holbrook gained spots in her Honda Accord in both Touring Car events, making up three positions from the starting grid in Friday’s opening race and gaining five spots in Saturday’s event. The tight 1.474-mile race course made passing opportunities hard to come by for Holbrook, but she made the most of the chances given in both races.
“The Honda Accord showed a lot of promise, as we were quicker than our immediate competition exiting the Lefthander, creating passing opportunities for me onto No Name Straight,” Holbrook shared. “Running a clean race while taking every opportunity to advance was a key for us this weekend.”
Holbrook made enough advances to finish 16th in both races, taking honors as the highest-finishing Honda in the first race and running the fastest lap among Hondas in the second event.
“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.”
The team will have a lengthy midseason break to prepare for its next event, as the Touring Cars do not compete again until August 11-13 at Utah Motorsports Campus.