‘I’ve Had to Ruffle Feathers’: Shea Holbrook Gets Real About Being a Woman in Car Racing (EXCLUSIVE)
The race car legend opens up about her docuseries, motherhood and pushing boundaries
Start your engines! Racing champion Shea Holbrook is giving fans a front-row seat into the life of a female race car driver in her new Amazon Prime docuseries, First to the Finish. Holbrook and her team take viewers into the world of professional race car driving and show people how high stakes getting behind that wheel can be. Woman’s World recently sat down with the driver-turned-team owner to learn what viewers can expect from the show’s second half, which airs Wednesday, April 16, and how life has looked for the mom of two since her career skyrocketed. Scroll on for more.
Inside ‘First to the Finish’: What to expect from the Amazon Prime series
First to the Finish follows Holbrook as she tries to transform her newly established team into the winning racers at the Mazda MX-5 2024 Cup Championships.
“I hope it’s not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it certainly feels like it is,” she shared. “To see it go to the big screen is incredible. It’s a wonderful opportunity for our business, our culture, the motorsport industry and particularly for women in motorsports.”
In the show, Holbrook’s journey mainly centers around her turning in her steering wheel for a spot on the sidelines as she begins her journey from champion racer to the owner of BSI Racing.
“There’s a lot of parallels that people wouldn’t recognize from the outside looking in, but race car drivers, especially aspiring professional race car drivers, have to learn to be business minded and an entrepreneur from the very beginning of your career to have success early on, because it takes business sense to be successful. So the parallels of pivoting into the professional team side of it was a natural progression for me,” she said. “And the fact that we’ve had this all highlighted in a docu-series is really captivating.”
The realities of being a woman in motorsports
Holbrook began racing at age 16 and has since won several different races and even set the world record for bicycle land speed at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Aside from her accolades, she is also pretty recognizable for being one of the few highly successful women in a male-dominated sport.
“I have had wonderful experiences. I think some of it is my approach and my adaptability to people that allows me to build relationships, trust and rapport,” she said. “I knew pretty early on that to be invited to the table, I had to produce, not just on track, but off track. That put me in the room of executives and boardroom meetings, allowing me to move from a professional race car driver to a team owner.”
“I will say, I think on the ownership side of moving into business, I’ve probably had a little bit more pushback. There’s doubt. I think I threaten a lot of people. I think many people know that I’ve had to ruffle feathers along the way to move up in the industry and make sure that I was being taken seriously through earning their respect.”
Now that she has, Holbrook said that one of her main priorities is making sure that other female racers know that they can succeed in the racing industry as long as they remain vigilant.
“Stay focused and follow your dreams, but seek support and align yourselves with industry professionals. Push the envelope and ask the questions,” Holbrook advised. “You can’t be afraid to pitch, ask, build relationships and rapport, and sell yourself. As you go through this sponsorship process, make sure you’re thanking every person who says no, because you’ll probably get 100 nos before you get a yes. So you should thank everyone for the no, because you’re that much closer to the yes. You just have to be relentless. You have to have tenacity. You have to push forward.”
Shea Holbrook on balancing racing, business and motherhood
Beyond being a former racecar driver, team owner and docuseries star, Holbrook also has another role: being a wife and mother to two young kids.
“I think it’s hard to be 100% invested on the business side and 100% invested on the parental side, because with owning a business, work never stops, but parenting never stops either. You have to blend, adapt and prioritize what is most important in your life,” she says. “I think for mothers, where they lack is self-care. You’re always doing so much for others, and no matter what it is, you’re caregiving, but you don’t give as much back to yourself.”
“I’m 35 years of age, I’m gonna go as hard as I can for as long as I can, because when I’m 60, I’ll want to slow down a little bit. So, the balance is tough. But you must have a good balance and work through passion and love. I love my kids, I love my husband and I love my business. So if I do it in love, we’re all winning.”
Because of her work, Holbrook said that both of her kids love the Disney movie Cars, and she cannot wait for them to grow up and experience life behind the wheel for themselves.
First to the finish is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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