Sports
Shannon McIntosh: Indy Car Racer Now Calls St. Pete Home
The recently transplanted Indy Car driver has aspirations of winning the Indy 500, in between jogs around Vinoy Park.
She’s 5-foot-1, 21 years old, and looks like the kind of sweet girl you would want your son to date.
But get her on a racetrack, and Shannon McIntosh turns from innocent-looking prom material to a driver who can go toe-to-toe with the biggest and baddest guys in her sport.
“I remember I was 11 (years old) and I started racing against men, and I was the only female… and I would laugh about everyone looking at me,” she said at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg kickoff luncheon on Thursday. “It’s definitely a challenge and I like a challenge.”
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The Ohio native has been driving since she was 5 years old and she already has over 100 victories under her belt in the Quarter Midgets and USAC Midget series combined.
But the 2006 DARF Asphalt Driver of the Year winner decided to set her sights on bigger prizes in her sport, so she moved up to the USF2000 series last year, which is two steps below the top-level Izod Indy Racing League.
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After living in Indianapolis for a while, McIntosh got tired of the cold and wanted to be closer to her sponsors and team, so she moved to St. Petersburg in December; she now lives just a few blocks from the site of the Honda Grand Prix.
“I love it,” she says of her new home. “The weather is amazing. It’s been awesome.”
A workout fiend who frequents CrossFit9 and often jogs along the waterfront, she says she “will have to walk to the track one day just so I can say I did it.”
As she climbs the ladder of big-time motorsports, comparisons to Danica Patrick, another petite female driver who has taken on the men with gusto, are inevitable.
Asked about the comparisons, Shannon is respectful of Patrick, but not to the point of idolizing her.
“The further up I go, the more I understand that it’s hard being in the spotlight 24/7, especially when everything you do is criticized or looked at. So I have respect for her. But I’m my own person. I’m very set on being an individual and being myself.”
Her manager, Klint Briney of Branded Management, agrees.
“I think the comparisons (to Danica) are inevitable, but she always says ‘I’m the first Shannon.' ”
Whether she becomes the next Danica or the first Shannon, one thing is for sure -- she will be calling St. Petersburg home for the foreseeable future.
“It’s soon going to be the racing capitol of the world…instead of Indianapolis," she says.
