The Australian has been United States-based for the past five year and has raced on most of the well-known circuits in North America.
Most recently he debuted in the one-make Lamborghini SuperTrofeo North American Series at the Circuit of the Americas.
He partnered with amateur racer Brady Golan in the Pro Am class. The duo were in one of the Forte Racing entries and had former Supercars driver Alex Premat as a teammate. Forty-three cars competed in the race weekend at CoTA as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Lone Star Le Mans event.
The pair started and qualified second fastest in class. An issue at the start of the first race saw the Shields drop to 35th, but they he fought back to hand over to Golan in a strong position, which allowed the duo to finish sixth in class and ninth outright.
For the second 50min race Golan started and handed over to Shields to cross the line fifth in class for 11th overall.
“It was a fantastic weekend working with Brady and Forte Racing,” said Shields.
“It’s extremely rewarding to work as a coach and professional co-driver. You get to see the development of other drivers and help to foster their career growth as well.”
“Brady had a very mature drive, and it shows what he will be capable of in the future.”
Racing in the series for the first time, Shields and Golan leaned on their more experienced teammates, especially Premat, who has been with the team for a couple of seasons.
“I’ve been good friends with Alex (Premat) for a couple of years now, so it was fun being on the same team as him.
“He actually assisted in bringing in the new engineering crew for our car, all of which were from France, so there was definitely a language barrier communicating on the radio! But Alex helped us through it.”
Shields is looking to expand his endurance program, with one track in particular on his wish list, Mount Panorama. It is a venue he didn’t get to race in his time in Australian Formula 3 and Formula 4.
He began racing in the US in 2019 in the F2000 National Championship. He competed in Indy Pro in 2021 and has since done IMSA SportsCars. He is a driver coach, and professional co-driver with several endurance races in the US planned this year.
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