BOTHELL, Washington -Current ARCA West Late Model Challenge Series points leader, Gary Lewis, has had things go his way thus far in 2007 when it comes to first time events and new race tracks.
Lewis picked up wins at Spokane Raceway Park and Stateline Speedway in his first trips to the Inland Empire facilities.
This weekend the Sign Factory USA team looks to extend that streak with a win in their first-ever run outside of the United States during Saturday’s Can-Am 125 to be held at Sun Valley Speedway in Vernon, BC.
The .500-mile paved oval will continue to test the merits of the Nutter Racing Engines pit crew and driver, Lewis noted.
“ I just like going to new tracks,” he said. “When you have raced for so many years you really look forward to something new. I have only heard good things about the facility and we’re very excited about our race coming up in Canada.
“I haven’t had much time with work and trying to get the car done and everything else going on in our lives to learn much about Vernon. I got some gear ratios from a couple of people and a few comments about the place from those who know. They say that it has more banking than Yakima or Spokane and it’s very smooth. We will run our standard high speed surface set-ups and then work on it from there.”
With three events left in the 2007 season including this week’s stop Lewis and his team continue to focus on the bigger picture of capturing their first-ever ARCA West championship, he added.
“ The team’s general goals will remain the same for the rest fo the season. We plan to learn as much as we can with our Victory Circle chassis, work hard and have fun at each race, run our usual cautiously aggressive to win approach and if we can do all that then we’ll know we did our best to try and win this championship for our team, the fans and our sponsors.”
Lewis is atop an amazing hot streak for 2007.
Having captured wins in both the ARCA West Series (4) and the ASA Northwest Series (1) coupled with career first in the Montana 200, the Idaho 200 and no finish less than a top-5, the Leary Shock Shop Chevrolet has proven to be more successful than hoped for, according to Lewis.
“Yes in some respect we have done much better than we ever imagined coming into this season,” he explained. “Yet to us we have much more to prove to improve in other areas of our race team.”
Those goals include a win in Canada this weekend followed by top performances in Yakima over Labor Day weekend, he added.
Another area that Lewis would like to improve is getting to know the driver’s of the ARCA West series that he competes with on a weekly basis, he noted.
“We have so many talented drivers in this series. I know Garrett and
Jefferson but unfortunately I have not had the time to get to know all of
the other teams and their drivers. No matter how hard we work during the
week to try and free up some time on the weekend for things like that
something always seems to come up and we end up real busy on Saturday with
little time to talk to other teams.”
