LEWIS OVERCOMES MANY HURDLES TO CAPTURE ASA WIN

SNOHOMISH, Washington -- Two races this season have equaled a pair of late model victories for three-time late model touring champion, Gary Lewis-but both have come in the face of tremendous challenges.

Just a few weeks ago Lewis overcame a sub-par race car in practice to dominate the Big Sky 150 at Mission Valley Speedway in Pablo, MT. The ARCA West Late Model Challenge Series victory came after two failed attempts to get the 2008 season underway due to rainouts in Monroe, WA and Wenatchee.

Last weekend Lewis and his Frontline Security/Sunbelt Rentals team found themselves faced with another rain deluge on Friday prior to the ASA Northwest Tour event at Pacific Raceway’s road course in Kent, WA. With one day of practice, qualifying and a 40-lap main event, the team knew it could be one long Saturday afternoon.

With a strong Chevrolet Monte Carlo in practice, Lewis was working to dial in his set-up when an incident forced the team to the pits for a lengthy repair and touched off a bit of doubt in the 38-year old driver, he explained.

“You have to go to every race with the mindset that you can win otherwise you’re already starting off on the wrong track. After the wreck in practice I did start to wonder for awhile if we were out of contention. After all the hard work the team put into fixing the car and making sure the settings were to the best we could get them I started to get my faith back that we were still in the hunt.

“When we got back on the track after the wreck to qualify I just went for it and we had the Frontline Security/Sunbelt Rentals car right back where we left off,” Lewis said.

One challenge the Sign Factory USA pit crew faced was working together short-handed and finding three appropriate spotters. Chuck Pickens, the longtime spotter for the team, competed in the ASA event forcing Lewis to bring in a few new faces, he said.

“Actually everything came together great with our spotting challenges. My Dad, Ralph, was able to be the primary spotter in the stands and Kelly Hale from Evergreen Speedway was at the far end while Bryce Christianson, a long time racer, covered the back portion of the track. All of them did a great job for us last weekend.”

While the team was able to overcome the challenge in the spotting area, the need for extra hands to make repairs to the car became apparent after the practice incident. Lewis was grateful for the help other teams provided to make the victory possible, he noted after the race.

“Everybody on this team and some others jumped right in to help get this car fixed back-up. I would like to thank each of them for getting us back on track. Rick Suran loaned us a right front spindle and guys from Pete Harding’s crew joined our team to thrash on the car with us. I owe all of them a big thank you!”

Lewis and team will take this weekend off in preparation for the ARCA West Late Model Challenge Series event June 21 at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval. Their ARCA late model Impala is race ready, but, the team is not sure what the next event for the Touring Monte Carlo will be.

“We’re really not sure what’s next for the Tour car. We have talked about selling it as a road course car or even converting it back for racing on ovals; we’re just not sure at this point. This has been a great car for me and we have won many races with it so it’s going to be tough to get rid of.”

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