Shane Lewis Earns First Pro Pole For MINI

HOMESTEAD, Fla., March 27, 2004 - With a lap of one minute, 32.521
seconds around the newly reconfigured Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS),
Shane Lewis became the first driver to win the pole position for a
professional race in North America driving a MINI Cooper S. Lewis, a
resident of nearby Jupiter, Fla., drove the No. 20 Nuzzo Motorsports/
Habberstad MINI Cooper S to a Sport Touring (ST) class track record
besting the old qualifying mark by nearly three seconds and bettering
his nearest competitor by over one second. Lewis and team owner/
co-driver Tony Nuzzo (Glen Head, N.Y.) will take the green flag in
tomorrow's Grand-Am Cup 250 three hour event at 12:30 pm (EST). 
 
Shane Lewis:
about qualifying: "Sometimes you've got to 'think small' before you can
go big. That was the balls-i-est lap I have ever turned at Homestead.
Period. I had three of my competitors come up to me and say 'you are one
brave man.' I knew what it was going to take to put it on the pole and
that was a lap you could never turn in a race. I knew what I was doing
but I knew there was an extremely high risk factor in that lap. The crew
guys did an awesome job. Tony and Nuzzo Motorsports have stayed behind
this program since the start of last year when it would have been a lot
easier to give up. I wanted to see if I couldn't give them something
back. We have new help from RPM Racing starting with this race and they
have done an amazing job!" 
 
about racing the MINI Cooper S: "We knew the platform of the MINI Cooper
would be an awesome race car. It is still our goal to be the first team
to win a professional race in the States in a MINI Cooper but now I can
say I was the first guy to put a MINI Cooper S on the pole for a
professional race. We think we have a great race car for tomorrow and I
am eager to get out there and show how good of a car the Nuzzo MINI is."
 
Shane Lewis has been racing since 1989 with multiple race wins in
Grand-Am sanctioned events, in the IMSA Supercar and SCCA Pro Series and
the Historic SportsCar Series. He has starts in ARCA stock car
competition, at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and is a former Daytona
Endurance Champion and Formula Ford Festival winner. He has driven in
seven Rolex 24s and three 24 Hours of Le Mans- leading the race in GT
class in 2003. He has two overall and one class-victory at the 24 Hours
of Nelson Ledges. Lewis was honored as the 1998 Professional Sports Car
Racing Rising Star award winner. Lewis also serves as a test driver and
private coach. In 2004, Lewis is the lead driver of the No. 7 Southard
Motorsports/ PAP Parts BMW FABCAR in the Grand American Rolex Series. 
 
For more on Shane Lewis please see www.shanelewis.com. To learn more
about Nuzzo Motorsports, please visit www.nuzzomotorsports.com. For more
on the MINI Cooper S, see www.miniusa.com.