Shane Lewis, Homestead Ironman

Homestead, Fla., September 19, 2004 - While other drivers were being
pulled exhausted from their Daytona Prototypes barely an hour after the
drop of the green flag at today's Miami 250, Shane Lewis, of Jupiter,
Fla., ran the full event by himself. The three-hour Grand American Rolex
Sports Car Series race, delayed one week because of hurricane activity,
started at 11 am (ET) in nearly unbearable heat. With temperatures in
the triple digits and high humidity, the closed-cockpit No. 7 PAP-Parts/
AutoAssets.com Southard Motorsports BWM-FABCAR was a grueling
environment as Lewis fought to a 14th-place finish. Lewis, a multi-time
winner in Grand American sanctioned events, was fighting past the heat
on his way to a solid top-ten finish when a crankshaft trigger sensor
overheated. The subsequent repairs caused a long stay in pit lane
ruining any chance for a top-finish for the Southard entry. Lewis would
cross the finish line 14 laps down to the leaders as the only driver to
complete the full distance without a co-driver. 

 

Earlier in the day Lewis had assisted Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS),
the City of Homestead and Farm Share in a special hurricane relief
program at the track. Lewis made a donation and met with race-goers who
were also making donation to help those in Florida devastated by three
consecutive hurricanes that ravaged the state in the past two weeks. 

 

Shane Lewis: "I'm whopped! That was the hardest thing I might have ever
done in a race car. Our car was good today, not great, but good. I knew
I was driving the whole distance on my own and the inside of these cars
is incredibly hot. So, we were playing our strategy and then crankshaft
trigger sensor went. The Southard crew worked really fast to get it
replaced but that put us a lot of laps down. It was an uphill battle
from there but we never gave-up. We just kept digging and got to the
finish. I'm going to sleep well tonight."