VIR Koni Challenge
Shane Lewis; Driven To Perfection
By Tom Moore
ALTON, Vir. – The name Shane Lewis has become synonymous with perfection on the track. Car owners from around the world of sports car racing know that if they want the very best behind the wheel, the Jupiter, Fla. resident is THE driver to go to. This season Lewis has proven that again with an unexpected victory coming in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series ST feature at Homestead-Miami Speedway driving the HART Honda Accord and a top-four at the Grand-Am Rolex Series Daytona Prototype class season finale at Miller Motorsports Park piloting the No. 3 PLP/Southard Motorsports Lexus-Riley. This Saturday at Virginia International Raceway, Lewis will closeout the 2007 KONI Challenge Series in pursuit of another victory in the No. 22 Redline Oil/Honda of America HART Honda Accord with co-driver John Schmitt (Sunbury, OH). The six hour Street Tuner (ST) race begins at 3 PM.
Lewis began his racing career in California in 1989. By the end of his rookie year he held two regional Formula Ford Championships and walked away with the prestigious Formula Ford Festival trophy. The following year the personable driver stepped-up to assist a team in an amateur 24 hour race. The team had no plans for Lewis to compete in the race; his job was to be there as an alternate to the professional drivers hired to race. After one practice session Lewis was quicker than all of the team’s paid drivers and was tabbed to drive the car in qualifying and the race. Today, he has 24 24-hour endurances races under his belt including two 24 Hours of Le Mans and eight 24 Hours of Daytona. He has also added six 12 Hours of Sebring to that impressive record as well.
Lewis’ exploits quickly skyrocketed as he was invited to join more and more teams in higher classes of the sport. He drove his first professional race in 1990. As he continued to add victories to his resume his reputation as a development driver also grew. Teams began to seek out the always-smiling driver’s unique blend of talent to race and skill to understand and explain what a car is doing. In fact, Lewis was hired to be the test driver for McMullen Publishing as Don Alexander researched the world-renowned book Performance Handling for the 90's. The same skills have made him a natural driving instructor and coach.
“I have been instructing for nearly as long as I have been driving race cars,” reflected the multi-time Grand-Am race winner. “I hadn’t even driven for a year before I was asked to come over and maintain the school cars out at Willow Springs. Then, next thing I know, I am teaching others. I think that the teaching, and building my first two race cars myself, was what really taught me the basics in car dynamics and communication. When I was first asked to teach I was a little worried about how I would do. I mean, I have no real background in showing others how to do what I do. I just do it. But, once I got into it I really began to enjoy it. The look on someone’s face when they correct a spin or take their first corner flat is really gratifying. I get the biggest kick out of that. You really feel like you are helping someone else’s dream come true whether it is to win the Indy 500 or just be better prepared for the highway.”
The 1998 Professional Sports Car Racing Rising Star Award-winner would continue to hone his art behind the wheel and was asked to join other teams and manufacturers. He has driven for many of the great organization in auto racing including racing and developing cars for Riley & Scott Europe, Pilbeam Racing America, Mosler Automotive, Saleen, BMW, Southard Motorsports and now HART’s Accord. He is one of the few drivers to have competed in all styles of cars currently running in North American sports car racing: Daytona Prototype, Rolex GT, KONI Challenge GT and ST, LMP1, LMP2, GT1, GT2 and SPEED World Challenge.
With multiple Grand-Am, IMSA and SCCA victories to his credit, Lewis has begun to expand his attentions to include other forms of the sport.
“I love to race and that is all there is to it,” remarked Lewis. “I want to win and so I won’t just race whatever comes along. But when I am in the car I work to get the most out of it no matter what it is.”
Indeed, Lewis has done just that. He has impressed his fellow drivers in every form of the sport including treks into NASCAR, ARCA and wins in the Historic Stock Car Racing Association (HSCRA). He returned to his open wheel roots with an Indy Pro Series ride at Homestead-Miami Speedway earlier this season and is currently working to enter next year’s Indianapolis 500.
“The challenge of the sport is always new and that is why I cannot ever see myself getting bored with it or lazy about it,” enthused Lewis. “Every time you slip into a car you are faced with something new. I don’t think I have ever raced or tested a car that I haven’t learned something. The same holds true when you teach. When you are explaining something to someone else it makes you sit back and think about it. You usually understand it in a way you hadn’t thought about before. I think racing is truly unique in that respect because you have to judge every situation differently because no two scenarios are ever the same. That is the sort of thing that gets me up in the morning or at 1:15 AM at Daytona in the cold and rain when all you want to do is sleep!”
Shane Lewis has stood on podiums around the world, including the great tracks of American like Daytona and Watkins Glen and Europe such as Silverstone and Nurburgring. He has faced and conquered the physical and mental challenges that auto racing throws at a driver. He has trained hundreds of other drivers at schools across the country and in his personal, one-on-one instruction and coaching efforts. He truly loves the sport and that is what feeds his desire to spread the word and hand down some of his knowledge to aspiring drivers.
“I always wonder whenever I get a new 16 year old driver behind the wheel of a race car or even a guy in his 40s or 50s… ‘is this going to be the one that I have to out-race to take the title in a few years?’ Really makes you wonder if you should teach them all that you know? It might come back to haunt me in a year or two.”