MEDIA RELEASE- For Immediate Release, November 3

LEWIS TAKES A KNOCK AT THE MASTERS

Fresh from a convincing win at Avalon Raceway the week prior, ‘The Fly’ was hoping for some better luck at Speedway City last weekend in his brand new Adtrans, Camden Neon Signs, J&J Auto Racing car.

Ian Lewis’ confidence was a lot higher after the brand new 2005 J&J chassis was a rocket and was showing some real speed heading into the annual Sprintcar Masters.

‘The Fly’ was coincidentally the 18th car to take to the track in time trials and immediately set the third fastest time of the session with a 12.626 second lap on his last trip around the circuit. With a few cars still to run, Lewis ended up in eighth position in a very competitive and close session.

Starting out of fifth place in his first heat, Lewis immediately was on the pace to sit in fourth after the first lap, but heading into turn one disaster struck ‘The Fly’ when another car tagged the left rear tyre and sent the car sideways where it ended up flipping.

“It’s definitely unfortunate what happened. We struggled here last season with the old car but the new one is a lot different and we started the night well with a decent time trial result, so we were looking quite strong to run in the A-Main,” explained ‘The Fly’.

Lewis was fortunately unharmed in the accident but the brand new Adtrans, Camden Neon Signs, J&J Auto Racing car was looking very second hand, with the front wing and top wing completely crumpled after absorbing the brunt of the landing.

The entire team was straight back to the pits to start repairs on the car and after realising the rear axle was bent, it was a mad rush to make the start of the B-Main, with only seconds remaining before the pit gate was closed.

“It’s not what you would say is the perfect race preparation after just bolting the thing back together, so we were always going to be on the back foot to make the transfer.”

Starting out of third place and needing to finish in the top two places to transfer, ‘The Fly’ was unable to get his race underway after many early race stoppages saw the race declared after only four laps, where he was running sixth after getting sideways in turn two on a very slick track.

“Four laps makes it pretty difficult to transfer and the track was very slick so passing was not going to be easy off the fastest line.”

One positive is the team resolved their last round engine heating troubles after sending crew chief Donovan Meaney to Adelaide’s Maxwill Engines before the event, to review the fuel mapping.

“We’ve bought an engine warmer as well and there were no troubles at all with how it ran at the Masters, so we are fairly sure that issue is sorted. Tim Shaffer’s crew chief, Shane Bowers arrives in Australia this week as well, so everything is still looking very positive,” explained team owner Dave Challons.

The team now has a short break before their next race at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway on November 26.

Ian Lewis Racing is sponsored by Adtrans Truck Centre, Camden Neon Signs, J&J Auto Racing, Elf Race Fuels Australia, Cascade, Panna Cranes, The Metric Men and Transport Equipment Hire.