MEDIA RELEASE- For Immediate Release, December 23

LEWIS RETURNS TO BACCHUS MARSH WITH A TOP 5 FINISH

Ian ‘The Fly’ Lewis had not raced at Bacchus Marsh’s Rolling Thunder Raceway for some years, however was strong immediately as the car hit the large newly reopened complex last weekend.

The night got off to the worst possible start when in the hotlap practice session prior to the heat races, Lewis tangled with the slower car of Matt Bourke and flipped the Adtrans, Camden Neon Signs, J&J Auto Racing car.

“Definitely not the way to start any event off, but fortunately the damage could all be repaired. Your always careful in hotlaps but you want the most track time you can get to make sure the car is set up perfectly,” said Lewis.

Donovan Meaney, Shane Bowers and the team replaced the front wing, top wing, front end and birdcage just to have the car fit and healthy to attack in the upcoming all important heat races, where Lewis would start mid pack out of sixth and seventh.

‘The Fly’ pushed hard in both eleven lap races to secure fifth in each heat race, only a fraction slower then what the fastest cars were achieving out front on a clear track.

Two top five finishes secured Lewis as the eleventh highest points scorer and placed him out of sixth in the A Dash to determine the inside row starting positions of the A-Main.

In the space of six short laps, Lewis finished in third position just behind Mike Van Bremen, which put ‘The Fly’ out of fifth position in the twenty-five lap A-Main.

The feature race started off well for Lewis who stayed in his starting position and battled on to work his way into third place with only ten laps remaining.

A possible podium finish fell back to seventh though, when Lewis was caught out high on the speedway and was immediately passed by a close battling field of cars behind.

“Everyone was running the bottom of the speedway as that was the fastest line, so the second the car was stuck out high there was nothing I could do to stop the cars coming past.”

An incident with a few cars ahead with only a handful of laps remaining pushed ‘The Fly’ into the top five to end a storyline that seemed to have a slight obsession with the number five and the Adtrans, Camden Neon Signs, J&J Auto Racing car.

The team now prepares for what is undoubtedly one of the toughest weeks of racing in any sprintcar season, with the SRA Eureka Garages and Sheds series at Avalon Raceway on December 26, which Lewis currently leads over Allan Barlee, followed by the remaining races of World Series Sprintcars Jumbuck Speedweek.

Team owner Dave Challons and the Camden Neon Signs Racing team would also like to wish everyone in the speedway community a Merry Christmas this weekend and a Happy New Year.

Camden Neon Signs 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.