Shane Lewis Ready for First Mexico Appearance

by Thomas Moore

MEXICO CITY, Mexico, November 1, 2005 � Shane Lewis, Jupiter, Fla., is hoping that a trip south of the border will give him his first Daytona Prototype (DP) victory of the season in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series. The Rolex Sports Car Series 250 at Autoromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico will be the season-finale for the DP class and the organizations first race in Mexico. Lewis, who grew-up in the Southern California town of Lancaster but never raced south of the state line, is coming off his highest finish of the season in the No. 3 PAP-Parts/ OZEXE Southard Motorsports BMW-Riley at Virginia Int'l Raceway (VIR). The second-year combination of Lewis and Southard Motorsports ran sixth there adding to 10 other top-15 finishes in 2005. That success, added to Lewis's natural ability to adapt quickly to new racetracks, gives the multi-time winner of Grand American-sanctioned events a great deal of confidence entering Saturday's race.“Any new racetrack, where very few teams have tested, puts a premium on driving and evens the playing field a little. Add to the equation that we get only a handful of practice sessions and it makes it even more important to be on top of your game. I left VIR with a tremendous amount of confidence and I know the team wants a win as bad as I do. I understand we are expecting a huge crowd of fans for the weekend as well. It pushes you even harder when the stakes are high and you have a big crowd with lots of energy! I'm looking forward to going to Mexico to race for the first time. It should be a great event." Added to the difficulty of the weekend is that the 250 mile or two hour, 45-minute race, will see only two short, one hour practice sessions before a single 15-minute qualifying session and 45-minute race morning warm-up. Teams and drivers will have to learn the 2.786-mile course quickly.Lewis is currently ranked 14th in driver points having moved up one spot following VIR. He is currently nine points outside the top-10 with 35 markers available for the win. He gained an impressive 15 points on the tenth spot at the last race. SPEED Channel will broadcast the race live starting at 4 PM (EST), Saturday, November 5. Live timing and scoring can be found at www.GrandAmerican.com beginning with Friday's first practice at 8:30 AM local time/ 11:30 AM EST. Qualifying is scheduled for 1:10 PM, Saturday. For more on Shane Lewis please see www.ShaneLewis.com. Southard Motorsports can be found at www.SouthardMotorsports.com.###