Shane Lewis Eager for Nighttime Homestead Homecoming

by Thomas Moore

HOMESTEAD, Fla., March 23, 2006 � Shane Lewis is making his Southern Florida homecoming at this weekend's Linder Industrial Komatsu Grand Prix of Miami here at Homestead-Miami Speedway. While the Jupiter, Fla. resident knows the 2.3-mile Homestead-Miami infield road course as well as any driver in the country, Saturday's third round of the Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve will be a first for Lewis. The event will be the debut of professional road racing at night on the South Florida track. As he has the past three seasons, Lewis will again pilot the Southard Motorsports No. 3 TrueChoice Motorsports BMW-Riley in the Daytona Prototype class.“Racing at Homestead at night is going to be cool,” said Lewis. “I love night races and I love Homestead-Miami. This brings it all together. This is our first night race here and the infield is going to be a real challenge in the dark. It's going to give the drivers and the fans something new to get into. It should be a really good show from the stands and the cockpit.”The multi-time Grand American sanctioned-event winner will be joined behind the wheel by John Pew (North Palm Beach, Fla.) in the 250-mile or two hour, 45-minute race. It is Pew's first career start in the Daytona Prototype class while Lewis has driven at Homestead-Miami, a facility he considers his home track, in nearly every Grand American weekend here.“I'm looking forward to racing with John at Homestead,” continued Lewis. “I think he'll be a great fit with Southard Motorsports. He has a lot of racing experience in formula cars and some in sports cars. Those two things are a good combination to have when you come in here to race a Daytona Prototype. We seem to be getting along well and we're both looking forward to racing in front of our hometown crowd.”The Grand Prix of Miami will take the green flag at 6:30 PM (ET) on Saturday March 25th. The race can be seen on a tape delay basis at 8 PM (ET), March 25th on SPEED Channel. Live timing and scoring of all sessions and the race can be found at www.GrandAmerican.com. For more on Shane Lewis please see www.ShaneLewis.com. Southard Motorsports can be found at www.SouthardMotorsports.com.###