Lewis is hot! Four for six in USAC Western States - By Bobby Gerould – July 17, 2004 – Monroe, WA. …To say Michael Lewis was dominant would be a huge understatement. The Noblesville, IN. pilot lapped up to sixth place in the 40-lap feature race at Evergreen Speedway Saturday evening. The victory in the United States Auto Club Western States Sprint Car Series was the fourth of the year for Lewis. Considering there have been only a half-dozen races so far this season, you could call Lewis red-hot!

"We got a little tight there late", said the winner and defending series champion. "But overall it was awesome. That’s three wins for me in the state of Washington so I like it!"

Six cars were inverted by their qualifying times to start the 23-car non-wing sprint feature race under warm and muggy early evening conditions. Randy Dubois of Paulsbo, WA jumped into the lead from the pole at the drop of the green flag. Rick Hendrix, who shared the front row with Dubois, settled into second place driving the Pontiac powered Ted Finkenbinder #3F.

The race was slowed on lap four when Alan Goetz, and J.R. Ray tangled in turn four on the fast and abrasive 5/8’s-mile gravel oval. On the restart Lewis moved his Western Speed Racing Eagle Wes-Mar #40 to the high groove in turn one. He moved from fifth to third in turns one and two and had second spot locked coming into turn three. The huge crowd responded as Lewis displayed his skill. One lap later, Lewis overtook Dubois for the race lead in turn four.

As Lewis drove away, a tremendous battle for second erupted between Dubois, Hendrix, Brian McClish, Brad Bumgarner, Tony Hunt, and Greg Anderson. Hendrix dropped from the race with a mechanical ill on lap eleven. Bumgarner took the runner-up position on lap 16, dropping Dubois back. McClish also moved by Dubois one lap later.

McClish tracked down Bumgarner and gained second for good on lap 24. Anderson was forced to the pits with an overheating #2 just six laps from the finish. The race ended with Lewis a straightaway ahead of teammate McClish. Bumgarner ran strongly with a solid third place finish in Grandpa Roy’s #88 Beast but his series standings lead over Lewis was narrowed over the weekend to just eight points. Hunt fought his racecar to a fourth place result. Dubois was fifth in his own Dubois Construction / Eagle #79.

Shauna Hogg of Roseville, CA did a fantastic job of hustling her All Phase / Eagle #5 from the final starting spot on the 23-car grid all the way up to sixth at the checkered flag. Lewis earned quick-qualifying honors with a lap of 22.198 seconds.

Up next for the USAC Western States Sprint Car Series is a trip to Salt Lake City for race seven of 15 in 2004. The Rocky Mountain Raceways event is scheduled for July 24, 2004.

Time Trials: 1. Michael Lewis, 40, Western Speed-22.198; 2. Brad

Bumgarner, 88, Bumgarner-22.329; 3. Brian McClish, 80, Western

Speed-22.523; 4. Tony Hunt, 60, Western Speed-22.569; 5. Rick Hendrix, 3,

Finkenbinder-22.643; 6. Randy DuBois, 79, DuBois-22.677; 7. Mike Roberts,

2x, Roberts-22.751; 8. Greg Anderson, 2, Anderson-22.795; 9. Chad Nichols,

7, Scott-22.876; 10. Michael Trimble, 15, Trimble-22.951; 11. Greg Taylor,

47, Taylor-23.105; 12. Mike Murgoitio, 19, Murgoitio-23.150; 13. Rick

Brown, 98 Marquardt-23.164; 14. Axel Walker, 63, McLees-23.362; 15. J.R.

Ray, 8, Ray-23.367; 16. Brian Geiszler, 44, Geiszler-23.477; 17. Allen

Goetz, 50, Goetz-23.500; 18. Craig Deaver, 15x, Deaver-23.559; 19. Chris

Peterson, 18, Peterson-23.610; 20. Destiney Hays, 28, Hays-23.835; 21.

Robert Beck, 03, Beck-23.893; 22. Don Powell, 12, Powell-24.015; 23. Shauna

Hogg, 5, Hogg-24.175; 24. Marvin Mitchell, 68, Mitchell-26.043; 25. Michael

Newman, 9, Newman-NT.

Main Event (40 laps) – 1. Lewis, 2. McClish, 3. Bumgarner, 4. Hunt, 5. Dubois, 6. Hogg, 7. R. Brown, 8. Beck, 9. Geisler, 10. Taylor, 11. Murgoitio, 12. Mitchell, 13. Anderson 14. Powell, 15. Hays, 16. Walker, 17. Trimble, 18. Roberts, 19. Nichols, 20. Hendrix, 21. Petersen, 22. Ray, 23. Goetz.

Lap Leaders: Dubois 1-5, Lewis 6-40.

NEW WESTERN SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Bumgarner-340; 2-Lewis-332; 3-McClish-303; 4-Hunt-288; 5-Trimble-258; 6-Murgoitio-232; 7-Anderson-232; 8-Hogg-231; 9-Taylor-214; 10-Barber-182.

NEXT WESTERN SPRINT CAR RACE: July 24 – Salt Lake City, UT – Rocky Mountain Raceways