Shane Lewis Earns First Pro Pole For MINI

HOMESTEAD, Fla., March 27, 2004 � With a lap of one minute, 32.521 seconds around the newly reconfigured Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS), Shane Lewis became the first driver to win the pole position for a professional race in North America driving a MINI Cooper S. Lewis, a resident of nearby Jupiter, Fla., drove the No. 20 Nuzzo Motorsports/ Habberstad MINI Cooper S to a Sport Touring (ST) class track record besting the old qualifying mark by nearly three seconds and bettering his nearest competitor by over one second. Lewis and team owner/ co-driver Tony Nuzzo (Glen Head, N.Y.) will take the green flag in tomorrow's Grand-Am Cup 250 three hour event at 12:30 pm (EST). Shane Lewis:about qualifying: "Sometimes you've got to �think small' before you can go big. That was the balls-i-est lap I have ever turned at Homestead. Period. I had three of my competitors come up to me and say �you are one brave man.' I knew what it was going to take to put it on the pole and that was a lap you could never turn in a race. I knew what I was doing but I knew there was an extremely high risk factor in that lap. The crew guys did an awesome job. Tony and Nuzzo Motorsports have stayed behind this program since the start of last year when it would have been a lot easier to give up. I wanted to see if I couldn't give them something back. We have new help from RPM Racing starting with this race and they have done an amazing job!” about racing the MINI Cooper S: “We knew the platform of the MINI Cooper would be an awesome race car. It is still our goal to be the first team to win a professional race in the States in a MINI Cooper but now I can say I was the first guy to put a MINI Cooper S on the pole for a professional race. We think we have a great race car for tomorrow and I am eager to get out there and show how good of a car the Nuzzo MINI is.”Shane Lewis has been racing since 1989 with multiple race wins in Grand-Am sanctioned events, in the IMSA Supercar and SCCA Pro Series and the Historic SportsCar Series. He has starts in ARCA stock car competition, at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and is a former Daytona Endurance Champion and Formula Ford Festival winner. He has driven in seven Rolex 24s and three 24 Hours of Le Mans- leading the race in GT class in 2003. He has two overall and one class-victory at the 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges. Lewis was honored as the 1998 Professional Sports Car Racing Rising Star award winner. Lewis also serves as a test driver and private coach. In 2004, Lewis is the lead driver of the No. 7 Southard Motorsports/ PAP Parts BMW FABCAR in the Grand American Rolex Series. For more on Shane Lewis please see www.shanelewis.com. To learn more about Nuzzo Motorsports, please visit www.nuzzomotorsports.com. For more on the MINI Cooper S, see www.miniusa.com. ###