The Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge has been decided. Over 100 racers from all over Europe registered and fought hard throughout 2013 collecting points for pole positions, fastest laps and race finishes but it is Lewis Plato that has come out on top and is now eagerly waiting to fly out to Daytona in early January to try out his new V8 powered Camaro!
In only his first year of racing, Lewis Plato has been on a real rollercoaster in his Radical SR3 in the highly competitive Clubman's Cup championship. His speed was early demonstrated when claiming pole position in his first race at Snetterton but coming off the line proved not that easy... However, with track mileage comes experience and from race 5 at Brands Hatch Lewis proved his speed and that he is a worthy winner by winning the following 8 out of 9 races including 8 out of 9 poles and an amazing 100% of fastest laps available!
Said Lewis having just been told that he has won the Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge: "Wow, that's fantastic news. The Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge is an amazing opportunity for any driver, so to have received the news that I have won this fantastic prize in my first year of car racing and to get to race at the famous Daytona circuit is brilliant. I really like America and have travelled there many times on holiday, I could never have imagined being back there to race at Daytona.
I would like to thank the whole team at Mectech Motorsport including my team mate Bradley Smith for his help which has been invaluable. Also my family, Dave who gives up so much time to support my racing and my parents who have always encouraged and thankfully funded my passion.
Now I must try and re-focus as I have the last Radical Clubman's Cup meeting of the season coming up and I would really like to end the season on a high. I'm back to University for what is sure to be another challenging semester - thankfully I get lots of support as I'm studying motorsport engineering. Thanks to everybody at Sunoco and GRAND-AM, see you soon".
Anders Hildebrand, MD of Anglo American Oil Company commented: "I've been keeping a close eye on the top racers in the Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge this year and I've been very impressed with Lewis race craft and keeping out of trouble skills. Once he got his first win he kept winning, setting pole positions and fastest lap like he had done nothing else before which resulted in him winning the Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge at the penultimate round of his race season. I'm convinced that he will do an awesome job at Daytona in January".
The prize consists of return flights and hotel for both the Roar before the Rolex 24 (3-5th of January) and the BMW Performance 200 race on Friday the 24th of January before the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
The BMW Performance 200 race is part of the Continental series and is a 200 mile race (approximately 2.5 hours) run at the same race weekend as the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona so it comes with all the razzmatazz of the big race weekend.
Lewis is going to race a V8 powered Chevrolet Camaro capable of over 170mph on the 31º steep banking before diving into the infield. The grid is split between the GS class (BMW, Camaro, Mustang, Porsche etc) and the ST class (Honda, Mini, BMW etc) and typically swells to 90 cars for this particular race.
Last year's Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge winner Lawrence Davey raced with Mitchum Motorsport in the Camaro and had a brilliant race weekend running as high as 6th in the race before a friendly tap from a fellow competitor put the rear out of joint resulting in a couple of extra pit stops. Despite this the team finished just 25 seconds behind the winner in 23rd place!
The Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge will continue for 2014 although under another name - release to be made shortly - giving more European racers the chance to race at one of the most famous circuits and to showcase their talent in front of US race team managers and supporting crowds.
