His feat of winning the initial race in the brand-new ARCA West Late Model Challenge Series normally would be enough for Bothell veteran Gary Lewis.
The circumstances leading up to the race, the Apple Blossom 125 May 5 at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval, made it more memorable than Lewis probably would have liked.
Lewis, the two-time Northwest Series champion, won by leading virtually the entire race. He did so in his newly built Chevrolet – even though the car spewed oil as he took his first-ever practice laps that Friday. Making matters most difficult was that Lewis had finished building the car just two nights before the race.
That was because of the fire.
That was the fire Feb. 7 that rendered unlivable the Bothell home of his parents, Ralph and Leslie Lewis, the home Gary Lewis grew up in from age 6.
Lewis’ parents own the car. Ralph Lewis also is his son’s crew chief.
“We had kind of a bad winter,” Gary Lewis said. “That kind of threw a wrench into everything.”
The Lewises, thank goodness, are fine. They moved into their new home in Maltby several weeks ago, although they spent the majority of the winter living in the motor home that they drive to the races.
For nearly three months, the elder Lewises lived in that motor home, which happened to be located in the driveway in front of what’s left of their former house.
Ralph and Leslie Lewis were home at the time of the fire, believed to have started by an extension cord in the garage that may have shorted out and overheated.
On that night, Leslie Lewis smelled smoke and alerted her husband, who rushed to the garage, coatless and barefoot. Upon discovering fire, he initially tried to spray water on it from a garden hose. Seeing it was futile, he ran back into the house to look for his wife. Leslie, however, had exited the home, also in her bare feet.
Smoke blew into the house and forced Leslie, also without shoes or a coat, out the front door. Meanwhile, Ralph ran into the house from the garage and tried, unsuccessfully, to find her.
“All of a sudden, there was this horrendous fire going on that was just out of control,” Gary said. “There was a few minutes of hysteria there, not knowing where each other was. They finally found each other and that was it. They were stuck outside.”
It wasn’t until the next morning when the Lewises discovered that O’Meeka, the family cat, somehow survived the blaze by hiding behind the hot-water heater.
“She lost the tips of her ears,” Leslie Lewis said. “She has little mouse ears now. They’re rounded. It cost us $1,000 for one night in intensive care, but she’s fine.”
Leslie Lewis said the Red Cross, Bothell Fire Department and the Salvation Army helped greatly with food and water. The Red Cross reserved the Lewises a hotel room for a few nights, before they moved into the motor home. The family pitched in with clothing, food and other needed items.
After that experience, the race should have been gravy. It was. That is, following the oil episode.
Never having tested the car before, Lewis first rolled it out onto the Wenatchee Valley Super Oval the night before the race. The first time Lewis revved up the motor, a sudden increase of oil pressure blew a gasket off the oil filter, spraying oil everywhere.
“It dumped seven or eight quarts of oil out of the car,” Lewis said. “It just soaked the whole underneath of the car. I mean everything. It was just a mess.”
It took three crew members three hours to clean the underside of the car. Even now, Lewis said, they still find areas that need wiping off.
“Oil just kept coming out of places,” Lewis said. “We couldn’t get rid of it all. We’ve still been cleaning the dang thing all week.”
The race was a comparative breeze. Lewis grabbed the lead after a first-lap caution flag and held off Jeff Jefferson the rest of the way. After a winter of heartache and a night of oil follies, maybe karma dictated Lewis should take the checkered flag.
“I still can’t believe that we won,” Lewis said. “It still hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s kind of crazy.”
Here’s hoping Saturday’s race, the WIX Filters 125 presented by Yakima Grinding at Yakima Speedway, is less eventful.
Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com
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