Minneapolis, MN - May 30, 2007 - The Banner Engineering Racing Team secured its first win of the 2007 season at the Grand-Am GT Classic on Monday, May 28 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT. After avoiding a multi-car crash early in the race, co-drivers Leighton Reese and Tim Lewis Jr. drove the No. 6 Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R to a first place finish, taking the lead on Lap 94 of 139 and remaining in front all the way to the finish line.
Reese and Lewis claimed the victory after Reese’s fourth place qualification going into the race, winning by a margin of 6.507 seconds. Reese secured the lead for 24 laps in the first part of the race, and Lewis soon followed suit, leading the race for 46 laps - a race-high. This marks Lewis’s first win, and both Reese and Lewis skillfully demonstrated the Pontiac GXP.R’s exceptional capabilities throughout the two-and-a-half hour race.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of Tim Lewis Jr.,” Reese said. Reese, a 20-year Lime Rock veteran, adds that his younger co-driver showed impressive skill in the race. “He comes to these tracks he has never seen before and keeps sneaking up on the lap times.
He never puts a wheel wrong, and by the time the race comes around, he is usually faster than me.” Co-drivers Kelly Collins, third place qualifier for the Grand-Am GT Classic, and Paul Edwards drove the No. 7 Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R to the front of the pack in Lap 53, but the team lost the lead due to a punctured front tire. Despite this setback, Collins and Edwards finished in fourth place after being a lap behind.
“It was a great effort,” Lewis said of the race. “I know that the Banner team is an excellent team, and the people behind it do an excellent job.”