Princeton native Jake Lewis picked up a first place finish on Saturday and a second place showing on Sunday in Stock 1000 action in the MotoAmerica Championship at Virginia at Virginia International Raceway.
Racing for Altus Motorsports Suzuki, Lewis was victorious on Saturday in only his third race back from a nearly year-long MotoAmerica hiatus.
Lewis started from the pole but was overtaken by HONOS HVMC Racing Kawasaki’s Corey Alexander. Lewis regained the lead on lap 10 and held his advantage all the way to the checkered flag in the 14-lap event.
Alexander maintained his position in second to finish as runner-up, and third place went to Geoff May Racing/VisionWheel.com Honda rider Geoff May.
“It feels amazing, honestly,” Lewis said. “I think it has been since 2017 that I won a race, and even at that point that’s when I was doing Stock 1000 with Superbike, so even though it was a win, it really kind of didn’t feel like a win. So, it feels amazing to win a race outright. It was a hell of a battle with Geoff (May) and Corey (Alexander).
“I knew the pace was going to be high because qualifying we didn’t get many laps, so we couldn’t really tell everybody’s potential but at the beginning Corey was running really well. I was kind of just sitting there because obviously with the heat and the conditions we were both sliding around. Geoff was really strong racing into turn one and he got by me. I think us three were just kind of pacing each other.
“I think it was about eight laps to go, maybe six laps to go, I wanted to try to make my way to the front just in case of a red flag. I knew we were going to catch the lappers, so just in case of that I was like, this was my time. I was a little bit stronger in that left-hander and honestly just put a block pass on Corey and he had a couple of sections that he was a little bit faster. I knew Geoff was back there and trying to put the hammer down. It was weird because the last two laps, I knew the white flag and my pit board said only one lap to go, but I didn’t get the white flag, so I don’t know if we did an extra lap or not because I was just so focused to actually know if I had the white flag, honestly. Just kept going until I saw the checkered flag. I
“t was pretty hairy that last lap. I stuffed a lapper in the double apex right coming on the straightaway because I was like, if Corey’s here I’m going to need a draft so if I chop this dude’s front wheel off, maybe Corey can’t get by me. Luckily it worked out. It just feels amazing. Big thank you to George and Janette Nassaney with Altus Motorsports for getting me back in the paddock and on a great bike.”
Lewis, who now resides in Owensboro, missed a weekend sweep by .047 seconds in his runner-up showing in Stock 1000 on Sunday in Virginia.
Alexander won Sunday’s Stock 1000 race two.
With Lewis in second, third place went to Michael Gilbert Racing Kawasaki’s Michael Gilbert, who was just under a second behind Lewis.
The next MotoAmerica event is June 11-13 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
