Festival Star Lewis Shines in British Tests

Nov 7, 1992 (by David Aronson)
London, England (November 7, 1992) – Ashton Lewis , who starred for Valvoline Team USA in last month’s Formula Ford Festival & World Cup, completed successful debut tests in Vauxhall Lotus and Formula 3 cars run by top British teams before returning to the U.S. today.
The 20-year-old Chesapeake, Va., native caught the eye of British team managers with an impressive run to 15th in the Festival Grand Final, emerging from a field of over 170 drivers as one of the discoveries of the event.

Thanks to the BBC television sports magazine Grandstand, the British public also enjoyed a close-up view of Lewis’ performance, with Team USA attracting 3 minutes 59 seconds of coverage – an increase of 163 percent over last year. One minute 39 seconds of this time focused on the in-car camera carried by Lewis, with the logo of title sponsor Valvoline prominently displayed. A 52-second interview with Ashton was also featured in the 45-minute broadcast, which reached an audience of over 3.5 million viewers across the UK.

John Village Automotive, which prepared Team USA’s three Festival entries, gave Lewis a day-long test on October 30 in the car which finished second in this year’s British Vauxhall Lotus Championship. In the process of logging over 100 laps of the 1.35-mile Mallory Park circuit, Lewis beat the best time set by regular driver Oliver Gavin, winner of the 1991 McLaren/Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award.

“The Vauxhall Lotus was similar to the Barber-Saab I raced this year but a bit tighter all round,” explained Lewis. “Once I was used to the car, we got into some setup changes. When I’d gone as fast as the other guys on the track, John Village said, ‘now you can have the good tires,’ and I ended up quickest on the day.”

Lewis followed this up on November 6 with a run in a year-old Ralt fielded by former British F3 champions Bowman Racing, which competed in the low-cost Class B division of this year’s British F3 series. Lewis completed 33 laps under the watchful gaze of Bowman boss Steve Hollman and professional driving coach Rob Wilson (also a regular on the Barber-Saab circuit), drawing high praise from both. Ashton’s best time was within a second of British Formula Ford front-runner Andrew McAuley in the same car.

“Those are definitely the cars I want to drive,” enthused Lewis. “The F3 is the most responsive car I’ve ever driver, by a mile. Even though I was really uncomfortable in the car, I ended up close to McAuley and there was a lot more to come. I’m going home to see if I can raise the money to do this next year.”

Photo of Ashton at Mallory Park with car owner John Village and Ashton Lewis Sr.