As reported over the weekend, Johnny Lewis debuted the Royal Enfield Production Twins at the AFT's Williams Grove Half-Mile event. Friday was encouraging, with the bike coming in sixth from a field of 15.
On Saturday, during the semis for the second of the weekend's double-header races, Lewis was running well, just behind reigning champ Cory Texter, when his twin started blowing huge clouds of white oil smoke. The rider seemed oblivious for a lap or so, and was black flagged. It seemed like the weekend was over. It wasn't.
Johnny didn't make it out for the sighting lap of the main, but joined as the 15th rider on the fourth row of the grid in time for the race. He made it into the main due to there being fewer than 16 entries and the fact he had made it out in the semis. We were told by a Royal Enfield insider that the racebike had a head gasket 'failure', but the Moto Anatomy team changed it and rebuilt the bike in the one hour twenty minutes they had, with a hotline to the UK's tech centre (at midnight on Saturday UK time) for torque settings and other information.
The effort was worth it. Johnny moved from 15th to 7th, beating Johncox, Eslick and others, and finishing one place behind Chad Cose on one of the Harley XG750Rs, Cose who had three podiums from four Production Twins races this season, prior to this weekend.
Photos: Scott Hunter/American Flat Track