THE NEED FOR SPEED

Supply native Landen Lewis is burning up the East Coast tracks and winning titles along the way.

BY MELISSA SLAVEN WARREN PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL RITENOUR

fifteen-year-old Landen Lewis has been racing competitively for nine years and has more than 150 wins to his name, including many championships like the 2021 Charlotte Winter Heat Championship, 2020 Dirt Nationals Champion, WKA National Champion, four-time Maxx Daddy Champion and three-time Daytona Karting Champion. All this from a young man who isn’t even old enough to have his driver’s license

Lewis, a fourth-generation race-car driver, first discovered his passion for racing when he was a toddler. His dad, Jonathan, who began racing at the age of 10, raced Arca, late model, street stocks and karts and won many championships along the way. Lewis and his dad share a love of racing as well as a racing number.

“99. That’s my number and my father was that number too. It’s been used through the family a lot,” Lewis says.

The time it took Lewis to master a go kart was “a good year to get into the rhythm of things.” And by the time he was four years old, Lewis had won his first race at the Conway Kartway.

Left, Lewis with his mom, Brandy, dad, Jonathan, and sister, Lily.

Once it was apparent that racing wasn’t just a passing interest for Lewis, and something he excelled at, his dad reached out to NASCAR hall of famer Ron Hornaday Jr., known for helping drivers like Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, to see if he could help Lewis rise in the sport. Hornaday took the young man on as his protégé, and at the age of 12, Lewis won his first dirt modified race — against veterans already gaining national attention. In addition to driving for Ron Hornaday Jr., he also drives for Joe Ryan Race Cars, where he’s gotten the experience racing on asphalt and road courses.

Lewis counts many local and national brands as sponsors, including Bilstein Shocks, Simpson Racing Products, Zmaxx Racing Products, L&A South Tire & Alignment Center, L&A North Tire & Auto, LouLous Waterfront Restaurant, Car Quest of Supply, MGK II Construction, LLC and Crystal Babson with Century 21.

Currently, Lewis drives three different cars. Go Karts, with which he’s won 15 championships; Dirt Modifieds, with which he was the youngest driver to win a Mid East Modified Series race at age 12; and Legend Cars. He’s already racked up several championships in the past three years including the 2020 Semi Pro Dirt National Championship. His most memorable race was the 2019 Winter National in Florida when he was just 13 years old. “It was my first ever Legend Car win,” Lewis says. “It was the first time I ever drove one in a race.”

All of Lewis’s karts or cars are designed for different driving styles. His favorite is the Legend Car.

“It’s a motorcycle engine in a Legend coupe car,” he says. “It’s modeled after a 1934 car.”

According to Lewis, many NASCAR drivers get their start with Legend Cars and they’re “one of the hardest cars you can drive.”

By the year’s end, Lewis will have competed in nearly 70 races.

“He’s somewhere every weekend,” says his mother, Brandy Lewis. “Race lengths vary, some are over a weekend, and some are week-long events.”

The family travels up and down the East Coast from the Carolinas to Florida to Pennsylvania and as far as Las Vegas. Lewis, whose favorite subject is science, keeps up with his schoolwork while he’s on the road. In the coming year the rising tenth grader will transition to homeschooling, which will allow him more flexibility to travel to races. Maybe it’s the science behind the speed, power and agility of racing that keeps Lewis coming back for more. He admits to having driven as fast as 120 miles per hour on the track, but also keeps safety top of mind. When he’s driving, he focuses on “winning, but also avoiding wrecks, keeping my composure and planning the next move I’m going to make.”

As for next moves, Lewis would like to drive in the Arca series and asphalt late-model and dirt late-model competitions. Hornaday and his daughter, Candice, and former NASCAR drive Austin Theriault are helping to manage Lewis’ racing career and help him plan his future steps.

With all that behind him, it’s safe to say that we’ll be hearing more about Landen Lewis in the future. 

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