photo by John Thawley

Britain's Ryan Lewis was out on track again yesterday in the four-hour Road America round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series. Along with team-mates John Faulkner and Gregor Fisken, Ryan steered the No.30 Lola to a fourth place finish in the LMP1 class.

It was Ryan who qualified the car, taking fourth place behind the two Audis and the sister Intersport Lola which runs with around 50hp more than the No.30 car; and it was Ryan who started the race when it got underway shortly after 4pm yesterday afternoon. He got a clean start and throughout his time in the car - just over an hour and 20 minutes - Ryan was within a second of the pace of the Audis which, for a private effort, is fantastic.

"I was supposed to stay out for two full stints," said Ryan. "But I ran wide at the Carousel and, as I had gone through the gravel, I came in for a spanner check and we decided to do the driver change there and then. During the first stint I passed the Mazda and a Penske Porsche and was having a lot of fun chasing David Brabham. I pitted under the first caution and after a long stop I rejoined, still under caution. When it went green I had a few GT2 cars to get through and I was back behind the Porsche."

Ryan went on to talk about the performance of the Intersport Lola and the Kumho tyres which he ran for the first time this weekend.

"My race pace was good but we could really do with the same engine the sister Intersport car has as I think it's worth about 10mph on the straight. The Kumho tyres were very consistent in the race; I think that the Dunlops have the edge in qualifying but I was pleased with the Kumhos race performance."

Ryan is now on his way back to Indianapolis. His next race is in two weeks' time at Mosport in Canada, before he moves straight onto the race in Detroit the following weekend.