Steve Lewis

The Man Behind Nine Racing, Inc.

Racing has been a passion of Steve Lewis since growing up in Southern California. During his high school days, his weekly ritual consisted of attending midget races at Orange Show Speedway, and drag races at Fontana, Riverside Raceway, and Colton Drag Strip, and venturing up to Ascot Park in Gardena when he could. Steve went on to earn an MBA from San Jose State University, and set out into the world eager to hone his marketing skills. He developed trade shows and trade magazines for the surf lifestyle and backpacking and camping industries with Action Sports Retailer and Outdoor Retailer, respectively. However, his true love was the development of Performance Racing Industry Magazine and Trade Show that was launched in 1986. The PRI Trade Show has developed into the worldwide meeting place where over 38,000 racing businesspeople from over 65 countries gather every December in Orlando, Florida. The Trade Show is ranked #53 in the Trade Show Week Top 100 of trade shows produced in the United States, with over 1000 companies exhibiting in more than 3000 booths. Performance Racing Industry is a monthly magazine, with a circulation of over 27,000 racing industry professionals. Performance Racing Industry employs 30 people in Laguna Beach, California.

In 1979, Steve Lewis teamed up with legend-to-be Stan Fox and started the winning Midget racing heritage of the #9 cars that have appeared in victory lane at 132 USAC National Midget Series events. Since the team began, Nine Racing has claimed ten USAC National Midget Series Championships . The Nine Racing team has propelled many of its drivers into premier race series, including NASCAR and the IRL. Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, and Jeff Gordon have been at the helm of the #9, and other NASCAR favorites including Jason Leffler, Mike Bliss, Kenny Irwin Jr., JJ Yeley, and Stevie Reeves have won in the pearl white #9 Midget race cars.

Always looking for a new challenge, Steve created the Sprint & Midget Classic, which runs in conjunction with the annual Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in Orlando, Florida. This event features two sprint car and midget feature races run under the Monza-style format: The winner of the first race starts dead last and must then pass the entire field in the second feature race in order to win a bonus prize of $50,000!

Steve Lewis has one son, Michael. Michael Lewis currently races in the IMSA GT3 Cup Championship USA by Yokohama racing series.