Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: LV firefighter to race in two national bike events

Thursday, May 29, 2003 | 10:19 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

For the past four years, Las Vegas firefighter Andy Lewis has spent most of his free time educating children on fire safety, life-saving measures and drug prevention.

This fall, Lewis will be the one receiving an education when he steps up from the local weekly drag racing series to compete in the Pro Stock Bike category at two NHRA national events, including the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals in October at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Lewis, the points leader in the Motorcycle division of the Jerry's Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series at The Strip, recently purchased a Pro Stock Bike from former NHRA racer Ron Ayers and plans to compete in national events at Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif., this fall.

"We put this bike together four years ago to help with public education on fire safety and other safety-related matters," Lewis said of the privately funded FIRE (Firefighters Involved in Racing for Education) Racing Team. "Over the years, it has grown and grown and grown. We're still going out and doing all the safety events, but we race it also.

"At the end of last year, we had the opportunity to buy a Pro Stock Bike. It's being painted now and we're looking to compete in the October NHRA event out here, which will be our first national event."

Because the FIRE Racing Team relies solely on donations and sponsors and uses an all-volunteer crew of firefighters, Lewis said it is unlikely he will be able to compete on the NHRA circuit on a full-time basis.

"That's always the dream and that's something we would like to do but, in reality, unless the funding came along, I don't see that happening," Lewis said. "You're looking at a half-million dollar investment (to race full-time) ... and it keeps going up from there. Most likely, we'll run the (NHRA) West Coast swing next year.

"There are no city tax dollars that go into this program at all. With our lack of sponsorship, it makes it real tough. All the crew members end up putting their own money into the program to keep it running, which is an unfortunate part of the (racing) business."

Not that Lewis would stray too far from his original reason for starting the racing team, which is to educate young people on fire safety and drug prevention and expose them to racing. Lewis and crew members Neal Carter and Bill Ramthun take the bike to about 70 non-racing events a year.

"We're happy with what we're doing and we couldn't give up the program that we're doing here locally and go out strictly to do the national circuit," Lewis said. "What we do with the public education, that's our main priority, and racing just happens to be secondary to it.

"Last year, we even missed two or three races because we had other events to do where we couldn't go out and race at the track. But that was a commitment that we made when we started the program and we've pretty much stuck to it."

There is no timetable for Bernstein's return to the cockpit of the Budweiser/ Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster. Kenny Bernstein, Brandon's father, came out of retirement last week and was the No. 2 qualifier in the car at the O'Reilly Summer Nationals in Topeka, Kansas. Bernstein advanced to the semifinals, where he lost to Doug Kalitta.

"This is not the way we wanted to get back to driving," the elder Bernstein said. "It kind of dulls the feeling. In terms of feeling comfortable in the car, it didn't take any time to get back in the groove but we do want to stress that as soon as Brandon's medically cleared, he will jump back in the cockpit."

Herbert is giving away the dragster in a contest through his Doug Herbert Performance Parts in Cherryville, N.C. Fans can enter by going to Herbert's website at www.herbertperformance.com, printing an entry form and mailing it to the address on the form. Anyone purchasing parts from Herbert is automatically entered.

Three finalists will be chosen at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals in October and will receive expenses-paid trips to the Auto Club Finals in Pomona in November.