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Lewis leads green to checkers, wins SCCA GT1 Runoffs title on Goodyear tires

     DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Sept. 25, 2015) – Michael Lewis started up front, charged to a commanding lead and won the Sports Car Club of America’s GT1 national championship at Daytona International Speedway.     The SCCA’s National Championship Runoffs presented by Garmin VIRB is amateur racing’s Olympic Games with 28 classes in competition over three days. The GT1 class, featuring the most powerful cars in SCCA competition, is open to tiremakers for competition.      “Michael was consistent through the race,” said Goodyear’s Bryce Jones. “His lap times did not vary much from the start to the finish.”      Lewis had the fastest car in qualifying all week and won the race by a comfortable margin. His margin of victory was 50.488 seconds.      “It gets back to Sterling Moss, right?” Lewis said of his big lead. “I started hearing things.”      The championship is the eighth overall for Lewis and his fifth in GT1. He said all eight titles have come on Goodyear tires. Lewis said he ran the race on Goodyear’s 430 tread compound.      Nowhere was Goodyear’s industry-leading success at Daytona more clear than in the GT1 race. The GT1 cars reportedly reached speeds close to 200 mph on the fastest segments of the DIS high banks. In addition, Goodyear is the most successful tire company in Runoffs history.     Goodyear employs about 69,000 people at manufacturing plants and facilities in 22 nations. Based in Akron, Ohio, Goodyear is among the largest tiremakers in the world and is the worldwide leader in race tire innovation.