Wayne Lewis

[Paul Merolla]

Originally Posted by Alan Nyhus

"Al Nyhus. I knew you were too (bleepin') dumb to stay away."

That line is classic Wayne! Thanks for the laugh, Al.
I think the D5 banquet this year needs to include a session where everyone can step up to the mic and tell their favorite Wayne story...we'll be there for hours. Might need to use substitute words, like "flange" instead of the other one.
The first time I won class, I went to the tech building to get my Wally. Went over to Wayne and asked him if he'd take a picture with me. His reply was, "What the flange for?!" I said, "This is the first one of these I've ever gotten and I thought it would be cool to have a picture of you handing it to me." He got a big grin on his face and we took the photo.

[btrc]

When I got back into racing about 6 years ago and went to my first NHRA race in Earlville, John McLeod was riding with us. As soon as we had the trailer parked he said "I have to introduce you to someone". It turns out that someone was Wayne Lewis. He had a few choice comments about the "new cars" but after he learned that we built it ourselves everything was fine.
I have always looked forward to seeing him at the NHRA races. He would always ask if I was going to go to this race or that race and also knew what was going on at the MCR races.
Just the weekend before Topeka he re-certified my car in Marion, SD. I'm glad I was able to visit with him again.