(May 23, 2012) - Its been 8 years since I won the 2004 AMA Sports Athlete of the year, AMA Sports Dirt Track Horizon Award, and 3 premier AMA Sports Dirt Track Class Champions and now RIDE Academy and myself are going to be at the 2012 AMA Dirt Track Grand Championship the week following round 3 and 4 of the AMA Pro Flat Track Championship in Springfield IL. It's my time to give back to the sport as much as I can.

This means a lot to me to be able to be part of this event. Steve Nace, the promoter of this years' 2012 events, has allowed me to do as much or as little as I wanted. With great support from a few of my personal sponsors, along with RIDE Academy Sponsors, we have put together some great opportunities for the racers, mechanics and families. I will personally be there to offer support, encouragement & tips for any and all amateur racers and their mechanics the duration of the week. I feel honored to be doing this for the sport and hope it kick starts other professional racers to do the same in the future.

Along with our sponsor product giveaways and gift certificates for RIDE Academy schools, we will be on Pit Pass Radio next Tuesday night to talk about the event, racers that could stand out, and other great subjects. We will also be doing video interviews with racers, mechanics, families, sponsors and more all week which we will post via Facebook, Vimeo, and other social networking sites.

One special award I am putting together is the "Mark Adams Mechanic of the week award". If you had the chance to be around Mark you will understand why this award means so much to me. Mark died last January from injuries he sustained after being hit on the side of the road helping a lady with car troubles. Just as Mark always would be, he was there to help a person in need. I had the opportunity to work with Mark when I was 15 years old, when I was first picked up by Factory KTM to race supermoto. He was not only my mechanic, but a friend, mentor and will always be my hero. I'm putting the final package together for the winner of this award and how I'm going to choose the winner, as this could be the hardest decision I have had to make in a long time!

Follow the progress from the events on my facebook page/Ride Academy's page and our websites. Links below:

https://www.facebook.com/johnnylewis10
https://www.facebook.com/rideacademytraining
www.lewis10.com
www.rideacademy.com
www.pitpassradio.com

Thanks for the support,

JL10

Johnny Lewis