FEATURE: Brian Lewis and his 1941 Willys
/If you follow Pro Mod on a regular basis, you will most likely think that it’s just a bunch of new or old Camaro bodies toss on some tubing. Now, if you are more than a casual fan, and watch series like Mid-West Pro Mod, PDRA, or NMCA, you will see a much larger variety of high performing hotrods that don’t fit that mold. Brian Lewis’s ‘41 Willys fits the bill.
As the series photographer for the Mid-West Drag Racing Series I get to see a lot of pro mods that don’t fit the casual viewers idea of what pro mods are. In the MWDRS you will see everything from new Camaros, Corvette, old school Mustangs, and even Willys. Brian made the change after the 2021 season, and what you see here is his newest beast that is taking aim at the MWDRS in 2022.
Do you know who Brian Lewis is though? Well even though I thought I knew, I learned even more about Brian while doing this feature. Brian is a whooping 47 years young and you always see him with his wonderful wife Courtney Lewis at the track. He is a father to 6 children: Tate, Drew, Kurt, Chase, Hayley, & Sydni. Brian has been a business owner for 29 years, and currently owns and operates B&C Trailer Services with his wife Courtney in Wagoner, Ok. Brian and Courtney currently have 2 great danes, 2 shi-tzu's, ducks, geese, donkeys, alpacas and mini pigs. So not only is Brian busy with a high-level pro mod program, he spends his day being a business man and is an animal lover also.
Tommy Mauney has been we’ll know for years when it comes to pro mod. The ‘41 Willys is a Tommy Mauney version that Brian decided to go with after running an old school Camaro last season. When I asked Brian why he went with a Willys this season given how beautiful his Camaro was he stated “I really just tired of seeing first Generation Camaro's and new body Camaro's. When I think of Pro Mod they should be a shoe box and earlier body style.”
The lines of a Willys are something that is unmistakable when it pulls out of the pits, and Brian spared nothing when it came to bringing out what might be one of the most beautiful Willys we have ever seen in all of drag racing. Those gorgeous body lines are highlighted perfectly with the addition of a wrap that was done via Kryptonite Kustomz in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The blues and oranges really pop during the day or at night.
Brian didn’t start out at the pro mod level of racing though. He started racing a Katana 600 in 1993. Then went to a 1991 GSX-R 100 that was his daily commute vehicle and race bike. In 1995 Brian went to a wheelie bar bike, he owned and rode several bike until purchasing his last drag bike from the late Gary Clark. It was an alcohol fuel injected turbo . Brian’s career best was 6.49 at 205 in the quarter mile. Brian was very close to a championship in PMRA during the 2013 season. Missing out on the championship by 90 points. Each round win was 100 points. So by less than 1 round win. In 2015 he missed the championship by 2 round wins. Fast forward to June of 2017 and Brian decided it was time to try something different. He purchased his first door car, which was also his first race car. It purchased it from Randall Reid, and Brian’s first race was the the Throwdown in T Town in October of 2017, where he qualified #17 with a 3.97 and the bump was a 3.96. It was tuned by his brother Brandon Lewis and the Legendary Jeff Pierce.
I know that you are all wondering what the details on this hotrod are, so here we go with that. The Willys features a Brad Anderson 521 cubic inch bullet that was built by Tom Conway. Bolted to the front of that 521 is a Procharger F3R-140X to feed all that air into the engine. All of that 3500 or so horsepower needs to be tuned and controlled carefully to get him safely down the track. A FuelTech 600 was tasked with handling the control parts of this monster, and is tuned by Jeff Pierce.
Bolted to the back of the 521 is a Mark Micke Micke built, M&M Transmission, that is a 3-speed TH400. This allows all that power to be transferred to the rear of the car. Planting the power to the ground is a Kinetic Engineering (Chris Bell) pair of shocks. Along with the Kinetic shocks in the rear, Brian utilizes a set of Kinetic struts up front as well.
All of that power and the team of people with Brian, his Willys has already exceeded his previous best that was achieved in the Camaro. At the 2022 MWDRS event in Texas, Brian and the team laid down a best of 3.77 at 198. That was only the third eight mile pass on the car. That said, he is well on his way of reaching the goals of mid 3.60’s at 205 or so. This will keep him consistently in the field of heavy hitters that he must face off against in the MWDRS.
With so many places and series to run pro mod in, I had to ask Brian why he decided to run with MWDRS during the 2022 season. He told me “Although I feel the expensive to walk through the gate for crew, driver, and car, the trade off is safe tracks, well-prepped tracks, great staff, great racers to race with, and the baddest pro mods on the planet to compete with. If you race against the best it can make you a better racer and driver.”
No one can do this stuff alone at this level, and that includes Brian. Wanting to know who helps him succeed and his told me that it was all about his team of people around him, including: his wife Courtney Lewis, Richard Hall, Zeek Hall, Tonia Hall, Jeff Holloway, Jeff Pierce, & Tom Conway. Along with his team, Brian wanted to thank his sponsors: B&C Trailer Services – Jeff Pierce Race Car Tuning – Jeff Holloway – Tom Conway.
Look for Brian to continue to chip away at the performance on this Willys during the 2022 season. You will certainly be seeing more and more photos of the car throughout the year on E3xtreme as well.
