Avalon Lewis spent the WorldWCR season finale at Jerez in the thick of some of the closest racing on the grid, taking sixteenth in Race 1 and eighteenth in Race 2.
The weekend marked Lewis’s return to the championship with Carl Cox Motorsport, after a heavy crash at the Burt Munro Challenge in February ruled her out of a planned full-season campaign.
Race 1
Lewis qualified thirteenth with a 1:54.2, with Paola Ramos taking pole with a 1:50.9.
Off the line, Lewis tucked into sixteenth on the opening lap and held that position through the majority of the first half of the race.
With five laps to go, she moved up to fifteenth after Pakita Ruiz was involved in an incident that brought out the yellow flags.
By then, a gap had opened ahead of the group running from fourteenth to nineteenth, which formed into a fierce battle pack. Lewis was shuffled back to sixteenth in the closing stages, but crossed the line just 0.084 seconds behind fifteenth and only 0.238 seconds shy of fourteenth. Her fastest lap of the race was a 1:54.255.
At the front, Ramos overcame a jump start penalty and a double long lap to take a remarkable win, while Maria Herrera’s fifth place was enough to secure the title and make her the first back-to-back WorldWCR champion.
Race 2
Race 2 was barely underway when Sara Sanchez and Ruiz, on the #64 and #46 bikes, crashed at Turn 1, ending both riders’ races on the opening lap.
Lewis made the most of a strong start. She completed the first lap in fourteenth, up six places, making her one of the biggest gainers in the field in the early stages.
With eight laps to go, she slipped to fifteenth while battling the #76 of Carla Mulot, before being swept up in another battle pack working its way through the field.
Lewis fought back into fifteenth with four laps to go, 2.2 seconds behind Mulot. As the pack closed up again, however, she was shuffled back to sixteenth in what had become a very close battle.
In the final laps, Lewis’s bike appeared to go off and she began to struggle for pace. She fought on but dropped to eighteenth by the penultimate lap, where she was classified at the finish.
Out front, Ramos led on the #58 and held off Beatriz Neila to complete a Jerez double.
With the WorldWCR season now over, it will be all eyes to 2027 for Lewis, with her plans for next year currently unconfirmed.
