The Baron of Benalla, a name that strikes fear into the hearts of 944 racers.
There’s no more terrifying sight for Chris Lewis-Williams’ competitors than his white Porsche in their rear-view mirror.
After years on the sideline, Lewis-Williams made a triumphant return to the series he had won three times previously.
Lewis-Williams won the 944 Challenge Series and the Victorian State Race Series, which run concurrently.
The Benalla driver is only the third man to win four 944 Challenge Series championships, joining the ranks of Cameron Beller and Robert Lange.
His fourth title victory was confirmed at Calder Park Raceway, where Round 6 unfolded on October 28 and 29.
Lewis-Williams said his season had unfolded in near-perfect fashion.
“We’ve had six good rounds,” Lewis-Williams said.
“Our worst round was Winton, where we got a fourth and two thirds.
“But after that, we sort of found some more pace and probably won three out of the next four rounds.
“I didn’t win the last round because a new guy, Mark Verdino, won the feature race, so he got me by two points.
“I wasn’t against him in the championship. I was against a guy called Cameron Beller.
“Cam’s won four of them and I hadn’t won one since 2014.”
Lewis-Williams’s life has always revolved around cars.
The driver has been working and involved in the Benalla motor industry for a number of years.
“I used to work out at the (Benalla) Auto Club and started there in 2015,” he said.
“I raced in 2016 and 2017, but it was just hard to race and work out there because a lot of the events were on the weekend, and I had clashes with dates.
“We also built a house in Melbourne, so that ate into the budget a bit, and so we just parked her up for 2018 to 2021.
“I’ve always been on the 944 committee, so I’ve always been in touch with the guys, and then when my job finished up at the auto club, I was like, “What am I going to do?”
“A mate of mine bought Tyrepower in Sale and he rang me and said, ‘Do you want to have a chat with the Tyrepower guys?’
“They were really keen to open a Tyrepower in Benalla and it came together really quickly.
“Once you’ve got this (a workshop) and a hoist, we brought it in here, and we do the work ourselves.
“I found my old race mechanic, David Bath, and I rang him up and said, ‘I’m going to race again. Do you want to come and engineer it again?’ and he said, ‘I’d love to’.
“So we do it all pretty low-stress.”
It’s close to 50 years since Porsche released the 944, but Lewis-Williams says it still makes for exciting racing.
“We built the car back in 2014 and it’s just such a good little series because it’s quite controlled,” he said.
“The way that we’ve kept the rules tight means that it’s not about how much money you throw at it; it’s about the driver.
“They don’t have a lot of horsepower, so there’s a technique to driving them with keeping the corner speed up because if you over-slow the car down in the corner, you don’t have enough horsepower to get going again.
“It’s just a good bunch of guys, from their early 20s to Richard ‘Dick’ Howe, who’s nearly been racing for as long as it’s been going. Dick would be 79.
“I don’t think Cam is 30 yet, so you’ve got me at 53 and Cam being able to compete side by side, which is really good.
“There’s other guys that are getting faster.
“Adam Brewer, he’s come second a fair bit; he hasn’t broken through for the win yet, but he’s not far away.”
If you are a 944 enthusiast, Lewis-Williams says that Victoria is the place to be in terms of seeing cars out on track.
It also means more opportunities to see the Baron of Benalla fight at the front.
“In Victoria, we are spoilt because we’ve got four racetracks here: Phillip Island, Winton, Sandown, and Calder is back online. If you’re in NSW, you’ve got one.
“Mathematically now, if I didn’t go to Phillip Island now, I’d drop zero because that would be my worst round. So I’m champion elect for loss of better words.
“It’s always good to finish the year on a win and it’s a pretty big race that Phillip Island Magic.
“So it’s been a really good year. To come back after four or five years and be competitive has been kinda cool.”
With the 2023 title already wrapped up, heads are already turning to 2024.
With Lewis-Williams and Beller set to race in 2024, the storyline will be whether one of them can be the first driver to claim five championships, and if so, which one of them.
No matter the outcome, you can expect to see the Baron of Benalla out on track for several seasons to come.
“I’ll race as long as I stay competitive, as long as I can still race at the front,” he said.
“Once you have raced at the front if you become less competitive, it is hard just to dawdle around.
“If it got to that stage, we’d go and play golf or fish because you compete to win.”
Lewis-Williams would like to thank Porsche for its continued support of the series and Tyrepower for helping him get out on track.