FRONT RUNNER; Randy Lewis is now a vineyard champion.(NEWS)

Byline: ROGER HART

At age 63, Randy Lewis looks fit and trim and not all that different from when he last climbed out of an Indy car in 1991. Sure, there's a bit more gray hair, and there might be a pound or two more on his five-foot, 10-inch frame. But his eyes are bright, and you can tell he's in good shape even before a firm handshake and a description of a fitness regime that includes cycling 2,500 miles a year.

John Ransom Lewis III was a racer for more than 20 years, and on his resume are three years in Europe, a decade or so of sports cars and several years driving Indy cars, including five starts in the Indy 500. From 1987 to 1991, he twice qualified 11th and twice finished 14th. He never tasted success at the Brickyardnever sipped milk in victory circlein part because he never really drove for a top-rate team. It's something that, nearly two decades later, leaves him with a feeling of unfinished business.

But since he left racing and the Indy 500 in his rearview mirror, Lewis has found all kinds of success in a venture that might seem the opposite of racing: making wine.

Lewis and his wife, Debbie, own and operate Lewis Cellars in Napa, Calif., a boutique winery that makes about 9,000 cases a year; it has been described as one of the best in Napa Valley.

The slow, deliberate pace of wine making and the fast, risk-taking spirit needed for racing are indelibly intertwined for Lewis.

Growing up in Atlanta in the late 1960s, Lewis didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but he was pretty sure he didn't want to follow in his father's and grandfather's footsteps to become a doctor. Once given a chance, he discovered that he was a pretty good road racer, winning SCCA races and moving to Formula Atlantic. He had been bitten by the racing bug.