ABOUT OMYF

Off-Road Motorsports Youth Foundation (OMYF) is a nonprofit organization and desert race team based in Evansville, IN. OMYF is led by cancer survivor and motorsports enthusiast, Preston Lewis, whose dream is to give youth affected by unfortunate life circumstances the opportunity to learn about and connect with the motorsports industry. Without existing connections to motorsports or deep pockets, most youth never get the opportunity to be involved with motorsports. OMYF is the bridge that connects them with these opportunities.

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The Off-Road Motorsports Youth Foundation mission is to connect the youth of today with hands-on experience in off-road motorsports.

Those who become part of the OMYF family can gain the experience and knowledge they are most passionate about. If a child wants to learn how to build a trophy truck, sit behind the wheel at one of the team’s races, or even learn how video is captured at the Baja 1000, OMYF will make it happen.

The skills and knowledge gained while working alongside the OMYF team can be taken anywhere. OMYF will mentor and push each child to achieve their dreams, even if it isn’t in motorsports.

OMYF is in the process of building its desert racing team and Class 7100 Unlimited Trophy Truck. They hope to be race-ready by October 2022. Once the team is established in desert racing and has made an impact on the lives of countless young people, the organization’s goal is to expand to other forms of racing.

Timeline

October 2019 - March 2020

Brand Established, Capital Campaign Launch

October 2020 - March 2021

Shop Fully Established, Talent Acquisition 

October 2021 - October 2022

Race Ready

Where OMYF Came From

Flipping a terrible circumstance into something good that gives back.

Preston Lewis, the young man behind the OMYF dream, has had a passion for motorsports and automotive repair since a very young age. Preston grew up in his parent’s automotive repair shop in Oakland City, Indiana. He knew the ins and outs of a vehicle by the time he reached elementary school.

Preston Lewis and his family were also avid motocross racers. Starting at age six or seven, Preston was out riding and traveling for races. The Lewis family built a motocross race track on their property for their kids and friends to race, and Preston kept riding until the day he was diagnosed with Leukemia.

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Exactly one month before his sixteenth birthday, Preston was diagnosed with B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and categorized as Very High Risk due to his age and size. He had to take a hard step back from racing while undergoing treatment because of the impact racing has on the body.

Preston spent about half of his life in Riley Children’s Hospital undergoing 3.5 years of chemo. He finished high school despite missing so many classes and having to self-teach himself a lot of the time. He even became a Certified Solid Works User through his local career and technical school. Many working engineers and graduating college students can’t obtain this level of certification, so for him to achieve this was an extremely huge accomplishment. He was awarded the Kiwanis award for his excellence in Mechanical Engineering and continued achieving a 4.0 GPA into college. Preston’s mother, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2018, always pushed him to do his best in school and pursue his dreams. 

By having to spend so much time in the hospital, Preston had a lot of downtime to think about and envision his next big plan for life. He and his father would walk laps around the hospital and talk for hours, and when it was too difficult for him to walk as much, they would spend hours watching off-road desert racing videos and learning as much about the sport as they could. Preston’s dream of building a desert racing team began to grow. 

Despite everything Preston had going on in his life, he wanted to give back and help people like him and his mother who were battling cancer. He got involved with Curing Kids Cancer and other organizations and helped them raise more than $200,000 for cancer research. Preston was inspired by those around him who genuinely cared and wanted to help others. He dreamed of creating his own foundation that could help kids of all walks of life achieve their own dreams. 

When presented with an opportunity by Make-A-Wish® Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana, Preston chose to wish for his own shop that would help him build his dream desert racing team and gain the credibility he believed he needed in order to form his youth foundation. After talking with Preston, Make-A-Wish representative Kristina Rhodes discovered that Preston’s true wish was to create a youth foundation. Preston learned that he didn’t need credibility upfront, that he could create the foundation first and work backward, growing his shop and team through the foundation instead of the other way around. Preston was connected with Michael Davis of VPS Architectures and a local marketing agency, EXTEND GROUP, who have since helped him build the Off-Road Motorsports Youth Foundation (OMYF) as a nonprofit organization and create a brand for OMYF. 

Since his mother’s passing in the fall of 2019, Preston has continued to help raise money for charities, keeps up his 4.0 GPA in college, and is working with community leaders to build his Off-Road Motorsports Youth Foundation dream.

WHAT IS OFF-ROAD DESERT RACING?

Off-road desert racing takes place in rough, sandy terrains like Mexico and Southern California. These races are very challenging, even to the most seasoned racers, and range anywhere from 25 to 1000 miles in length. The most well-known off-road desert race is the Baja 1000 that takes place annually on Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. 

News and Updates

Midwest to Mexico!

After a very busy and successful SEMA show it is now time to head to Mexico for the super bowl of off-road racing; The Baja 1000!!! The SEMA show was a very successful event! The OMYF team was able to meet with hundreds of people...

OMYF OBJECTIVES AND BREAKDOWN

OMYF OBJECTIVES AND BREAKDOWN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ9YuWoKVeU In this brief video the OMYF team goes into better details of our goals and aspirations. We discuss how OMYF is going to achieve there goals, and how we are helping the youth achieve there own goals and become more...

OMYF: The Road To Baja!

OMYF: The Road To Baja!

OMYF is dedicated to giving young adults opportunities they they would never get anywhere else! That being said OMYF will be enbarking on journeys that no one else has ever done with a team of young of adults; and that first adventure starts with the infamous BAJA...

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Board of directors

Offroad Motorsports Youth Foundation is guided by these passionate community leaders:

Shannon Lewis

President

President of Lewis Motors of Daylight, Inc., Co-Founder of PGCQE, Co-Founder of Patoka River Wildlife Refuge Friends’ Group

Shawn Collins

Treasurer

Founder and CEO of EXTEND GROUP

Kristina Rhodes

Secretary

Make-A-Wish Regional Board of Directors President, Real Estate Broker for FC Tucker Emge

Michael Davis

AIA, EDAC, Principal Architect at VPS Architecture

Kent Hankins

Project Manager P.H. Drew, Inc. Structural Fabricator, President of the Irvington Historical Society

Bruce Tippett

Retired from Tippett Auto Design, Former CEO Ron Collins Aviation Electronics

Joe Fredrich

Vice President, Reference Services Inc., Retired, Director of Fixed Operations, Kenny Kent Toyota Lexus

Craig Mortz

Owner of CSM Mechanical and CSM Energy Solutions

Keith Jones

International UAW Rep. for Chrysler

Jim Logue

Owner of JPL Consulting, Contractor for Wilwood Engineering

Get in Touch. Get Involved.

Help us make a difference in the lives of today's youth.

1511 W County Rd 525 S, Oakland City, IN 47660

Call Us: 812-746-5013