Grand Prix of Long Beach preview: Laguna Beach GT driver Michael Lewis grew up at race track

LONG BEACH >> GT star Michael Lewis literally grew up at the race track.

In fact, Lewis actually was on-site (in his mother’s belly) when Stan Fox won the last race at legendary Ascot Park in Gardena in his dad Steve’s car, the 1990 Turkey Night Grand Prix.

Lewis grew up attending races throughout Southe Califoia and the nation following his father Steve, a team owner in the USAC Midget ranks. The elder Lewis fielded the famed white No. 9, driven by the likes of Fox, Tony Stewart, Long Beach’s late Jason Leffler and Dave Darland.

These days, the Cal State Fullerton student is making his own mark in the Pirelli World Challenge behind the wheel of the Effort Racing/Curb-Agajanian Porsche 911 GT3 R GT sports car. In his most recent PWC GT racing performance in the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., the Laguna Beach resident enjoyed his best racing weekend to date by wiing two pole positions and race wins.

“It was one of my best weekends of racing,” said Lewis, who’ll compete in Sunday’s 50-minute sprint race starting at 10 a.m. “I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend leading into my home race in Long Beach.

“I won both poles and led every lap of the two races. I can say I went through the two events without making a mistake. It was a dream event.”

Lewis wasn’t racing against your average GT drivers either. He took on the likes of four-time PWC champion Johy O’Coell of Cadillac Racing, Porsche teammate Patrick Long from Manhattan Beach, Aussie JD Davison and Fresno’s Bryan Heitkotter of Nissan, young Cadillac star Michael Cooper, multi-time racing champion Jon Fogarty, McLaren drivers Alvaro Parente, Colin Thompson and Austin Cindric, another local star Andrew Palmer and Adderly Fong of Bentley, Audi’s Kyle Marcelli, Acura’s Ryan Eversley and Peter Cuingham and endurance star Andrew Davis.

“I can’t tell you how tough the GT division is in the Pirelli World Challenge,” said Lewis. “There are factory drivers from a variety of manufacturers and many of the drivers are the best in the world. In St. Petersburg, everything just clicked perfectly.

“My engineer, Stefan Pfieffer, is one of the best in the business with Porsche and the Effort team is one of the world’s finest organizations. I couldn’t ask for anything more in my driving career.”

With Lewis’ father’s oval track success, it seemed logical for Michael to follow in the oval ranks. And he did take that path, racing quarter-midgets and Focus midgets with many wins.

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However, the teenager wanted his open-wheel racing career to make left and right tus as he began competing in karting. And more victories followed for Lewis, who was a contender at the Italian Open Masters and French Open as well as top North American action.

“I enjoyed the midgets but I wanted to road race as I became older,” said Lewis. “Karting was the proper way to go and it took my career to where I am now with Effort Racing and Porsche.”

Lewis later moved to the bigger open-wheel machines such as the Formula BMW Championship, the Italian Formula 3 series and the FIA European Formula 3 campaign. In 2013, Michael was invited to participate in the prestigious Porsche Young Driver Academy at Barber Motorsports Park.

“I was able to ea a scholarship from the Academy debut and moved into the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge,” said Michael. “I won Rookie of the Year in 2014 and joined Effort Racing in 2015.”

Lewis immediately showed his potential by wiing in the GTA division and was moved to the highly-competitive GT category. He finished eighth in the final GT points as a rookie in the Pirelli World Challenge in 2015.

“I was racing wheel-to-wheel with many of the world’s best GT drivers and I was leaing the ropes,” Lewis said. “I had a great teammate in veteran Ryan Dalziel and Ryan was tremendous asset for my Porsche career. We shared information and feedback and it was just a great experience for me to pick Ryan’s head for knowledge. Ryan is great friend too.”

It was not surprising that Dalziel was on hand at St. Petersburg and saw Lewis’ spectacular double win weekend. Dalziel was one of the first to give Lewis a big hug in victory lane.

“It was so nice to have people congratulate me in the wier’s circle,” said Michael. “I was very excited too but I had to get ready for the race the next day. It’s fun to celebrate but I needed to focus on the next day’s PWC GT sprint race.”

Lewis did just that, starting from the pole again and leading every lap for his second GT win.

“Coming to Long Beach after the St. Petersburg weekend does give me a lot of confidence,” Lewis said. “With Patrick as a mentor, Stefan as my engineer and the entire Effort Racing team behind me, I’m very pumped up for another chance to step to the top of the podium. Long Beach is Patrick’s home race and I know he’ll be ready for a wiing run as well.

“In fact, that GT division has so many good drivers, it will be real dog fight.”

But Michael Lewis has paid his racing dues and now seen the GT victory lane now. Don’t be surprised if this local college kid isn’t spraying champagne again this weekend.