Michael Lewis on the transition from GT3 Cup to PWC

Michael Lewis drives the #41 EFFORT Racing/Curb-Agajanian Porsche 911 GT3 R in the Pirelli World Challenge GT class.

Last year I competed in the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama with Bob Faieta's Competition Motorsports team in the #98 Curb-Agajanian entry. We had a successful year in our #98 Porsche 911, earning many wins and pole positions that put us right in the hunt for the overall championship – we ended up finishing third overall.

Transitioning from last year's IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge season to this year's Pirelli World Challenge season has been the result of being welcomed by the Texas-based EFFORT Racing team to compete in one of their Porsche 911 GT3 R's under the banner of the Porsche Motorsport North America Young Driver Program. It has been an honor to race with EFFORT Racing and to work with Porsche Motorsport North America since the start of this 2015 season.

Everyone involved this year has been extremely kind and I appreciate their dedication, time, and hard work to make the cars fast and to continue my development as a sports car driver. From the technical side, my engineer Stefan has been such a leader and an inspiration, putting in his thoughts when he can, all to help me improve on the track to chase down my extremely fast teammate, Ryan Dalziel (at left, with Michael). By the way, Ryan has been very influential in helping to develop the racecars and he is an all around awesome person and an awesome driver. It is a real pleasure to be able to work alongside him to learn about all aspects of racing (technical and non-technical).

From the management side, Erin and Chuck have provided the team spirit and a clear plan for me and the rest of the team to follow during each race weekend. It has been a very smooth transition from last year to this year all because of these great people and from a consistency in the type of racecar as well; the Porsche 911. I would also like to mention that Ricki, Paul, and Dave are part of the EFFORT Racing core and they deserve credit as well.

Being able to compete in the Pirelli World Challenge, which is one of the top North American Sports Car Championships, has really been quite exciting. The GT3 platform that the series uses has welcomed many different GT3 cars, and in turn, many different manufacturers. The diverse grid and the large amount of support from each manufacturer is impressive to see. I'm sure that the fans watching on television or at the races truly enjoy viewing their favorite brand of sports car go head to head with the many other leading brands.

The GT3 cars that we race are all based on the production, street-legal versions, so this relatable aspect to the "real world" also brings interest to our series, I'm sure. Nearly every time before a race begins, you can see small groups of Porsche fans gathering near our EFFORT Racing cars. It's pretty cool to see the loyalty to a particular brand from the fans; this sort of thing happens for all of the cars on the grid.

In terms of the on-track action, the competition is very intense. There are many well known and fast drivers on the grid, all in fast cars, and to be racing with them is very humbling. At the same time it is also inspiring and it drives you to work hard. For most of my career I have been racing with drivers who were roughly the same age as I was and who were all aiming to get to the "top" of motorsport. Now, it is a bit different scene because this championship has many experienced drivers who are much older than I am and most of the top drivers in this championship are completely "Pro." It's something to get used to and I'm just working to learn as much as I can while trying to keep clean on the racetrack.

All in all, we have four races left in the championship and both my #41 EFFORT Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R and Ryan's #31 EFFORT Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R have finished well recently. We're looking forward to the remaining events, which include Mid Ohio, Miller Motorsports Park, Sonoma, and Laguna Seca. Anyway, be sure to check out these cool videos below to see the EFFORT Racing atmosphere and to learn more about what we are doing in the Pirelli World Challenge with our Porsche 911 GT3 Rs.

Thank you for reading!

-Michael

EFFORT Racing - The Components of Winning: 

Porsche 911 GT3 R @ Barber - Extreme Onboard Episode 1: 

EFFORT Nation News - Michael Lewis Goes Pro: 

Michael Lewis Update Video Presented by C&R Racing (Road America): 

Michael Lewis website: http://www.mjlracing.com