Laguna Beach, California (April 6, 2010) — American Michael Lewis visited Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit for the first time this past weekend driving for Eurointernational as a guest driver in Rounds 1 and 2 of the Formula BMW Pacific series and came home with two top-six finishes.
Michael entered the weekend’s race with high expectations, even after coming off the one official test day the prior weekend where Michael was besieged with a number of challenges with the car, which prevented him from getting as much track time as his two Eurointernational teammates. During one of his test sessions he hit a cone that was put into the air by another car that ripped off his front wing. So when the “official” race practice came on Friday, April 2, he was still able to get up to speed to earn fourth on the time charts.
Although Michael qualified a decent fifth place for both Rounds 1 and 2, he was disappointed as both he and the team hoped for at least a top three qualifying effort. At the start of the first race on Saturday, April 3, Michael got an excellent launch but as he went to pass for third he was cut off and ran into the grass where he lost six spots. As the race progressed, he worked his way back up through the field earning an admirable fifth position at the checkered flag. For Round 2, he again started in fifth position then quickly got into fourth and was running down the leaders when he made contact with another car and lost some positions. He worked hard to regain positions and ended up sixth at the checkered flag.
Soon after Round 2, Michael flew from Malaysia to England where on Tuesday and Wednesday he will be testing at the famous Silverstone track in the third of the six official Formula BMW Collective Test program. Michael has already taken part in the Formula BMW Collective Tests at Monza and Barcelona. Upcoming planned Collective Tests include Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium; Zandvoort, Netherlands; and the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary. The opening round of the 2010 Formula BMW Europe season will occur May 7–9, 2010, in Barcelona Spain, in conjunction with the Formula 1 race weekend.
Michael and Eurointernational thank the 2010 sponsor team, which includes K&N Engineering, Eibach Springs, SSi Decals, CTECH, GoPro, Team ASE, Klotz, Earl’s Performance Plumbing, Bell Helmets and Subè Sports.
