“I didn’t know a thing about it, but Kim talked me into a nitrous setup and helped me build a motor,” noted Lewandowski, who raced with his friend for several years. When he decided to step up to a more serious program, Lewandowski looked into heads up racing thanks to guidance from Kim Mapes of Watson Racing and started racing sporadically with the NSCA back in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. “The financial pain wasn’t as bad when it was a little at a time, since I couldn’t afford to build a whole new car, and I wanted to keep the original ’79,” he shared. Lewandowski headed to Detroit Dragway and started racing legally as a self-proclaimed “bracket bomber.” Over the years, he added to his Mustang with upgrades here and there. “I realized I was a family man now with a son and obligations, and I needed to keep my license to be able to get to work, so it was time to stop the kid stuff on the streets and go race somewhere more controlled.” He purchased a trailer and finished up an overhaul on the Mustang, which included a paint job of a beautiful blue hue, to keep Cathy happy. “My wife worked for the city court and told me she wasn’t going to answer to her judge for me getting speeding tickets,” laughed Lewandowski, who respected her wishes. They had a son together, Austin, who now helps as Lewandowski’s crew chief, but it was Austin’s birth that helped spur the father into safer racing. Thanks to a blind date, Lewandowski met the love of his life and his wife of 30 years, Cathy, not long after. “I’m the original Mustang Mike, they’ve been calling me that since I bought my ’71 Mustang in high school,” claimed the man, now 59, who street-raced in his youth and lived only five miles from Detroit Dragway, which closed in ’96. Despite that, though, he was able to afford the V-8 engine and automatic transmission to at least make it fun where it mattered most. Budget constraints meant he wound up with a “nasty, old white car with hub caps on it, no air conditioning, and roll-up windows” cheaper Mustang instead. Lewandowski admits his car was “ugly” when he bought it, as his heart had been set on a ’79 Indy Pace Car instead. “I’ll probably be buried in it, too… it’s senseless to give it up, it’s part of the family now.” “I bought it off the showroom floor for $6,200 cash, which was a lot of money at the time, but I was fortunate to have had a good job before the recession,” noted the man of his youth. As the original owner of his ’79 Ford Mustang, he never wanted to give it up. Growing up in Michigan, Lewandowski developed a sentimental side and a tendency to hold on to things. Although his first car was a ’71 Ford Mustang, Michael Lewandowski bought his ’79 model new straight from the factory when he graduated high school that same year-and he’s still racing it today.
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