Michael Lira (racing driver)

Michael Lira (born July 16, 1997) is a Peruvian-American professional stock car racing driver.

Michael Lira
Lira in 2015
NationalityAmerican/Peruvian
Born (1997-07-16) July 16, 1997
Daytona Beach, Florida
ARCA Racing Series career
Debut season2013
Current teamLira Motorsports
Car number59
Starts26
Wins0
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
1 race run over 1 year
2016 position71st
Best finish71st (2016)
First race2016 U.S. Cellular 250 (Iowa)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 0 0
Statistics current as of July 30, 2016.

Early life and early career

Lira was born in Daytona Beach, Florida (Volusia County). He began his motorsports career racing quarter-midgets at Little New Smyrna Speedway, in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.[1] When he turned 12, Lira started racing in the FASCAR Pro Trucks Series. When he was 15, he competed in both the FASCAR Pro Truck and Florida United Pro Truck Series. He was the 2012 New Smyrna Speedway Pro-Trucks Track Champion,[2] and he tied for the Pro-Truck Track Championship at Orlando Speedworld.

ARCA Racing Series

Lira began competing in the ARCA Racing Series in 2013, at the age of 16. He drove for Kimmel Racing, making his debut at Berlin Raceway on August 10th.[3] Lira competed in a total of four races with Kimmel Racing in 2013, and another 11 races with the team in 2014. His best finish in those two years was 7th at Salem Speedway. His best qualifying effort in those two years was 4th at Pocono Raceway.[4]

Although not permitted to race in events at tracks over one mile in length due to track age restrictions, Before his 18th birthday, Lira participated in multiple ARCA Racing Series test sessions at Daytona International Speedway[5][6] and one test at Talladega Superspeedway.[7]

Switching to his family owned team of Lira Motorsports in 2015, Lira plans on competing in 16 of the 20 races on the ARCA Racing Series schedule. Age restrictions do not allow him to race at 4 of the tracks that have races scheduled before his 18th birthday. Through the first 10 races of the year, Lira's best finish was 8th at Mobile International Speedway, and he qualified 4th at three different tracks (Nashville Speedway, Toledo Speedway and New Jersey Motorsports Park).[8][9]

IMSA and SCCA road course racing

Lira competed in a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) road-course event at Daytona International Speedway in May 2014. In his first official SCCA start, he finished 8th overall and 4th in class.[10]

In January 2015, Lira made his International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Tudor United SportsCar Championship debut in the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway driving for Muehlner Motorsports America.[11] The car suffered from mechanical issues during the race and was brought to the garage four separate times for more than eight hours of race time. The car finished 17th in the Daytona-GTD Class.[12]

Also in January 2015, Lira competed in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge BMW Performance 200 at Daytona International Speedway. In that race he started 8th and finished 13th.[13] He competed in a second IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge event, the Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, in May 2015.[14] In that race, he started 15th and finished 14th with co-driver Nick Galante.[15] Michael's third and final IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race of 2015 was at Road Atlanta on October 2nd. In that race, Lira finished 10th along with co-driver David Levine.[16]

Family

Lira's father, Carlos Lira, is an accomplished sports car racer. He has been racing since the age of 18. He has earned five national championships in SCCA Ford Mustang road course competition. He also has experience in Grand Am, Rolex Sports Car Series and Pirelli World Challenge competition. Carlos Lira is a native of Lima, Peru.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series
NASCAR Xfinity Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 NXSC Pts
2016 B. J. McLeod Motorsports 15 Ford DAY ATL LVS PHO CAL TEX BRI RCH TAL DOV CLT POC MCH IOW DAY KEN NHA IND IOW
26		 GLN MOH BRI ROA DAR RCH CHI KEN DOV CLT KAN TEX PHO HOM 71st 15

* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points

ARCA Racing Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Racing Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ARSC Pts
2013 Kimmel Racing 69 Ford DAY MOB SLM TAL TOL ELK POC MCH ROA WIN CHI NJE POC BLN
12		 ISF MAD
13		 DSF 41st 670
68 IOW
18		 SLM
7		 KEN KAN
2014 DAY MOB
9		 SLM
18		 TAL TOL
9		 NJE
12		 POC MCH POC
10		 SLM
27		 KEN
16		 KAN 20th 1750
69 ELK
14		 WIN
17		 CHI IRP
12		 BLN
12		 ISF MAD DSF
2015 Lira Motorsports 58 Ford DAY MOB
8		 NSH
9		 SLM
11		 TAL TOL
17		 NJE
19		 POC
26		 MCH CHI WIN
24		 IOW
25		 IRP
31		 POC BLN ISF DSF SLM KEN KAN 23rd 1220
2016 36 DAY NSH SLM TAL TOL
12		 NJE POC MCH
29		 MAD WIN IOW IRP POC BLN ISF 58th 415
6 DSF
14		 SLM CHI KEN KAN
2017 DAY
37		 NSH
18		 SLM TAL TOL ELK POC MCH MAD IOW IRP POC WIN ISF ROA DSF SLM CHI KEN KAN 83rd 185
gollark: Autobias!
gollark: ++choose 1000 "gollark cool" "gollark uncool"
gollark: ++remind 22d acttivate protocol 2791-C7
gollark: I'm not sure I actually ended up doing that, though - ABR mostly works differently, for example in ++remind.
gollark: RDanny being in python means I could steal code, although mostly I just steal rough design.

References
  1. Spruce Creek sophomore Michael Lira gearing up for ARCA debut (Daytona Beach News Journal, August 23, 2012)
  2. Short Track History/Track Champions (retrieved 7/9/2015)
  3. 16-year-old high school student Michael Lira to make ARCA debut at Berlin with Kimmel Racing (ARCA Racing website, August 8, 2013)
  4. Racing Reference (retrieved July 9, 2015)
  5. 16-year-old Michael Lira learns the craft of Superspeedway racing with Kimmel Racing (ARCA Racing website, December 23, 2013)
  6. Michael Lira returns to DIS for opening day of ARCA testing (Daytona Beach News Journal, December 19, 2014)
  7. Lira heading to Talladega for two days of testing (Daytona Beach News Journal, April 15, 2014)
  8. Racing Reference (retrieved July 9, 2015)
  9. Michael Lira Driver Bio (ARCA Racing website, retrieved July 9, 2015)
  10. Young Port Orange Racer Michael Lira Well Prepared for First ARCA Road Race (Speed51 website, May 30, 2014)
  11. Michael Lira Joins Muehlner Motorsports America For The Rolex 24 At Daytona (Catchfence website, January 20, 2015)
  12. Michael Lira Records A Solid Performance In His Rolex 24 Debut (Lira Motorsports, January 26, 2015)
  13. IMSA race results page (retrieved July 9, 2015)
  14. IMSA race results page (retrieved July 9, 2015)
  15. http://www.imsa.com/sites/default/files/race_result_files/2015_CTSC_MRLS_OfficialRaceResults.pdf
  16. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-10-06. Retrieved 2015-10-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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