During the years 1986 and 1987 he competed in the ECAR Formula Atlantic Championship with a total of 5 wins, finishing 3rd in points in 1987.
He made 6 Indy Lights starts in 1988 with Chip Ganassi Racing with one win on his series debut at Pocono.
The same year at the Pocono Raceway event Michael crashed heavily in practice, failing to qualify there as well.
He also ran two more races with Dale Coyne Racing and competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1991, then returned in 1994 and 1995 to attempt to qualify for the Indy 500 with a 1993 Lola powered by a pushrod V8 engine designed and built by his father Peter.
In 1994 Michael was not able to complete rookie orientation and the team was forced to hire Johnny Parsons to drive the car, however, it never came up to speed and they did not make a qualifying attempt.