16-Year-Old Josh Pierson Proving He Belongs in IMSA, WEC Title Chases

As a whole-time driver in the LMP2 classes of both equally the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the European-dependent Environment Stamina Championship, American Josh Pierson is doubling his racing enjoyable this calendar year.

He is driving some of the world’s most unbelievable race autos and competing with some of the finest motorists in the business on some of the world’s major and most historic phases. Later on this thirty day period, he’ll be racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

No force. No pressure at all.

And we practically forgot to point out a person point. Josh just turned 16 in February.

“Fortunately, I consider men and women are rather fantastic about just seeing my challenging card and permitting me walk in,” Pierson told Autoweek when asked if his youthful look has been a component in anything as easy as getting within the ropes on race weekends. “But I feel in normal, I had a couple of gate employees at IMSA for the Rolex 24 that form of double-glanced at me and maybe questioned themselves when I walked by means of when I had my driver tough card.

“But no one has stopped me yet.”

These times, rivals are also undertaking double-will take at the timing and scoring sheets that clearly show this 16-year-aged racer in the thick of championship image in both of those series.

Pierson drives the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca LMP2 in the IMSA WeatherTech sequence. He is also racing whole time for Zak Brown’s United Autosports United states entry in the Earth Endurance Championship, together with veterans Oliver Jarvis and Alex Lynn. Pierson is fifth in the IMSA LMP2 drivers’ points standings, and he sits second in the early heading in the WEC points. Pierson, Lynn, and Jarvis gained their course and put fourth over-all at the WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring before this spring.

Lynn suggests that Pierson is a driver who absolutely does not act his age at the track.

“There is certainly a few motorists who have bucked the age pattern just lately, one of them getting (F1 winner) Max Verstappen,” Lynn informed Autoweek. “I assume it really is seriously opened my eyes when an individual has the education and, obviously, I would say the aptitude that Josh has. He’s 16, but when you speak to him, the way he acts—I’m 28, not accurately old—I truly feel like we are identical age.

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“He’s extremely mature for his many years. The headline is his age, but when you satisfy him, you would never say that.”

Pierson is not from a relatives of racers so much as from a family that loves racing.

“For a vast majority of time, specifically not getting any qualifications facts about definitely the very best path, we did not genuinely have a significant thought of what we were receiving into,” Pierson mentioned. “It was more of just like obtaining the proper persons, and sooner or later it led to traveling all more than the location. We in no way truly assumed it would go in which it has gone.

“I assume I was 7 or 8 when we started doing the travel. I do not know if we assumed it was going to go there, but it was a little something that me and my dad each appreciated, and he liked coming to the observe and seeing me learn and have a superior final result at each celebration. I loved the racing and staying guiding the wheel, wanting to retain pursuing it, and preserving it going.”

Good results for the Oregon indigenous came early and usually.

“Motorsports in normal is not a usual sport to decide up when you’re a kid,” Pierson mentioned. “I’m absolutely the just one that required to do it. It wasn’t a thing that was pressured on me or anything I didn’t want to do. I was pursuing it at a incredibly young age, and I’ve constantly wanted to do it. It was a little something I picked up on my very own. I really don’t come from a family of racing motorists. My father did a small community SCCA things, but he did not actually have a expert vocation in motor racing, so I was the very first man or woman in my family members who required to go after it as a job.

“It’s been that way from the commencing, and I’ve been chasing this desire and continue to am.”

Pierson’s very first expertise driving open-wheel autos came in the F1600 collection at age 13. At 14 and 15, he was the youngest driver on the grid in the Road To Indy’s USF2000. He states his big break came following spending some time with driving coach Stephen Simpson, who was encouraging Pierson for the duration of his time in the Road to Indy ladder. Simpson experienced what turned out to be an priceless racing relationship in former British racing driver Richard Dean, who is the co-founder of United Autosports.

“Stephen Simpson has been definitely handy in functioning with me and instructing me some issues that maybe I did not know that could be applied afterwards on,” Pierson reported. “I believe in general, he saw prospective in the sports-auto facet of points with me. Finally, that aided organize a exam session and showed me that I had what it took to do it.”

Pierson’s lifestyle-transforming exam session with United Autosports—at age 15—came at a relatively not likely spot. It was a circuit exactly where he had to indication a waiver to even be authorized on the keep track of.

“It was a check in Austria at the Crimson Bull Ring,” Pierson reported. “It is a lovely monitor, and it was my to start with time in their P2 auto. When you go into these examination periods, you know deep down that there is a good deal on the line. If they like you, they’ll want you to race with them, and it is vital to do nicely. But that is not genuinely my way of thinking, simply because if you feel about that, you set a large amount of pressure on oneself.

“For me, any new exam in a new car or truck, no make a difference what I’m carrying out, it’s always for me just getting it session by session and bit by bit making up the pace to a rapidly pace—kind of figuring out the auto and not seeking to hurry into matters. In Austria, it was getting points move by stage and gradually making up velocity and at some point, I believe It was the future 7 days when we had been property, we bought a letter declaring they preferred us to do the complete Globe Stamina Championship period.

“It was form of what began this full outrageous concept of racing LMP2 this calendar year. To be sincere, if it wasn’t for the connections, I would nevertheless be on the Highway to Indy, hoping to development via he ladder with the scholarships to IndyCar. We’re a approaches into it now, and we have 3 wins on the worldwide phase. It’s a thing extraordinary.”

Two of those wins arrived at Abu Dhabi in the Asian Le Mans Series, in which he shared driving duties with previous Components 1 driver Paul Di Resta.

Veteran Renger van der Zande, who drives a Cadillac Racing DPi in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Automobile Championship, is not all that amazed that a 16-calendar year-old can not only race in these major series, but race for wins.

“The humorous detail is that items are transforming,” van der Zande told Autoweek. “These fellas are on their PlayStations from when they are 5, 7 several years old, racing. In the past, that was not the case. People today would get their initial go at a go-kart when they were 10, and now they’re having them at 5. I set my daughter—she’s 5 years old—in a go-kart the other working day.

“And then you are receiving completely ready for automobiles when you’re 10 or 12, and then at 16 you can race in these kind of championships. It can be just incredible.”

Van der Zande, 36, said that he was however racing in karts when he was 16.

Pierson, in the meantime, is however getting utilized to the stamina racing frame of mind that contains sharing the motor vehicle with teammates on race working day.

“It’s an attention-grabbing sensation because my complete occupation I’ve just been utilized to driving with me, myself, and I,” Pierson explained. “It was a little something various to get made use of to, having various motorists in the car or truck. But the level of it including much more strain with figuring out that if you screw up, you are not just screwing up for you, I believe there is a further way you can glimpse at it that relieves a whole lot of that tension.”

Here’s wherever that smart-further than-his-many years factor kicks in.

“And that’s the perception that for the reason that you have many divers in the car, you really do not necessarily have to have to be the swiftest driver, and you really do not automatically will need to be the hero,” Pierson stated. “If you look at it that way and you believe, ‘I’ve acquired 3 other guys in the vehicle who are encouraging me in the course of this race,’ I never want to be the hero that goes out and passes everybody and wins the race, because which is not probable.

“So, you can look at it that way, and say, ‘Well, they are likely to support me do this race, and it’s my job just to keep the vehicle in one particular piece and keep it likely. I’m not the Platinum or the Gold driver, so consequently I you should not have to be racing the Platinum or the other Gold drivers. I can just target on racing the Silvers, and that’s my work. And I can concentration on having my automobile back again to the pits cleanly and receiving out.

“When you appear at it that way, it relieves a large amount of the pressure. It’s a team activity, and they are there, and we all know that as motorists, screwing up is not something that we must be extremely fearful about. It’s heading to transpire. It’s sure to take place, and it has occurred.”

Subsequent up on the significant school sophomore’s agenda is the 24 Several hours of Le Mans June 11-12.

“I have grown up seeing the race, and so I’m very thrilled to get on keep track of and practical experience the observe for the to start with time,” he mentioned. “It is a exceptional area with a special environment, and I can’t hold out to get out there and generate.”

No pressure. No tension at all.