Barely old enough to drive his mom's SUV, the Oregon native is racing LMP2 cars and will be in the field at Le Mans next week.
As a full-time driver in the LMP2 classes of both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the European-based World Endurance Championship, American Josh Pierson is doubling his racing fun this year.
He’s driving some of the world’s most incredible race cars and competing with some of the best drivers in the business on some of the world’s biggest and most historic stages. Later this month, he’ll be racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
No pressure. No pressure at all.
And we almost forgot to mention one thing. Josh just turned 16 in February.
“Fortunately, I think people are pretty good about just seeing my hard card and letting me walk in,” Pierson told Autoweek when asked if his youthful look has been a factor in something as simple as getting inside the ropes on race weekends. “But I think in general, I had a couple of gate workers at IMSA for the Rolex 24 that kind of double-glanced at me and maybe questioned themselves when I walked through when I had my driver hard card.
“But no one has stopped me yet.”
Josh Pierson drives the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca LMP2 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. At the Rolex 24, he drove with Steven Thomas, Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell.
IMSA
These days, rivals are also doing double-takes at the timing and scoring sheets that show this 16-year-old racer in the thick of championship picture in both series.
Pierson drives the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca LMP2 in the IMSA WeatherTech series. He’s also racing full time for Zak Brown’s United Autosports USA entry in the World Endurance Championship, along with veterans Oliver Jarvis and Alex Lynn. Pierson is fifth in the IMSA LMP2 drivers’ points standings, and he sits second in the early going in the WEC points. Pierson, Lynn, and Jarvis won their class and placed fourth overall at the WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring earlier this spring.
Lynn says that Pierson is a driver who definitely does not act his age at the track.
“There’s a few drivers who have bucked the age trend recently, one of them being (F1 champion) Max Verstappen,” Lynn told Autoweek. “I think it’s really opened my eyes when someone has the education and, naturally, 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 exactly old—I feel like we’re similar age.
“He’s very mature for his years. The headline is his age, but when you meet him, you would never say that.”
Josh Pierson drives the United Autosports USA LMP2 car in the World Endurance Championship race at Sebring earlier this year.
Greg Pierson
Pierson is not from a family of racers so much as from a family that loves racing.
“For a majority of time, especially not having any background information about really the best path, we didn’t really have a big idea of what we were getting into,” Pierson said. “It was more of just like finding the right people, and eventually it led to traveling all over the place. We never really assumed it would go where it has gone.
“I think I was 7 or 8 when we started doing the travel. I don’t know if we assumed it was going to go there, but it was something that me and my dad both enjoyed, and he loved coming to the track and watching me learn and have a better result at each event. I loved the racing and being behind the wheel, wanting to keep pursuing it, and keeping it going.”
Success for the Oregon native came early and often.
“Motorsports in general isn’t a normal sport to pick up when you’re a kid,” Pierson said. “I’m definitely the one that wanted to do it. It wasn’t something that was forced on me or something I didn’t want to do. I was pursuing it at a very young age, and I’ve always wanted to do it. It was something I picked up on my own. I don’t come from a family of racing drivers. My dad did a little local SCCA stuff, but he didn’t really have a professional career in motor racing, so I was the first person in my family who wanted to pursue it as a career.
“It’s been that way from the beginning, and I’ve been chasing this dream and still am.”
Josh Pierson, center, waits for the next WEC session with teammates Paul Di Resta, left, and Oliver Jarvis.
Greg Pierson
Pierson’s first experience driving open-wheel cars came in the F1600 series at age 13. At 14 and 15, he was the youngest driver on the grid in the Road To Indy’s USF2000. He says his big break came after spending some time with driving coach Stephen Simpson, who was helping Pierson during his time in the Road to Indy ladder. Simpson had what turned out to be an invaluable racing connection in former British racing driver Richard Dean, who is the co-founder of United Autosports.
“Stephen Simpson has been really helpful in working with me and teaching me some things that maybe I didn’t know that could be used later on,” Pierson said. “I think in general, he saw potential in the sports-car side of things with me. Ultimately, that helped arrange a test session and showed me that I had what it took to do it.”
Pierson’s life-changing test session with United Autosports—at age 15—came at a rather unlikely place. It was a circuit where he had to sign a waiver to even be allowed on the track.
“It was a test in Austria at the Red Bull Ring,” Pierson said. “It’s a beautiful track, and it was my first time in their P2 car. When you go into these test sessions, you know deep down that there’s a lot on the line. If they like you, they’ll want you to race with them, and it’s important to do well. But that’s not really my mindset, because if you think about that, you put a lot of pressure on yourself.
“For me, any new test in a new car, no matter what I’m doing, it’s always for me just taking it session by session and slowly building up the pace to a fast pace—kind of figuring out the car and not trying to rush into things. In Austria, it was taking things step by step and slowly building up speed and eventually, I think It was the next week when we were home, we got a letter saying they wanted us to do the full World Endurance Championship season.
“It was kind of what started this whole crazy idea of racing LMP2 this year. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the connections, I would still be on the Road to Indy, trying to progress through he ladder with the scholarships to IndyCar. We’re a ways into it now, and we have three wins on the international stage. It’s something incredible.”
Two of those wins came at Abu Dhabi in the Asian Le Mans Series, where he shared driving duties with former Formula 1 driver Paul Di Resta.
Pierson, right, earned his place on the top step of the victory podium with the win at Sebring.
Greg Pierson
Veteran Renger van der Zande, who drives a Cadillac Racing DPi in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, is not all that surprised that a 16-year-old can not only race in these top series, but race for wins.
“The funny thing is that things are changing,” van der Zande told Autoweek. “These guys are on their PlayStations from when they are 5, 7 years old, racing. In the past, that wasn’t the case. People would get their first go at a go-kart when they were 10, and now they’re getting them at 5. I put my daughter—she’s 5 years old—in a go-kart the other day.
“And then you’re getting ready for cars when you’re 10 or 12, and then at 16 you can race in these kind of championships. It’s just amazing.”
Van der Zande, 36, said that he was still racing in karts when he was 16.
Pierson, meanwhile, is still getting used to the endurance racing mindset that includes sharing the car with teammates on race day.
“It’s an interesting feeling because my whole career I’ve just been used to driving with me, myself, and I,” Pierson said. “It was something different to get used to, having multiple drivers in the car. But the point of it adding more pressure with knowing that if you screw up, you’re not just screwing up for yourself, I think there’s another way you can look at it that relieves a lot of that pressure.”
Here’s where that wise-beyond-his-years thing kicks in.
“And that’s the sense that because you have multiple divers in the car, you don’t necessarily need to be the fastest driver, and you don’t necessarily need to be the hero,” Pierson said. “If you look at it that way and you think, ‘I’ve got three other guys in the car who are helping me during this race,’ I don’t need to be the hero that goes out and passes everyone and wins the race, because that’s not possible.
“So, you can look at it that way, and say, ‘Well, they’re going to help me do this race, and it’s my job just to keep the car in one piece and keep it going. I’m not the Platinum or the Gold driver, so therefore I don’t have to be racing the Platinum or the other Gold drivers. I can just focus on racing the Silvers, and that’s my job. And I can focus on getting my car back to the pits cleanly and getting out.
“When you look at it that way, it relieves a lot of the pressure. It’s a team sport, and they’re there, and we all know that as drivers, screwing up is not something that we should be overly worried about. It’s going to happen. It’s bound to happen, and it has happened.”
Next up on the high school sophomore’s schedule is the 24 Hours of Le Mans June 11-12.
“I’ve grown up watching the race, and so I’m very excited to get on track and experience the track for the first time,” he said. “It’s a unique place with a unique atmosphere, and I can’t wait to get out there and drive.”
No pressure. No pressure at all.
Keyword: 16-Year-Old Josh Pierson Proving He Belongs in IMSA, WEC Title Chases