Josh Pierson

Joshua Pierson (born February 14, 2006) is an American racing driver.He currently competes in Indy NXT for HMD Motorsports, the FIA World Endurance Championship for United Autosport, and in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for TDS Racing. He previously competed in the U.S. F2000 National Championship with Pabst Racing.

Karting

Having begun his karting career aged two when his father Greg bought him a go-kart, Pierson soon began competing in regional and national competitions. The American would win a number of accolades during the 2010s, most notably winning the Rotax Florida Winter Tour in 2016 and taking home the US Rotax Grand Nationals title the subsequent year.

Lower formulae

At the age of 14, Pierson made his car racing debut in 2020, competing for Exclusive Autosport in the U.S. F2000 National Championship and partaking in two rounds of the F1600 Championship Series. The campaign did not amount to much, as Pierson ended up finishing 20th in the drivers' standings.

The American would return to the USF2000 Championship the following year, this time as part of the Pabst Racing outfit alongside Jace Denmark and Yuven Sundaramoorthy. He started out strongly, scoring a pair of third places at Barber, before bettering that performance with two runner-up spots on the Indy Road Course. Pierson continued to take regular finishes inside the top ten for the remainder of the season, though he would only manage to add one further podium to his name. He ended the year fourth overall, one place behind teammate Sundaramoorthy.

2022: LMP2 Debut

On August 17, 2021, United Autosports announced that it had signed Pierson to compete in the LMP2 category of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship. This would make Pierson the youngest ever driver to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Having gathered some prototype racing experience at the 24 Hours of Daytona and two rounds of the Asian Le Mans Series, where he managed to take two victories in as many starts, Pierson won his debut race at the 1000 Miles of Sebringalongside teammates Oliver Jarvis and Paul di Resta. With the team having controlled the race before an untimely red flag brought a premature end to proceedings, Pierson became the youngest race winner in series history. Following a points-scoring round in Spa, Pierson claimed the record of being the youngest starter at Le Mans and ended up finishing sixth. More points were scored in the subsequent two races, which brought the #23 United crew into outside contention for the LMP2 title come the 8 Hours of Bahrain. Despite finishing second during the race, the result would only yield third in the teams' championship for Pierson and Jarvis, though the American would receive an award for being the "Revelation of the Year" of the 2022 WEC campaign.

Parallel to his WEC commitments, the youngster also partook in a full-time campaign in the IMSA SportsCar Championship as part of the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team. Pierson finished sixth in the drivers' standings, having gotten a podium finish at the season-ending Petit Le Mans race.

2023: Return to United

Pierson re-signed with United Autosports to compete in the 2023 WEC season, once again partnering Oliver Jarvis, with a revolving door of drivers claiming the lineup's third seat. As well as that, it was announced that Pierson would join series newcomer TDS Racing for that year's endurance rounds of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Beginning his sophomore season in the WEC at Sebring, Pierson would inherit the lead from Jarvis and extend their gap during a triple stint. However, their strong race came undone as an onboard camera inside of Pierson's car came loose and hit the ignition switch, pushing it out and causing the #23 United to come to a halt, forcing them to retire in what managing director Richard Dean described as "a one in a million thing". The team bounced back strongly in Portugal, where Pierson, Jarvis and Giedo van der Garde fought to take victory, overcoming a radio issue for Jarvis during their penultimate pitstop that had dropped them to second. Another podium followed at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, where teammate Tom Blomqvist narrowly missed out on the win to Louis Delétraz in the #41 WRT. The Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans did not yield much success, as Blomqvist experienced a crash following a loss of brakes, leading to an eighth-placed finish, meanwhile Pierson and the team would miss out on a podium again during the Monza round, as a last-lap pass from Deléteaz on Jarvis relegated the #23 to fourth by the flag. Fuji ended up burying any remaining title ambitions for the American, who finished fourth alongside Jarvis and Ben Hanley; Pierson had shown impressive pace, though he was also involved in a collision with Rui Andrade for which he was given a 10-second penalty which set the team back, before Hanley lost further time when he was hit by João Paulo de Oliveira's Vanwall.

Indy NXT

2023 season

Alongside his endurance racing commitments, Pierson rejoined the Road to Indy ladder to contest the 2023 Indy NXT campaign with HMD Motorsports.

2024 season

Pierson remained in Indy NXT for 2024, still driving for HMD Motorsports.

IndyCar Series

Pierson joined Ed Carpenter Racing's new racing programme for 2023, becoming a development driver for the 2023 IndyCar Series.

Career summary

* Season still in progress.

† As Pierson was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

American open-wheel racing results

F1600 Championship Series

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

U.S. F2000 National Championship

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Indy NXT

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (Races withindicate a race lap led) (Races with * indicate most race laps led)

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

*Season still in progress.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results