Josh Pierson
Pierson in 2022
Nationality	American
Born	(2006-02-14) February 14, 2006 (age 18) Portland, Oregon, United States
WEC career
Debut season	2022
Current team	United Autosports
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Car number	23
Co-driver	Oliver Jarvis
Starts	12 (12 entries)
Wins	2
Podiums	4
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	3rd in 2022
Previous series
2022 2020– 21 2020	Asian Le Mans Series - LMP2 U.S. F2000 Championship F1600 Championship Series

Joshua Pierson ^[1] (born February 14, 2006) is an American racing driver. ^[2] He competes in Indy NXT for HMD Motorsports, the FIA World Endurance Championship for United Autosport, ^[3] and in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for TDS Racing. ^[4] He previously competed in the U.S. F2000 National Championship with Pabst Racing. ^[5]

Early career

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. ^[6] 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. ^[7]

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. ^[8] 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. ^[9] 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. ^{[10] [11]} 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. ^[12]

Sportscar career

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. ^[13] 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. ^[14] 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. ^{[15] [16]} Following a points-scoring round in Spa, Pierson claimed the record of being the youngest starter at Le Mans and ended up finishing sixth. ^[17] 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. ^[18] 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. ^{[19] [20] [21]}

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. ^{[22] [23]} Pierson finished sixth in the drivers' standings, having gotten a podium finish at the season-ending Petit Le Mans race. ^[24]

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. ^[3] 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. ^[4]

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". ^[25] 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. ^[26] 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. ^[27] 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. ^{[28] [29] [30]} 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. ^{[31] [32]} After taking eighth place in Bahrain, Pierson and Jarvis finished fifth in the drivers' standings.

IndyCar ladder

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. ^[33] Having missed five races, the driver from Oregon ended up 15th in the standings, scoring a best finish of sixth at Iowa.

2024 season

Pierson remained in Indy NXT for 2024, still driving for HMD Motorsports. ^[34] During the season opener at St. Pete, Pierson collided with Jamie Chadwick and was penalised for avoidable contact, eventually ending up 13th. ^[35]

IndyCar Series

Pierson joined Ed Carpenter Racing's new racing programme for 2023, becoming a development driver for the 2023 IndyCar Series. ^[36]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2020	F1600 Championship Series	lovation, TransUnion	6	0	0	0	2	72	22nd
	U.S. F2000 National Championship	Exclusive Autosport	16	0	0	0	0	57	20th
2021	U.S. F2000 National Championship	Pabst Racing	18	0	0	0	5	291	4th
2022	Asian Le Mans Series - LMP2	United Autosports	2	2	0	0	2	0	NC†
	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2		6	1	0	0	2	113	3rd
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
	IMSA SportsCar Championship - LMP2	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	7	0	0	0	1	1809	6th
2023	Indy NXT	HMD Motorsports	9	0	0	0	0	173	15th
	FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2	United Autosports	7	1	0	0	2	92	5th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	8th
	IMSA SportsCar Championship - LMP2	TDS Racing	4	0	0	0	1	892	14th
2024	Indy NXT	HMD Motorsports	1	0	0	0	0	17*	13th*

* 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)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Rank	Points
2020	Iovation, TransUnion	PIT 17	PIT 6	PIT 4	MOH	MOH	MOH	VIR	VIR	VIR	SPMP	SPMP	SPMP	PIT 3	PIT 2	PIT Ret	ATL	ATL	ATL	22nd	72

U.S. F2000 National Championship

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

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Rank	Points
2020	Exclusive Autosport	ROA 13	ROA 19	MOH 15	MOH 16	MOH 17	LOR 19	IMS 17	IMS 18	IMS 12	MOH 17	MOH 16	MOH 18	NJMP 13	NJMP 10	NJMP 10	STP 15	STP DNS		20th	57
2021	Pabst Racing	ALA 3	ALA 3	STP 7	STP 10	IMS 4	IMS 2	IMS 2	LOR 8	ROA 9	ROA 3	MOH 8	MOH 12	MOH 11	NJMP 6	NJMP 11	NJMP 5	MOH 11	MOH 6	4th	291

Indy NXT

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

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
2023	HMD Motorsports	STP 16	BAR	IMS 17	DET	DET	RDA 11	MDO 9	IOW 6	NSH 10	IMS 8	GMP 10	POR 17	LAG	LAG	15th	173
2024		STP 13	BAR	IMS	IMS	DET	RDA	LAG	LAG	MDO	IOW	GMP	POR	MIL	NSH	13th*	17*

* Season still in progress.

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

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

Year	Team	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pos.	Points
2022	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	DAY 8	SEB 4	LGA 4	MDO 6	WGL 6	ELK 5	PET 3	6th	1809
2023	TDS Racing	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	DAY 4	SEB 8	MON	WGL 4	ELK	IMS	PET 2	14th	892

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Rank	Points
2022	United Autosports USA	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	SEB 1	SPA 6	LMS 6	MNZ 5	FUJ 5	BHR 2		3rd	113
2023	United Autosports	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	SEB Ret	PRT 1	SPA 2	LMS 6	MNZ 4	FUJ 4	BHR 8	5th	92

*Season still in progress.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2022	United Autosports USA	Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07- Gibson	LMP2	368	10th	6th
2023	United Autosports	Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07- Gibson	LMP2	323	18th	8th

References

External links

• Josh Pierson career summary at DriverDB.com