Pierson, who lies fourth within the 2021 USF2000 Championship on the Road to Indy ladder, is on the right track to beat the report set by fellow American Matt McMurry in 2014 ought to he make the grid in one in all United’s LMP2 ORECA-Gibson 07s at Le Mans on June 11/12 2022.
He shall be 16 and 117 days, which compares with McMurry’s 16 and 202 days when he raced a Zytek Z11SN LMP2 run beneath the Caterham Racing banner by Greaves Motorsport.
Pierson, who’s at Le Mans as a visitor of United this week, defined that there have been a number of causes for his determination to maneuver in sportscars for what shall be solely his third season of automobile racing.
“I think this is one of the best series in the world,” he informed Autosport.
“I’ve grown up watching it and it is one thing I wished to do.
“But this is also a great way to get my name out there.”
Pierson defined that he’s anticipating to make chosen appearances within the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America to organize for the WEC programme.
“I will be doing a little bit of IMSA from what I know now as training for this,” he mentioned.
“I wanted to do WEC because it’s on a bigger scale and it’s what United had on the docket for me.”
Pierson bought his first style of an LMP2 automobile with the PR1/Mathiasen IMSA squad on the Button Willow in California circuit earlier this 12 months, previous to a try-out with United on the Red Bull Ring in May.
United group boss Richard Dean defined that the reference to Pierson got here through sportscar racer Stephen Simpson, who drove for his JLR group in Formula Renault within the mid-2000s.
“Stephen contacted me over the winter telling me that he was coaching this kid who was really good and that I ought to meet him,” mentioned Dean.
#22 United Autosports Usa Oreca 07 – Gibson: Philip Hanson, Fabio Scherer, Filipe Albuquerque
Photo by: Paolo Belletti
“I met Josh before the Sebring 12 Hours and he told me he’d always been interested in sportscars and Le Mans.”
Dean revealed that Pierson instantly impressed throughout a day of testing on the Red Bull Ring.
“We set out a proper programme, long runs, double stints, pit-ins and pit-outs, and there wasn’t a single thing that he didn’t pick up instantly,” Dean defined.
Team-mates for Pierson, who shall be graded as a silver driver, in what seems to be set to be an expanded two-car assault from United in 2022 have but to be introduced.
Pierson defined that he’s anticipating to proceed racing single-seaters subsequent 12 months, though the WEC programme shall be his precedence.
“I don’t think I will abandon single-seaters, but we will have to see what the options are,” he mentioned.
Pierson revealed that he nonetheless has aspirations to achieve the top of single-seater racing in both Formula 1 or IndyAutomotive.
He started driving karts on the age of two and racing them at 4.
Pierson graduated to automobiles when he turned 14 in February 2020: he began out racing F1600 single-seaters however switched to USF2000 when the sequence he was contesting was cancelled because of COVID.
He additionally raced an Indy Pro 2000 automobile, which is the following step on the Road to Indy ladder, within the SCCA’s Atlantic Championship Series.
