Driving Toward Success

At the racetracks only a handful of drivers have the honor of stepping up to the podium.

On April 19, 22-year-old driver Andrew Pinkerton found himself joining the pros on the day of his professional debut. Though his award wasn’t for placing, it cemented the fact that his career in racing was on its way. 

“Battery Tender, the series sponsor, gives an award to the person who passes the most cars,” Pinkerton said, “and I won that in my first race.” He won the Battery Tender Hard Charger Award for climbing eight spots.

The Vestavia Hills resident described it as “a whirlwind,” especially after putting all of his time, money and energy into driving for the last six years.

Only two weeks before the Mazda Global MX-5 Cup at the , Pinkerton said he got a phone call he wasn’t expecting.

A driver that he had previously done a test session with — professional-level John Mauro — was injured and unable to compete in his spot in the race, but he still needed someone to run because he had a sponsor for the event. Pinkerton was asked to drive the No. 23 Ceramic Pro Mazda and fill in for Mauro for a double-header round of races April 20-21.

The Mazda Global MX-5 Cup, he said, is one of the most competitive series in the country, with the total margin of victory last year less than 5 seconds across all 12 of their races.

“I was jumping in pretty unexperienced,” he said, adding that many of the guys were “veterans” and had been running the race for years, and three former champions were also competing. 

Pinkerton, who finished at 21st out of the 29 drivers in both the races, said that even though qualifying didn’t go too well, they were on pace and looked like they were tracking “to get better and better each session.” Pinkerton said it was his first time racing in six months, and he had about an hour of practice before the race. 

“From a driving standpoint, I will say that I am satisfied. Being a race driver, you’re not happy unless you are winning the race,” he said, with a chuckle. “But it went really well for being the first weekend out, especially being pretty green in the series.”

He said he also experienced mechanical issues on the car, which began in the first lap of qualifying when the alternator failed. Eventually, they got everything sorted out, and he said it wasn’t a big deal after they got the alternator replaced. 

“I’m trying to carry [this experience] and use this to build some momentum. I think it’s also a big thing, it’s effectively a stamp on my credential that I can now call myself a professional racecar driver, legitimately,” Pinkerton said. “So that changes some things going forward. I’m going to attempt to get more work and get more sponsors to try to go racing again soon.”

For the past several years, Pinkerton said he’s been working full-time in the racing and driving industry and has been doing everything he can to get back into a racecar. 

“[This opportunity] was definitely a kind of dream come true. It was kind of tough to realize it was finally happening, but at the same time, you have to take that with a grain of salt and know how the road racing industry works,” he said. “Going out and doing well in one race one weekend doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

Drivers rarely get hired after the first race, he said. It takes time and networking. 

Over the course of the weekend, Pinkerton got to work with sponsor Ceramic Pro and their marketing team and show off what he was capable of doing “on and off the track.”

That’s a big part of racing, he said, being able to interact with media, sponsors, business partners, fans and other people in the racing community. 

Unlike a lot of other sports, Pinkerton said practicing in a traditional sense can be challenging due to costs for engineers, fuel, track rental fees and other components. Because of that, he spends a lot of time on simulators.

What keeps him fresh in the field, he said, is his day job as a racing instructor at the Porsche Sport Driving School, where he coaches younger students on driving skills and techniques. He also works as an instructor at Atlanta Motorsports Park, where he works with some individual clients.

“I’m always talking about it, trying to analyze driving and figure out how to explain it to people,” he said.

In addition, Pinkerton said he works as a driver instructor at the Mercedes-Benz Brand Immersion Experience, an internal program where he works with engineer employees and drives the cars out on the tracks so they can experience the cars to their full capabilities.

In the upcoming years, Pinkerton said he plans to put everything “financial, emotional and physical” he can into racing, with the goal of eventually getting a sponsor and racing for a team, or finding partners that would stick with him in a sustainable relationship.

Learn more about Pinkerton on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, where he can be found @racerpinky.