After a successful rookie season on the Super DIRTcar Series that included two top-five finishes and seven top-10 finishes, Adam Pierson is just getting started.
The East Corinth, VT native took detailed notes on his rookie season experiences and intends to put it all to use in 2023.
“Probably the biggest thing that we learned was having to adapt to different racetrack sizes, reading each track as it goes on through the night,” Pierson said. “If you don’t have a lot of experience at a track, you don’t know what it’s going to do, so you kind of just don’t really touch your car a lot.”
Pierson started off the season slow, getting accustomed to the competition, finishing in the middle of the field. The results of his tenacity started to show during the second half of the season, finishing second during the second night of SummerFAST at Land of Legends Raceway. Five weeks later when the Series visited Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Pierson held a steady lead over the competition for the first 80 laps of the 100 lap Feature.
But it was not smooth sailing to the finish line for the rookie, as he dealt with another challenge. Another motor issue forced him to permanently exit the track on Lap 83.
“Motor issues was our weakness this year, I think,” Pierson said. “When we had a good motor running, we did well, but we lost three motors this year, one obviously at Albany (Saratoga Speedway).
After the season concluded at The Dirt Track at Charlotte on Nov. 5, Pierson admittedly, “did not want to look at or touch a race car for two or three weeks.” The wear and tear of the season’s grind had worn him down, and he needed to embrace the time away from racing in the offseason. After some quality time with his wife, attending his children’s basketball games, and even firing up his iRacing console, he’s ready to refocus his attention to the upcoming season.
Pierson has every intention of getting back into the swing of things at DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park, Feb. 15-18, 2023.
“I’m going down there to knock the rust off I guess,” Pierson said. “To be honest, there hasn’t been a whole lot of rust to get knocked off because we race in November, and it’s only been a couple months. It would be good to start really well down there. Our goal would be to qualify every night and not use the [Last Chance Showdown] stuff; we can go through the Heats, time well. I’d love to win one. I think we have the car, the team, the equipment to do it, it’s just everything has to line up together.”
And besides the incremental improvements to be more in the “top-10, top-eight, top-five” in Series finishes, he has one coveted goal that will be on his mind a little more than others when he takes the seat the wheel of his #215 machine.
“My goal this year is to win at least a Super DIRTcar race,” Pierson said. “Whether it’s at our home track Albany (Saratoga Speedway), or a track that we’re decent at, or a track that we don’t have a lot of experience at. That would be my goal.”
UP NEXT: The Super DIRTcar Series will commence it’s 2023 season at Volusia Speedway Park during the 52nd DIRTcar Nationals, Feb. 15-18. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every Super DIRTcar Series race live on DIRTVision – either at DIRTVision.com or by downloading the DIRTVision App
