Andrew Pilgrim (born 18 August 1956) is an American racing driver. He has competed in the

SCCA World Challenge The GT World Challenge America is a North American auto racing series launched in 1990 by the Sports Car Club of America. It has been managed by the SRO Motorsports Group since 2018, and has been sanctioned by the United States Auto Club since 2 ...

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

, and

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Racing career

Having taken a keen interest in

motorcycles A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

as a child, Pilgrim started racing them as soon as he started a full-time job (computer programmer). He raced them from 1978 to 1980, finishing 2nd in two National Championships (Avon/Bike Magazine Series & Kawasaki 400 Series) & won several Club championships in just two and a half seasons. He accepted a job offer in the USA towards the end of 1980. Pilgrim was living in England when his job as a

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

necessitated a move to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. His first foray into racing stateside was with SCCA Autocross. In 1984, Pilgrim borrowed $3,000 to buy a Renault Alliance and began competing with it. He eventually moved up to professional racing in 1986 running the Firebird series. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Pilgrim ran in the Corvette Challenge series. Pilgrim made appearances in the

in the late 1990s, running for New Hardware Racing, Roock Racing and Corvette Racing. He joined the

Chevrolet Corvette The Chevrolet Corvette is a line of American two-door, two-seater sports cars manufactured and marketed by General Motors under the Chevrolet marque since 1953. Throughout eight generations, indicated sequentially as C1 to C8, the Corvette is not ...

factory team in 1999. In 2001 he was selected as teammate for

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and broadcaster. A third-generation driver, he is the son of the late 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and relative ...

, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Kelly Collins in the

and the team finished second in class. After the 24 Hours of Daytona, Dale Earnhardt Sr. promised to someday put Pilgrim in a NASCAR stock-car, a promise he was unable to fulfill due to his

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

a few weeks later during the 2001 Daytona 500. Pilgrim is the last person to have engaged in conversation with Earnhardt before he died. Pilgrim became a United States citizen in 1998. From 2004 to 2008, Pilgrim drove for

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

in the SPEED World Challenge, winning a championship in 2005. He moved to K-Pax Racing in 2009 and 2010 before returning to Cadillac for another stint that lasted from 2011 to 2014. In 2015, he stepped away from the PWC to run various endurance races. In 2016, Pilgrim joined Black Swan Racing for a four-race endurance schedule, including the

. The move came after his FIA rating was changed from gold to silver. Pilgrim returned to the World Challenge in 2018 with Blackdog Speed Shop. In 2007, Pilgrim drove two road course races in the

NASCAR Busch Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level NASCAR Cup Series, Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a Undercard, support ...

for JR Motorsports. Pilgrim made his

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

debut in 2011 at Infineon Raceway driving the No. 46 for Whitney Motorsports, where he finished 26th.

Personal life

Pilgrim operates a traffic safety foundation.

Motorsports career results

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

24 Hours of Le Mans results

NASCAR

( key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Busch Series

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Pilgrim did not complete sufficient laps in order to score full points.

References

External links

* *
Traffic Safety Education Foundation profile

''Automobile'' magazine page

Corvette Racing profile

Blancpain GT profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilgrim, Andy 1956 births 24 Hours of Daytona drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers American Le Mans Series drivers English racing drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Living people NASCAR drivers Racing drivers from Nottingham Sportspeople from Boca Raton, Florida WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers 24H Series drivers Corvette Racing drivers JR Motorsports drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers GT World Challenge America drivers 20th-century English sportsmen