Cole Pesz has a rich family history in drag racing, and the 22-year-old is wasting no time continuing the tradition. In 2023, he became the co-owner of PJS Racing Engines with his father, legendary Pro Mod driver Brandon Pesz, fulfilling a lifelong dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very thankful with what God\u2019s blessed me with,\u201d says Pesz. \u201cMy dad is my hero, and it means a lot to own a company with him. I don\u2019t know many 22-year-olds that are able to do that. We\u2019re a dynamic duo. I don\u2019t think he can do it without me, and I don\u2019t think I can do it without him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pesz\u2019s role within the company involves roughly 70% of the manual labor, including building and servicing engines, putting together transmissions and fuel systems, shipping parts, and getting crews lined out and organized at the track. Becoming co-owner of PJS was the logical next step for the young man from Weatherford, Texas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was really never a choice,\u201d Pesz says, laughing. \u201cAll I ever knew was racing. When they had Career Day at school, my dad was there and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. My mom ran A\/Fuel when I was eight years old, and ran 275 mph. My grandpa is in the Division 4 Hall of Fame. It\u2019s my whole family, and I\u2019m thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pesz has also expanded his role outside the shop this year, attending more than 25 races across a multitude of sanctioning bodies. He has worked hands-on with drivers like Jeff Cameron in Funny Car Chaos and James Beadling in PDRA. Perhaps most notably, he\u2019s joined forces with Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings<\/em> star \u201cChuck 55\u201d Parker. But for Pesz, being in the television spotlight isn\u2019t a distraction. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRacing is racing. I\u2019m truly just there to work,\u201d says Pesz. \u201cI don\u2019t care if there\u2019s TV cameras around, or if you\u2019re racing on the street. Me and Chuck are very close to the same person, so we get along well. And the car, it\u2019s fast. We\u2019ve got a lot of traction in that series now, so I\u2019m excited for what\u2019s coming next year.\u201d<\/p>\n One area that Pesz is continuing to learn and grow is with the tuning aspect of the sport. Currently, his father handles all the tuning duties at PJS Racing, but that will change in 2024.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTuning is something I really want to get into,\u201d Pesz says. \u201cIt\u2019s a very complicated process, but it\u2019s not something I can\u2019t handle. We\u2019re going to be working on that a lot this winter. If I can be half of what my dad is, I\u2019d say I\u2019m doing pretty damn good.\u201d<\/p>\n Pesz has more big plans on the horizon as well. He recently bought a Larry Jeffers-built Pro Mod \u201969 Camaro that will feature a PJS Racing Engine and ProCharger combination he\u2019s currently putting together. When and where he debuts the car, however, is still up in the air.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI try not to look too far ahead, because I feel like you can get distracted from the present,\u201d says Pesz. \u201cMost of my goals aren\u2019t based upon driving. I\u2019m not a guy who\u2019s going to pass up business opportunities to go drive. I\u2019m a team player. Business comes first, and driving comes second.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad has put so much time and effort into this deal, and there\u2019s no other way to look at it but to succeed,\u201d Pesz continues. \u201cPJS is a movement. It\u2019s by racers for racers, and a lot of people see that we care. That\u2019s what we\u2019re about, and we\u2019re going to be around for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n The post DI 30 Under 30 2023: Cole Pesz<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cole Pesz has a rich family history in drag racing, and the 22-year-old is wasting no time continuing the tradition. In 2023, he became the co-owner of PJS Racing Engines with his father, legendary Pro Mod driver Brandon Pesz, fulfilling a lifelong dream. \u201cI\u2019m very thankful with what God\u2019s blessed me with,\u201d says Pesz. \u201cMy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}