Pirelli Paddock Pass: J.R. Pesek

This week in the Pirelli Paddock Pass, PF Racing team owner and driver J.R. Pesek looks back on last season in Pirelli World Challenge, discusses the future involvement of his PF Racing team, and more.

How did your season mesh with your expectations?

“We expected the Mustangs to be good and we felt that overall they ran pretty strong. Unfortunately the No. 10 car was just in the wrong place at the wrong time too many times. It was just a tough year for that car.

“But overall as a team, we tied with Panoz on points in the manufacturer’s championship and we felt good about that. We were one point off of Blackdog Speed Shop for the team’s championship, so I think we did pretty good.”

Where did your interest in road racing come from?

“I’ve always had an interest in cars and going fast. I used to do some drag racing and it just seemed like an awful lot of work for eight seconds. We tried this and we liked it.

“We’ve only been doing this for three years, so it’s a short time. I think from where we were to where we are now, we’ve been pretty succesful.”

Where would you ultimately like to see PF Racing?

“I’m happy with where we made it this year. I’d like to see us in several series, I’d like to do some overseas stuff and see what we can compete with over there.

“Our goal this year was to come out an put our footprint into the racing world. We really enjoyed the partnership between ourselves and Multimatic.

“They’re great to work with and we learned a lot about the cars from them. Hopefully they can learn from us, too.”

What does the ‘PF’ in PF Racing stand for?

“Pesek Family. Where that came up was that we used to be in the refuse business, and when we got out of it you have to move your stuff to other businesses, so we actually had Pesek Family Land which has a lot of the land that we own.

“It’s good because I’ve got myself, my son James, and a younger son who’s 14 and would like to get into it a little bit. Someday you might see three Peseks at the track.”