Racer Profile: Andrew Nier

Becoming A Race Car Driver The Long Way

Andrew Nier is not your prototypical race car driver. He didn’t start off in karting to move his way up the ranks and through the various feeder series. He didn’t grow up with tons and tons of money. He went about fulfilling his dream of being a driver the long way. Andrew got involved in racing in college, but he has been interested in cars forever. He restored his first car, a 1953 Pontiac Catalina, and has also been the proud owner of a mid-1980s Alfa Romeo Spyder, and most recently (and perhaps most famously) he acquired a 2012 Mustang GT that does double duty as both daily driver and race car.

Andrew got his start in racing while participating in the University of Southern California’s Formula SAE program. “The thing that was great about the USC Formula SAE team was that it was so small that we weren’t really able to make people specialize in different things on the car. I was able to work on all aspects of the car and that really informs what I do now racing my Mustang,” said Nier. Andrew graduated from college in 2008 and soon after started autocrossing his Alfa Romeo and even took it to a few track days. It quickly became apparent that a then 25 year old Italian convertible might not be the most ideal track rat. After some serious research, Andrew went out and purchased his 2012 Mustang GT and managed to leave it stock for an entire year. Eventually though, he started taking it to track days, then autocrosses, and before long he was participating in the Global Time Attack and Ultimate Street Car Association series.

While working his way through these series, Andrew got involved with the folks at Hillbank Motorsports in Irvine, CA and the modifications on his car began to stack up. It was also through Hillbank that Andrew was introduced to MagnaFlow. “Initially I was running kind of a hodgepodge setup with a mix of factory and Roush pieces but when I started working with Hillbank, they pretty much immediately said that I needed an upgrade and so we installed the MagnaFlow system. It sounds and looks great and performs flawlessly,” said Andrew.

Andrew Nier still wants to be a professional driver and over the past few years he has managed to make huge strides towards that goal. The next big milestone for Andrew will be him acquiring his racing license and doing wheel-to-wheel racing. Andrew’s road to being a professional race car driver hasn’t been the straightest or easiest path but he has made it pretty far on grit and determination with the help of great companies like Hillbank and MagnaFlow. If you’re in Southern California, keep an eye out for Andrew and his black Mustang at events like the Hotchkis Autocross series, the Global Time Attack series, and the Ultimate Street Car Association series. Don’t worry, the Mustang is easy to spot. It’s the one with the giant wing and even bigger splitter and diffuser!