Matt McMurry Set a Le Mans Record at 16; Now He's Engineering a New Career Path

Exactly two people on the planet know what it's like to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the age of 16.

Earlier this month, American Josh Pierson set the record for being the youngest driver ever to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the age of 16 years and 118 days. Pierson broke the record youngest driver that was set in 2014 by another American, Matt McMurry.

McMurry was 16 years, 202 days old we drove an LMP2 car for Greaves Motorsport across the finish line in France eight years ago. He went on to race at Le Mans three times. In addition to his record run in 2014, he raced at Le Mans in both 2017 and 2020 for Algarve Pro Racing.

“It feels like it was a long time ago,” McMurry told Autoweek when asked to look back on his first brush with racing history. “I had a little bit of an idea of the significance, but looking back, I really didn’t. It was a crazy thing to do at such a young age.

"It was really hard to do. I was still in high school full-time and racing at Le Mans. Not a lot of people do stuff like that.”

Especially at 16.

"I remember specific moments from the test days, the race itself and the parade," McMurry, now 24, said. "The parade is always really memorable, every time I’ve done it. It’s so cool. It’s such special event, there’s nothing like it in any other racing series. I definitely remember that.

"I remember the test days and how dirty the track is when you first go out, just from dirt and oil and junk from road cars. I remember my first stint in the race, which was in the rain, really torrential rain, and it was a very long lap on slicks in the wet.

"I got to do a lot of really cool parts of the race—sunrise was another really cool one because that’s when the track is the fastest, generally. Also, I got to do the final stint, which was really special with the confetti and all the flaggers coming out and waving the flags on the track."

There was no confetti or flags for McMurry this year at Le Mans. And he knows that there are no guarantees that he'll get another shot at the world's greatest sports car race.

McMurry doesn't have a ride right now. Despite a nice run the past few years that included a 2019 LMP2 and a 2020 GTD championship in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar series, and a third-place season finish last year in a GT3 car racing in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS.

In the Fanatec series, he was part of a winning class effort at 2021 GT World Challenge America's Indy 8 hour.

Unfortunately, as McMurry can attest, racing at the top level can be a game of musical chairs. It's a game where there's more drivers than seats. Right now, he's on the outside looking in.

And while he waits for the music to start up again, he finds himself back in the middle of the racing action on a different level. Fortunately, McMurry had a Plan B with his racing career.

While he was racing, he graduated high school in his hometown of Phoenix, and then continued juggling books and racing schedules until in 2020, he earned his Bachelor's Degree in aerospace engineering from the University of California-Irvine.

These days, he's got what would appear to be a dream job for a racer who just happens to have an engineering degree—again, a rather small club, to be sure. McMurry works as a vehicle dynamics engineer for Honda Performance Development in California. There he's part of the engineering team working on the new Acura LMDh challenger for the 2023 IMSA season. He also plays a key role, logging hours on the race simulator for the project.

That's about as close as McMurry has gotten to a race car in a while.

“This year, so far,” he said. “But it’s pretty close. The simulator we’ve got is pretty nice.”

McMurry says he hopes to get out of the office later this summer and get back behind the wheel.

"I’m still looking to race," he said. "Nothing is confirmed, but I'm working on it. In the meantime, I'm busy driving the simulator at HPD and making and LMDh car. Work keeps me plenty busy, so that helps keep my mind off it. I definitely miss it—racing and competing. That’s always a blast. I miss that. And I miss the people.

"The racing paddock is such a small community, and when you’ve been in it for a while like I have, you kind of just know everybody. You miss that part of it, too. Also, just competing in the top class in the nation is really cool. I'm really hoping to get back."

McMurry figures his best shot at a ride this year will in an endurance race with a GT3 team looking to add a driver or two for a one-off.

As for Pierson, McMurry offered a few words of wisdom to the latest 16-year-0ld phenom from someone who's been there, done that.

"I’d definitely say enjoy the moment," McMurry said. "Breaking a world record and doing Le Mans is really special. It’s racing, it’s competition, and you have to take it seriously and it’s tough ... but have fun. Really try to remember everything. I wish I remembered more, but I think you say that about everything as you get older."

For McMurry, he's happy with his current path.

"I really found a perfect fallback job," he said. "It's really cool stuff that I get to work on everyday. It’s a lot of fun, helping to design and develop the LMDh. I'm looking forward to the first race to show everyone what we’ve got."

Any chance you're in that sweet Acura LMDh car one day, Matt?

"Working on that, too."