NUNEZ: Burgering With The Big Leaguer

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NUNEZ: Burgering With The Big Leaguer

Team USA star Tristan Nunez files a pre-race blog ahead of this weekend's 25 Hours of Thunderhill where he'll drive for MLB pitcher CJ Wilson.

SPEED Staff | Posted December 04, 2012

Anaheim Angels pitcher CJ Wilson, left, taught young racing phenom Tristan Nunez, right, the concept of "burgering," which the pair will put to use this weekend at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill.

(Team USA star Tristan Nunez is a 17-year-old driver who competed in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites powered by Mazda series this past season and secured the series championship. He shares with us his relationship with professional baseball player turned racer C.J. Wilson and their upcoming 25-hour endurance race at Thunderhill. ~Ed.)

I was introduced to the term “burgering” at my first Skip Barber race weekend in South Carolina in September 2009. I was 13 years old and taking a stab at racing cars with the Skip Barber racing school. I was the youngest driver enrolled in the program yet after completing the advanced driving school, I felt ready to race. There was one dude there that kinda stood out; he was athletically built with some swagger. My mom was convinced he was an actor or a model and was simply listed on the driver’s lineup as “Chris Wilson.” You’ll get more than a thousand different options if you Google that, believe me we tried.

The inspiration for Wilson's credo.

What caught my eye the most about the mysterious “Chris Wilson” was a very cool decal on his Hans device; it was that of a hand holding an invisible burger. From there on out, “Chris Wilson” was referred to in my book as “The Burger Dude” and we hit it off right away. He kept complimenting me on how well I was doing for my first time racing and he couldn’t believe that I was only 13 years old. When I finally got the chance to ask him about the burger decal, he explained that “burger” means “beyond cool.” He said, “My life is very burger, great friends, great career, and I get to chase my dreams every day.”

By the end of the weekend, the burger dude and I had become buddies. After several failed attempts by my mom to find out who this guy really was, he finally revealed that he was the closing pitcher for the Texas Rangers. The burger dude was C.J. Wilson!

CJ and I “burgered” on to the next Skip Barber race at Road Atlanta in November and from there headed to Homestead-Miami Speedway in January 2010. We had some great times and both of us got better and better in the Skippy cars. Whenever there was an epic race or a gnarly racing maneuver, the burger sign was always displayed. It was like a secret hand-shake that only a select few people knew about.

Spring training was approaching so that put an end to C.J.’s racing for the remainder of the year. The really cool thing is that we always kept in touch. I went to Texas to watch the IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway and was able to catch one of his home games. When the Rangers played the Marlins in Miami, we were reunited there too. Even as he went on to become a starting pitcher and make it to the World Series, he was still grounded and connected to his racing buddies.

Even racing legend Mario Andretti has gotten in on the routine.

He loved racing so much that he started his own racing team, C.J. Wilson Racing. I felt so lucky to be able to hear his version of the mental side of sports—whether it’s baseball or racing—there’s always two common denominators: mental strength and focus, and he knew both well.

As C.J.’s career excelled in baseball, mine did in racing too. I won the Skip Barber Rookie of the Year honor in 2010 and went on to win the Skip Barber Summer Series Championship in 2011. C.J. made big moves too, agreeing to a five-year deal to play for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

At age 15, I ran some races in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites powered by Mazda series, and moved up full time in 2012, eventually winning the series championship. C.J. and I would always keep in touch to congratulate each other on our successes, and he was always just a phone call or text away if I ever needed advice.

He has now stepped up to another mound, not on the baseball field but on the racetrack. He has created a platform to help out young drivers in their quest to make it to the major leagues of professional auto racing. He mentioned he had this vision to put four young guns together in one of his racecars and that someday people would look back in history to see that HE was the one that originally brought all of this immense talent together to make a powerhouse team.

Nunez (and Jack Mitchell Jr.) recently starred for Team USA, taking on the world's best and winning.

In racing, you need to have talent, but you also need to have the funding to move to the next level. C.J. understands this mentality and believes in us. I am so thankful for C.J.’s generosity of helping out young drivers like myself to get to the next level of racing.

I’ll be racing on C.J’s team at Thunderhill with Spencer Pigot and the Mazda drivers Stevan McAleer and Elliott Skeer Dec. 6-9. It is truly an honor and a privilege to be on C.J.’s team and I hope to not only “burger it up” but to give him a “Whopper” of a performance at Thunderhill. He is truly a Major Leaguer on and off the field.

Thanks C.J.!

Tristan Nunez is one of the youngest licensed semi-pro racecar drivers in the country. Nunez was crowned the youngest sports car champion in history in 2012 when he capped a mindboggling season that included 11 wins, 12 poles, and seven track records in his rookie season in IMSA Lites. Following his season, he also closed out an impressive international tour for Team USA and Cliff Dempsey Racing when he capped the trip by besting 125 car entries to seize the Walter Hayes Trophy grand finale at Silverstone, just days after his 17th birthday. For more on Tristan, visit www.TristanNunez.com.