Local Athlete Trains with Top Racers
Story by Michael Seguin
Photography by Heike Delmore
“I don’t drink or do drugs,” Josh Indig states. “Because I don’t have to.”
If you’re even tangentially involved in Windsor’s passionate racing community, you’ve likely heard of Josh Indig. At only 27, he’s distinguished himself on the track countless times over.
And—like almost all athletes and performers—Josh can still remember his first time behind the wheel. When he was only five, his father assembled some parts together to make a go-kart. But despite being a fan of the sport, young Josh did not immediately take to racing like a fish to water. He still recalls how during his first “race,” his father ended up pushing the three-hundred-pound chassis around the abandoned parking lot because he was too scared to press on the gas pedal.
(“I don’t think this kid is cut out for racing,” he later confided to Josh’s mother.)
But Josh did eventually discover the accelerator. And how he accelerated! Before long, he was leaving bluish clouds of smoke and black marks on the concrete behind him. Josh’s father obliged by constantly changing the restrictor plate—
allowing his son more and more throttle.
That said, his first competitive race did not exactly go according to plan.
“I can still remember drifting into the first corner after we went green,” Josh admits. “And I still remember how everyone else just zoomed past me—even though I thought I was going just as fast as them! I was in awe. It looked like they were defying physics. I thought to myself: ‘What am I doing? I thought this was supposed to be easy?’”
A lot of people would have been discouraged after being so humbled. But perhaps what is most remarkable about Josh is not his innate talent—but how completely he set about fortifying his skills.
“Month-by-month, week-by-week, you just start chipping away,” Josh explains. “You start gaining seconds. Then a few tenths of a second. And when you get near the front you’re fighting for hundredths of a second. With experience, those hundredths feel like an eternity as a driver once you’re dialed in.”
Josh highlights how—as with any new sport or new pursuit—the more time spent in the seat allows for a broader depth of focus.
“When you first start racing, you’re only worrying about rudimentary skills,” Josh states. “You just want to stay on the track. And you’re desperately trying not to hit anyone or anything—because that will really hurt and cost you a lot of money! But as you get acclimatized, those basic skills become second nature. You stop focusing on the inputs and start to consider other elements. ‘Okay, so this track is darkening up in this spot, so maybe I’ll put my tires there because that will have more grip. Or this part of the track is in shade and cooler, so I’ll try and place my right-side tires there.’”
But when asked about the most important learning curve he had to navigate, Josh steers the conversation outside of the track.
“Racing is different from any other sport,” Josh states. “There’s no set path or draft to make it to the big-leagues. It’s not like you can play for your local school’s team, then go to varsity, and then get scouted to a college for racing. There’s no coach or talent scouting—you have to mentor yourself. And most importantly, you have to market yourself. You can win all the races in the world—and no one would care. No one would know! So strangely enough, racing is the easy part. You still have to find a way to meet the right people. You still have to find a way to market yourself and force eyes on you.”
And while Josh had competed dozens of times, there is one race in particular that still causes his lips to lift into a smile.
“I’ll never forget my first-ever win,” Josh explains. “I didn’t win any race during my first year in go-karts. We had a bunch of really old hand-me-downs. But once my dad realized how dedicated I was to the sport, he started investing in better equipment.”
And this particular race in question contained another ingredient. Josh’s older sister Shanna came down from Toronto to watch him compete.
“It was her first time at the track supporting me,” Josh states. “I was only a few milliseconds behind first place. For all the qualifying races, we were neck-and-neck together. And Shanna didn’t know anything about racing, but she still gave me a game plan. She gave me a hug and wished me luck.”
It then started raining shortly before the final bout. Josh and his team had to hurry to place different tires on the kart.
“The skies just opened up,” Josh recalls. “People were sliding all over the track and spinning out. It was absolute chaos. But I still remember sliding into the victory lane. My sister was waiting for me there in tears.”
And the memory has special significance for Josh. Unfortunately, Shanna passed away in March of 2022. But despite this tragedy, Josh and his family continue to keep her spirit alive.
“Ever since she passed, I have a special sticker on every car I race for her,” Josh states. “Right next to my name.”
And thanks to his obvious success on the track, Josh has leveraged his skills into a career in racing. After graduating from the University of Windsor’s Mechanical Engineering program, he spent some time as a Ride & Handling Performance Engineer at Stellantis. He is now currently based in Concord, North Carolina, where he’s working in the simulation department at GM Motorsports. He now spends his time helping train the top drivers of NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula One.
And much like his revelation about marketing, his time at GM Motorsports is only bringing him closer to his ultimate goal: racing professionally.
“I’m never going to stop driving,” Josh explains. “But I’m taking a bit of a sabbatical from the track to learn more about the engineering behind motorsports. As racing has progressed technologically, driving and engineering have become increasingly connected—more cross-functional. That’s the whole purpose of the GM Charlotte Technical Center I’m working in. Engineers work alongside drivers daily during the week to maximize their performance at the track on the weekends. As soon as I saw the tech center was being built, I knew I had to work there. It combines the best of my both worlds, racing and engineering.”
So, for racing and non-racing fans alike, Josh Indig is someone to keep an eye on. Just don’t expect to find him at a bar.
Published in the September 2025 Edition.
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