(This is the latest in a series of stories tracing the roots of Verizon IndyCar Series drivers through their own words. We’ll look at where they grew up and what first sparked their interest in racing. Today’s subject: Ed Carpenter Racing driver Spencer Pigot.)

Spencer Pigot of Ed Carpenter Racing recently discussed growing up in the South with IndyCar.com writer Phillip B. Wilson.

Wilson: What’s your first memory?

Pigot: I was born in California, but really (lived in) North Carolina, driving little remote, plastic electric cars around the tennis courts and stuff.

Wilson: Where in North Carolina?

Pigot: Hickory, North Carolina. They had those little plastic four-wheelers. We’d like make these little tracks around the vacant tennis courts. We’d ride around there, doing laps.

Wilson: So you were into this at a very early age?

Pigot: Yep. I got a dirt bike when I was 4 or 5, and I used to ride all through my yard and all through my neighbors’ yards. I’d have a little racetrack and try to get my times better and better.

Wilson: When racing remote control cars, you always beat your friends?

Pigot: Oh yeah, always. Always!

Wilson: You never let them win now and then?

Pigot: No. No.

Wilson: So at an early age, you established yourself as having a fierce, competitive streak?

Pigot: Yeah. Yeah.

Wilson: You couldn’t stand losing.

Pigot: Nope, never have.

Wilson: Then the bike riding, same thing?

Pigot: Yeah, riding dirt bikes, I always wanted to win and was grumpy if I didn’t. I’m still the same.

Wilson: Did Mom or Dad tell you that you didn’t have to win everything?

Pigot: Yeah, they always kind of say that, but you don’t really listen to your parents much. (Smiles.)

(Check out Spencer Pigot's IndyCar.com biography here. Also read previous “Racing Roots” entries on Marco Andretti, Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon, Ed Carpenter and Josef Newgarden.)