Hot off my Vegas win, I was excited to get to Sonoma to keep my winning streak going. I’ve been a Jim Russell Racing Instructor at Infineon for 13 years and have raced all kinds of cars at that track from American Le Mans to NASCAR and with a ton of success. But when it comes to drift events at Infineon, it has been a debacle! From motors randomly not starting, to gear shift levers coming off in my hand, you name it, it has happened there. I just hope my luck has changed this year.

We only had an hour practice this year before qualifying, which was a little weird but the car seemed really good at the end. For my first qualifying run I just wanted to put something down that was clean just like my practice runs. I ended up scoring an 86.0 on my first run which put me on top at that point. I was stoked because I knew that that run alone would put me probably in the top 5. This gave me the opportunity to “have at it” on my second. I wanted to back it in but did it a little early so it put me shallow in turn 1. I had to settle for my first score, which stayed at the top. I qualified first! It looked like my momentum from Vegas made its way to Sonoma. To do it at my home track in front of all my family and friends was even better.

My match up in Top 32 would be with Dennis Mertzanis. I take these early battles very serious because I have proved this year that they are not just a walk thru. My lead run was solid and Dennis had a little mistake so the advantage went to me. On the follow run, I closed up on the first otter clip and was able to stay on him thru the run. Win went to me. Dennis did a great job and it wasn’t like I was stealing candy from a baby… Dennis you know what I mean haha

My battle in the 16 was with Tanner Foust. WTF! Every top 16 battle I’ve had this year has been with a top 5 driver… except Seattle and you know how that went. I really felt like I could beat Tanner with all the data we had on him. He struggle a bit in practice and qualifying but we all know he shows up for the show! My lead run was awesome and he shollowed up a tiny bit to close the gap but I felt good about it. Before our battle I asked Tanner for the pace and he said sure but I think Steph threw the drag set up on that thing! We left the line and by the time we got to the pace cone he had almost 2 cars on me. After the pace cone his car just took off! So I really think Tanner was giving me the pace simply because how much his car took off after the pace but I think he under estimated the pace I needed. Bottom line is, he had a good 4 car lengths on me as we initiated and all I could do at that point is try and close up the gap. I drove the crap out of it into turn 1 but went a little wide. Game over. Tanner moves on to the great 8

I was stoked to qualify 1st and the 12 points that come with that. I was also really happy with how the Falken Tire 350z was all weekend and how I drove. The straight line issue will be fixed next year but it is what it is at this point. I guess I’ll just jump the lights next time hahaha. On to Irwindale where I hope to better my 2nd place from last year.

Man I was feeling good this weekend. I also had a good ladder so I was feeling pretty confident to get to the final 4 but a strange battle with Takatori ended that in a hurry. Our qualifying speeds on the bank were only separated by 1 mph. So I felt the 2 car gap on the follow run was plenty of room. I also left foot braked to maintain the gap and as we came off the bank he just parked it. I’m not going to sit here and say he brake checked me but I was not the only one who “trunked” him there or had issues coming off the bank behind him. The data also shows that I was going slower on my follow run compared to my lead run. It’s just weird… Check it out from my GoPro Camera.

Tyler McQuarrie Top 16 Formula D Seattle from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.

Oh well… my chassis is pretty jacked but I know the ASD guys will at least have all 4 wheels pointing in the right direction by Vegas.

I was excited to get back to Jersey for Round 3 of the Formula D Championship because I have made it to the final 4 for the past 4 years in Jersey! This is also the event that I’m hoping to turn around my season and I cant think of a better track to do it at. I love the Wall Speedway track for the long wall rides and over 35 seconds of actually drifting per run.

Practice went well and my plan for qualifying was still the same as every other event. Put down a solid first run and hang it all out on the second. My first run was good and after the first round of qualifying I was sitting in 6th. For my second run, I dragged my bumper on the wall and tried to get more aggressive in the inner horse shoe but went a little too big so I had to settle for my first score. When it was all said and done, I ended up 12th. I was not to happy with it because I knew we could have ended up much better and it also put us in a very tough “Falken” filled part of the ladder.

I was matched up with Tony Brakohiapa in top 32. I had a good lead run and I noticed he was a bit off line on the oval and he also spun going into the 2nd horse shoe. So I was going to play it safe and smart on my follow run. I gave him a gap going into the oval with a plan to close it up throughout the run. I did just that and I was called the winner and moved on to the top 16.

My toughest match up in the ladder I was in would come early in the top 16 against my teammate J.R.. His car is so fast this year so I knew it would be a good battle. He lead first and was able to pull out a 1 car gap on the bank but I closed up on him going into the first horse shoe and stayed on him throughout the rest of the run.

On my lead run, I dragged the bumper on the wall and J.R. was right on me. Coming off the bank J.R. hit the clipping point and he stayed on me through the first horse shoe.

I was able to pull out a little gap through the 2nd horse shoe. I knew it was close and was hoping for a One More Time but the victory went to him.

It wasn’t the result I needed or was looking for, but I’m happy with how I drove all weekend. It’s been a rough year so far but I feel like I’m back in form. Next round is at Seattle, which is another track I’ve done well at throughout the years. Last year I finished 2nd there and I hope to improve on that and help continue the Falken Tire winning streak in Formula D!

It’s not drifting… But here is a practice run at the Mosport World Challenge weekend in the LPL Lotus Exige S. This track is awesome and fast! A real old school type of track! We slapped on some new tires and made a few adjustments in the rear for qualifying and found 2 seconds, which put us on pole for the race on Sunday.

Tyler McQuarrie in the LPL Lotus at Mosport from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.

This is my second time racing the LPL Lotus Exige S in World Challenge and my first time at Mosport. Mosport is one of those old school tracks with history and a ton of character. It is a very fast track so I wasn’t sure if the Lotus would be as competitive as it was at Long Beach.

We did a test day on Friday and the first session was for me to get up to speed and learn the track. By the second session I was quickest but we had a few setbacks with mechanical problems so it limited our time to get a good setup on the car. Even though the car was not perfect yet, we knew that we could be competitive for this double header race.

On Saturday I qualified 3rdbehind John Heinrecy in the corvette and Peter Cunningham in the Real Time Acura. I was only 5 tenths off pole but not too happy with the car. Our setup was a little off and we didn’t have much time before the race for changes. For the first race, I got a great standing start and got by the pole sitter Peter Cunningham into turn one. I got held up a little by a slower GT car, but was able to keep the lead going into turn 5. The Corvette had no problem driving by me down the straight, which I knew would happen if I didn’t have a gap on him into 5. On lap 2 Cunningham was on me going through turn 3 and I was trying to create a gap going into 4 and I had a BIG moment and found myself grabbing wheel to save it. I then found myself getting punted by Cunningham but I still manage to keep the car on track and in front of him. We spent most of the race nose to tail and side by side many times, which allowed Heinrecy in the Corvette to check out. It was a lot of work to stay in front of Cunningham because my car was SO loose. I was sawing on the wheel at every corner for 50min and was able to finish in 2nd place.

We made many changes on the car for Race 2 and they proved to be good ones because we were able to qualify on pole! The top 3 were only separated by 2 tenths which would make for an interesting race because all 3 cars are fast in different areas. I was kind of a sitting duck because I knew I needed to get at least a 5 car gap going into turn 5 on the Corvette to have any shot at holding him off on the straight. That would be very hard to do with all the GT traffic in front of us on the first lap and just like I thought I was held up a bit with the GT car dicing. He did a good job to set me up and got me down the straight. My plan at that point was to just stay close and push him to use up his tires. I did that for the first 6 or 7 laps and we pulled out a 7 second gap on Cunningham in 3rd. It was around this time that my motor started to miss and I tried to switch the ignition, map settings, but nothing seemed to fix it. I fell back to Cunningham quickly and it was pretty easy for him to get by me. I kept working on the car and it got better but not fixed. I was able to run the same pace as Cunningham so I knew that I might have a shot at getting 2nd back. I eventually got by him going into turn 8 but by the time we got to turn 3 my motor bogged down and he got along side of me into turn 4. We stayed side by side through 5, which set me up with a good draft down the back straight. I was on the outside going into 8 and we both drove in there very hard and went side by side again but it put me on the inside for turn 9 and the pass was completed. I was able to hold on for the rest of the race and finished 2nd … again.

I’ve done three World Challenge races this year in the LPL Lotus Exige S and I have two poles, a first, and two seconds. Even though we missed the first two rounds, we are third in points. Not too bad! I just hope we can finish the season and make a run for the Championship, but it’s not looking good on the money side at this point. If we don’t find a major sponsor, we will not make the next round and that would be very disappointing to everyone involved in this program. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Here is my GoPro video from qualifying. I only did 2 laps but it was enough to get pole

Tyler McQuarrie Qualifying Lotus for World Challenge from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.

To race on the Long Beach GP weekend is awesome. To Win, is AMAZING! This race weekend has been going on for the past 36 years and its kind of like the Monaco of North America.  This deal was put together late and the team worked many all nighters to just get the car ready to race in World Challenge.

Once we got on track and realized how quick the car was, it was not a surprise that we got poll. I was worried about the race simply because we had not run the car for more than 15 minutes and I was not sure if it would last. My main goal was to be easy on the car and to just go fast enough to keep Cunningham in the Real Time Acura behind me. I got a great start and got by four GT cars which gave me a buffer between me and Cunningham. I was hoping for my team to give me the gap but my radio was not working so I was watching the jumbo TV when I went down the front straight and I saw him coming into the pits with his hood up. At that point, I knew it was my race to lose. I just cruised around the rest of the race until I saw the white flag. Thats when I said “No way… We are going to win Long Beach!” What better way to thank LPL Motorsports, than to go out and win the GTS World Challenge race!

This was the first win for Lotus at Long Beach since Mario did it in 1978! I’m not sure what is going to come from this but I hope to do more racing this year! The team is thinking about going to the next round at Mosport but we will see. Most  people in the paddock know that I’ve done a lot of racing but there where some people that thought I had only done drifting. I didn’t correct those people cause I thought it was funny to see their confused look on their face that a drifter just beat all these racer’s at Long Beach! hahaha

I had some time on my hands so I thought I would give you guys a peak inside the Falken Tire Formula D compound. It says a lot about Falken’s support of drifting, but it also says a lot about the sport of drifting!

Here is a quick video of the Falken pit. You gotta love Garage Boso in this and you have to ask Ross about the story behind Mase…

Quick walk through the Falken Tire FD Compound with Tyler McQuarrie from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.

UGHHHH! Man I was having such a good weekend at the first event of the 2010 Formula D season. Practice was awesome and l qualified 2nd, which lined me up against Takatori in the Top 32.

On my lead run, we took off together and he had no problem keeping up on the approach to turn 1. I nailed my run and pulled out a very big gap. On my follow lap, we took off and then he stopped accelerating and almost started to slow. We were side by side going into turn 1 and going VERY slow. I was all over him and it forced me to initiate early under the bridge and with the speed so low I straighted up. I got back up on his door through the rest of the run but the mistake had been made. I was thinking podium but all it took is one little mistake to change your weekend. I’m not sure why he did that but thats not how I would want to win but it is what it is. I can’t wait for ATL!!! I’m so comfortable in the Falken Tire 350z that I’m hoping to climb my way back into the Championship

Here is one of my practice runs using my GoPro HD camera’s

LBC Formula D Practice run with Tyler McQuarrie from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.

I got back from Charlotte a few days ago and I think I’ve recovered from all the good times! All the ASD Falken drivers would make this first test of the 2010 season, which include me, JR, DMac, and the newest Falken driver JTP. Our main goal was to get our cars ready for Long Beach, but man we had some crazy times away from testing. It defiantly set the tone as teammates for this season, and that tone is going to be CRAZY!

Over the offseason the ASD guys were expanding into a bigger shop, which was good timing since JTP was now driving the 4^th ASD car. The shop is simply AMAZING! It is 14,000 sq ft and split up into different departments. They have 1250 sq. ft retail showroom, 2500 sq. ft race car final assembly area, 1250 sq. ft machine shop area, 2500 sq. ft fabrication area, 1250 sq. ft retail parts storage area above the showroom, 1500 sq. ft race team parts storage facility (second building), 3750 sq. ft (third building) for confidential product development / special projects.

 In addition to running four cars for the Falken Drift team, ASD also provides turn-key capabilities for special project builds, for example the carbon fiber bodied Mustang RTR-C debuted at SEMA 2009 in the Ford Motor Company display. ASD also designs, manufactures, and sells multiple lines of performance automotive components under the ASD Motorsports and many other brands. They do 3D CAD product design and analysis (SolidWorks), manual and CNC machining for prototyping , and full component fabrication services.

 With the additional car, ASD brought on more crew members to deal with the additional work. New to ASD and my car is Rick Lamber Jr. He spent 12 years as a mechanic for the Penske Indy Car Team, has four Indy 500 wins and multiple Indy Car championships under his belt. Clay Stephens returns as my engineer who is a Mechanical Design Engineer (Georgia Tech) and accomplished fabricator and CNC machinist. Last position prior to working at ASD was leading the chassis fabrication department in a well known NASCAR Cup team. Dave Gibson will continue to support all the cars with data collection and engineering support. Ian Stewart, who owns ASD, will also continue to look over all the ASD cars. He has over 25 years of motorsport experience from Australasia to Europe to the United States. Last position prior to establishing the ASD company was management in a well known NASCAR Cup team, overseeing chassis, finish fabrication, body hanging, and paint departments, with an emphasis on overseeing R&D on chassis engineering special projects. And those are the guys just on my car… The team has so much experience. Pretty cool to see the caliber of guys that works for ASD, and they really WANT to be involved in drifting.

The first test day on Monday at Charlotte Motor Speedway was just a shake down for all the cars. Over the offseason my car was stripped down to the chassis. The ASD guys found some more power in my motor, which brought it up to 780hp. I also got a new front bar setup to help deal with the new increase in grip that the RT 615K is giving us. My shake down went awesome and it was so nice getting back in the car because I have not been in it since Irwindale. We had a few things we wanted to try on the car, so we called it a day in order to prep my car for the test on Wednesday.

All the drivers had Tuesday off so we went to visit the MMI office in Mooresville. They manage the DA guys and also look after a lot of NASCAR guys. We spent most of our time on their $40k simulator

Darren and I started to wonder around the building and he took it upon himself to get in Jamie Mcmurry’s race winning car that is on display in the lobby. HAHA he said that he had not seen a Cup car up close so he had to get in. Damn Irish!

We ended our day off with a little in-door karting, which is always fun to punt your teammates into a stack of tires! My favorite part of karting was watching JBrad drive around! Good times.

On Wednesday we were back out at Charlotte Motor Speedway to test the changes we made on the car. My Falken Tire 350z is so much fun to drive. We spent a little time tweaking the car to get a little more lateral grip. The rest of the day I spent just getting seat time and trying different things with my driving. It was so much damn fun and I think we are ready for Long Beach. This will be the first time that I have ever returned with the same car as the previous year.

We then had a team dinner and went out for St. Patrick’s Day. We even had a real life leprechaun (DMAC) with us. I wish I could tell you more about that night… It was insane!!! So many stories from that night.

It’s safe to say that I think all the Falken cars are ready to take on Long Beach. This year is going to be the most exciting year yet in Formula D and I think Team Falken is going to do just fine. We swept the podium in NJ, I wonder if we can make it an all Falken final 4…