PRESS RELEASES

McQuarrie leads flag-to-flag in Long Beach to win World Challenge GTS

April 19, 2010 (Long Beach, Calif.) – Last weekend, Formula Drift driver Tyler McQuarrie from Walnut Creek, Calif., was drifting a Nissan on the Streets of Long Beach in the Formula Drift Pro Championship, where time and speed took a backseat to tire smoke and car angle.

This weekend, McQuarrie did something completely different by driving the LPL/DRS/Switchcars.com Lotus Exige S – a car with nothing in common with his Formula Drift Nissan – to pole position in the morning qualifying session, and then to victory in the GTS class in the afternoon’s Toyo Tires World Challenge at Long Beach presented by Bondurant.

Getting away very well from the standing start, McQuarrie cleared the GTS field and found his way past a couple of the GT cars on the opening lap. When his chief competition in GTS, multi-time champion Peter Cunningham, had to pit to repair damage, McQuarrie found himself with a large lead that continued to crow throughout the race. McQuarrie was then able to cruise to the finish, taking his first World Challenge win in his first start with 49 seconds in hand.

“This was such an amazing weekend,” said McQuarrie after the podium celebration. “This was only possible because of the work of the crew. The team only just bought this car a few weeks ago, and they worked really hard to make it ready for this race. Once we got here, they had to work each time we came off the track – including a transmission change yesterday – so to put it on pole and to win the race is a testament to them and the best way to reward them for all their hard work.”

As the first run of the team’s Lotus Exige S, the team was thrilled with the weekend as they work towards competing in more World Challenge races in 2010.

“This whole weekend was a one-off, to see what the car and team was capable of,” said McQuarrie. “And it is obviously a great combination. This car hadn’t been tried in GTS yet so we learned a lot about how it changes and responds over a race distance. There’s talk about doing more races this year, and I hope it happens because that is a fun car and this is a great team.”

The World Challenge race from Long Beach will be broadcast May 1 at 4:30 pm EST on VERSUS.

Tyler McQuarrie FD Irwindale Recap

After a season of thorough ups and downs, Tyler McQuarrie finishes off the 2009 Formula Drift Season Finale at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale with a bang. His perseverance of the extremely tough competition earned him the 2nd place spot to shower his fellow competitors with Champaign.

Not being able to compete at the previous Formula Drift event in Sonoma, California further fueled Tyler’s hard-driving-competitive edge to make up for being pushed back from 2nd to 5th in the season’s overall standings. With a day of testing prior to competition, Tyler and Team Falken was able to dial in the convertible Nissan 350Z to accommodate the high speed bank of the Irwindale venue.

Day 1 ended with Tyler qualifying mid pack with his first tandem opponent as Rhys Millen. Despite the world class competition, Tyler was able to best Rhys with superior angle and speed. This victory allowed Tyler advancement to Top 16 competition where he would face the number one qualifier, Justin Pawlak. Justin leads first with great smoke and angle, but Tyler did an excellent job matching Justin’s every move. When time came for Tyler to lead, he was able to harness the prowess of the 350Z and create a gap large enough to where Justin was unable to recuperate. This gap was what lead Tyler to another victory and advancement to the Great 8 battle. Faced against Sam Hubinette and his Viper wrapped in commemoration to the late Shaun Carlson, Tyler was able to again rise victorious with superior angle and speed throughout the course.

The Final 4 puts Tyler up against privateer, Mat Powers. Tyler leads the first run and completely blows away the underpowered Powers. Although very impressive and inspiring for a privateer competitor to get this far in the competition, Powers is no match for Tyler. Ryan Tuerck, who has been the winner of multiple Formula D rounds, is faced against Tyler to battle for the number 1 spot. Ryan leads first with great speed and angle while Tyler mirroring his every move. With such a close battle, the second run in this pairing would determine who would be crowned king of this event. With everything on the line, Tyler charges out of the gate hard, able to create a sizeable gap between him and his follower, Ryan. Tyler’s speed became too excessive which causes the rear of the 350Z to tap the wall resulting in a spin. Although the battle was fierce, this unfortunate mistake awards Tyler with the 2nd place spot on the podium.

This strong 2nd place finish boosts Tyler from a 5th overall standing to a very respectable 3rd. The 2009 Formula Drift season has been a great developmental year for Tyler and his Team Falken Nissan 350Z, and he will surely be back in 2010 stronger than ever, ready to capture that number one position.