Tyler McQuarrie

Seattle was an event that I’ve been looking forward to this whole year. The track is super fast and you spend a lot of time during the run riding the wall, which I love. The crowd is awesome and to top it off, the Falken Tire 350z is dialed in.

We spent most of the practice on Thursday getting the gearing sorted out, which is pretty easy to try many different gears since we have a quick change rear end. After I found a gear that I liked we spent a little time adjusting the shocks and tire pressure to the track. The car was dialed in everywhere on the track except for in a straight line. I’m struggling to get the power down leaving the start line and getting pulled by everyone. We realized that we can’t fix this issue at this event and it is part of developing a new car so I need to deal with it for now.

I qualified 6th and my first match up for top 32 was Rob Ewreth. Although his speed entering the oval is much slower than mine, his speed off the oval and in the hairpin was pretty good. I lead first and pulled out a very large gap. The trick would be following him. I needed to gap him just enough so I could be on his door coming off the bank.. I timed it just right and was able to get on his door in the infield and pull along side of him at the finish. I moved on to the top 16.

My match up in the 16 would be Yasu Kondo in the AE 86. He has been looking fast all weekend so I knew this would not be an easy win. I had a clean run and was able to pull out a few car lengths, so I knew I just needed to be close to him in the follow run. As we entered the oval his bumper flew off and went over my head. Then it was followed by his hatch. I started to think that he had a switch in his car that he could flip to dislodge body parts to through off drivers. After missing the body parts I was able to reel him in and got the win.

On to the great eight and this is where it starts to get tough, and interesting at the same time. I was matched up with Samuel Hubinette in the Viper. Sam led first and got a really good jump and just took off. It’s such a helpless feeling watching his car get smaller and smaller as he pulled out an 8 car lead. All I could do at that point was to catch him, which I got within 1 car length by the end of the run. On my lead run, I ran all out and did one of my best runs of the weekend. I wasn’t sure if it was enough to beat him so all I was thinking was OMT…Please. Then Ian my crew chief came over the radio and said I won! I guess the judges didn’t like how he just took off, but they liked how I caught him.

My match up in the Semi finals was Chris Forsberg. This was the 4th time this year that Chris and I have meet in cometion. Formula D told us as we sat on the line that whoever one this battle, won the event since O’Sullivan advanced to the final but his car could not continue. Chris and I talked before and agreed to use the pace cone. On my lead run, I struggle to get the power down so Chris had to wait for me a bit but as we entered the oval, I drove as hard as I could and pulled out a pretty big gap. As I followed Chris on the next run, my plan was to stick to him and the victory would be mine. We charged into the oval and I was on his right rear throughout the bank. Chris was a little slower coming off the bank but I was too close to just slow down. I grabbed some e-brake to avoid hitting him, which caused me to stall out a bit. Victory goes to Chris.

Next up was the consolation round for 3rd place against my Falken Teammate J.R. At this point, Falken was on the podium for 3rd but this was a very important run for both J.R. and me. J.R. was in forth in the championship and I was half a point behind him. Whoever won this battle would jump up in the standings. I lead the first run and pulled out a gap on the bank but he closed the gap back down to a car length on the infield. On my follow run, I stuck to him and came within inches of his rear bumper coming off the bank. I was then able to get up alongside his driver door on the infield. It was a hard fought battle with my teammate but the judges gave me the 3rd place spot on the podium.

What an amazing event! My second podium of the year and I’ve moved up to 3rd in the points championship with two events to go. I’m having so much fun this year and thank you to Team Falken and ASD for giving me a car to contest the championship in. Bring it Sonoma!!!!
www.tylermcquarrie.com
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