Tyler McQuarrie

I just got back from the Streets of Willow where we conducted a comparison test between the Falken Tire RT 615 and the new and improved RT 615K. We used two cars to help us conduct this test, 2011 Ford Mustang 5.0 and the 2010 Nissan 370Z. Both cars are awesome but so different at the same time, which is why they were perfect for our test

I ran through a set of the RT 615 on the Ford Mustang 5.0 and the Nissan 370Z. I went all out in each car to lay down a bench mark time to compare against the new RT 615K. Both cars were quick but in different areas of the track. We then slapped on the new RT 615K, which look exactly the same as the RT 615 but have an improved compound that retains the 200 UTQG that it had before.
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From the minute I left the pits, I could feel a huge increase in the level of grip. As I started to pick up the pace I noticed that it still had those great features of the RT 615, which is very predictable and user friendly. After I laid down my 3 timed laps in each car I was blown away at the change in grip! It’s pretty cool to see how one variable has such a big effect on the feel and performance of your car.


For those of you that own or have owned a set of RT 615, you will be so impressed with the level of grip that the RT 615K has over the RT 615. If you have never driven on the RT 615, I promise that you will be blown away with the performance of the RT 615K! Stay tuned to www.falkentire.com for a full video and results from our test
A tire test is not complete without some drifting! Can’t wait to use these in the 2010 Formula D Championship!

Check out the video Falken just put out from the last event. Thank you for everyone’s support and I can’t wait for 2010!

I just got back from the 25 hours of Thunderhill and I’m spent! We went there as defending race winners in E1 class from last year and we planned to do the same this year with three of the same drivers, myself Ken Dobson, and Mike Harvison. We are competing in the same Mazda MX5 but with a new team, Atlanta Motorsports Group and they are fresh off winning the 2009 Mazda MX5 cup Championship. All this sounds good but you also need to be a little lucky in a 25hr race that starts at 11am Saturday and ends at 12 noon on Sunday

I qualified the car on pole for E1 and beat out Todd Lamb who is the 2009 Mazda MX5 Cup Champion! I also started the race and the first few laps were very crazy with a 70 car field. The MX5 can go about an hour and 15 minutes on a tank of fuel. I got in a good grove so I stayed in the car for a second stint of fuel. Two and half hours went by very fast and I handed the car off to my teammate in first place. We cycled through our driver line up and I got back in the car at 10:30pm. I ended up doing a triple stint which kept me in the car until 2:30am! My left leg started to cramp so it was time to hand off the car, and get some sleep in the motor home. We had a six lap lead over second at this point. I woke up at 4:30am to find out that the right rear hub broke. The car was fixed and back on track but we are now two laps down to the leader of our class. Ken did a great job to get the car back up to the lead and just after he did that the leader broke and gave us back our lead. I got back in the car at 7:30am and did a single stint since we are now up eight laps over second place and we are just looking to conserve the car to the finish. And that we did!

In the end, we won the E1 class for a second year in a row! We raced 2200 miles over the 25hrs. None of our drivers made any mistakes and we only had one mechanical problem over the entire race. Pretty awesome team effort and such a cool race! Damn I want to race more!!!

Here is a video that CJ Wilson took of me giving rides in the Jim Russell Lola 2 seater at Infineon Raceway. We use this to train students. Yes, I’m working hard!

Here is a cool video that Patrick Barrett did from the last round of the 2009 Formula D season. Some cool shots with the new GoPro HD camera!

Team Falken Tire: Judgement Day 2009 from Patrick Barrett on Vimeo.

Going into Irwindale, I’m 5th in points and I have a realistic shot at getting 3rd or even 2nd for the 2009 Formula D Championship. I have nothing to lose but a lot to gain and I’m ready to ring the neck of the Falken Tire 350 Z! I’m either going to win or bring back the car in pieces, but all I can do is try.
For qualifying, my plan was to get a solid first run in so I could lay it all on the line for the second run since points are so important. My first run put me 16th but on my second run, I pushed a little too hard and hit the third clipping point. Unfortunately this means I had to settle for 16th and my first match up for top 32 was Rhys Millen.
Before the top 32 Rhys tried to pull a Tonya Harding and take me out at the legs as I was coming out of the bathrooms but I was not having any of that! On my lead run I pulled out a gap and Rhys also missed a shift on the infield so I had the advantage going into my follow run. When I followed him I had to left foot brake on the bank to prevent from hitting him. I took it easy on the rest of the run but was still able to sit on his rear quarter panel and the judges called me the winner. Top 16 here I come.
For the 16 I was matched up with the number 1 qualifier Justin Pawlak. I knew this was going to be tough for a couple of reasons. First, he has been killing it all weekend. Second, I kicked his butt at the Formula D K1 karting event the night before and he was looking for revenge! On my follow run I was able to stick close to him throughout the bank and infield. Going into the last corner I tried to get under him, but I ran out of room and clipped one of the barriers. I thought I might be done with that move, so on my lead run I knew I needed to go all out. I got a pretty good gap on him during my lead run so I knew it was going to be a tough call for judges. They called me the winner and that moved me up to 4th in points at that point in the event.
The great eight was bitter sweet. I was matched up with Samuel Hubinette driving the Shawn Carlson tribute Viper. Shawn was an awesome guy and very good to me. I will miss him very much. I think everyone wanted to see his Viper do well this weekend, but Sam is 4 points ahead of me in 3rd and I want that spot. I ran against Sam in Seattle and beat him so I knew what to expect here at Irwindale. He was fast in a straight line but I was able to close up on him on the rest of the track. On my lead run, he was all over me going into the bank but the Falken 350 checked out on the bank and helped me create a big gap. I would move on to the final 4 and also move up to 3rd in the Championship. Wheelz, who has been Shawn’s long time crew guy came up to me after the run. He told me if Sam couldn’t win that Shawn would want me to win and that he always thought very highly of me. That meant so much to me and truly gave me the strength to get to the finals.
Matt Powers is the only guy left between me and the finals. Even though he had the best top 16 driver introduction of all time, with a life size 80’s rocker stuck in his trunk. I had to take him down. Powers has been driving the crap out of his car but it is on the slow side. We stayed together going into the bank but I soon pulled out a big gap. I knew following him would be a little tricky because of the speed difference. I used a lot of hand brake and left foot braking to stay on his bumper. In the end Power’s had an awesome event but I moved on to the finals.
At this point, I have 3rd place in the Championship locked up, so I’m holding nothing back. Ryan Tuerck and I will be fighting for a win at the “House of Drift” and the biggest drift event ever! Our cars are very similar in speed so I tried to stick to him as close and drive as hard as I could. My follow run was good but I knew in order to win this event that I needed to lay down my best run of the weekend. I went through the bank as hard as I could and brought in more speed to the inner oval than I have all weekend. I knew I was going to hit the wall with the rear of the Z. I got on the gas to prevent the front from being sucked in but I didn’t hit as hard as I thought and me getting on the gas caused me to spin. I could see the smile on Ryan’s face as he passed me! So close to my first win and so close to winning the biggest event in Formula D, but I have no regrets for pushing as hard as I did. Congrats to Ryan for the win!
2009 was an awesome year and I owe it all to Team Falken and the ASD crew. I made it to the final four, four times, and got on the podium three of those times. All of this was done with my first year in the Falken 350Z and in the end I finished 3rd in Formula D points. I’m now the highest ranked Falken Tire driver EVER! Thanks to all my sponsors Falken Tire, GoPro Cameras, BC, Enkei, and Sparco. I can’t wait for 2010!

For this round, we are going to my backyard, Infineon Raceway. I’ve been an Instructor here at the Jim Russell Racing School for 12 years and have done hundreds of races at this track but it has not been good to me over the past 5 years. Whether it’s a NASCAR West race or a Formula D event, if it’s at this track I’m almost guaranteed a fluke mechanical problem. The Falken Tire 350z has been amazing all year so I’m hoping to change my luck this year at Sonoma

This year the schedule is pretty wacky because we are sharing the track with the Indy cars, which is awesome for Formula D and the sport of drifting. We got 2 hours of practice on Thursday and ASD did an awesome job on the setup because the car was dialed in and made it easy for me to throw it into turn one. I felt ready for qualifying on Friday but the Infineon Gods had something else in mind. On my first run in qualifying, I had great entry speed with tons of angle and as I went back to the power to connect the outer clipping point the car just shut off causing me to straighten up and get a zero. It was a bad master switch so the ASD guys hard wired the 350z for my second run. With only one run to get the Falken Tire 350z in the show, I took it pretty easy on this run which put me 13th overall.

We had an hour practice on Friday before the top 32 but the Infineon Gods were speaking load and clear and they had some other plans for me! I did one run in practice and while I waited in line for more runs, the Falken Tire 350 z died and would not start. Nate from Motec started to look for the problem so he could tell the ASD guys what to fix and this is with about 20 min to go in practice before top 32 started. At first we thought it was the cam sensor so the ASD guys quickly changed that but it still would not start. Top 32 has now started and it is a code red at Team Falken. Everyone is diving on the car, the radio chatter is off the charts and Nate from Motec is still trying to pin point the problem. I almost started laughing at this point as I looked up at the sky yelling “why!!!! What did I do to you??” Apparently I pissed someone off around the Infineon area. I saw Kenji lining up at the line and we had to call 5 min. I got in the car and ready to go just in case but it was not looking good. Our 5 min were up so we had to forfeit the round and Kenji got a by to the round of 16. It’s one thing to make a mistake or just get your butt kicked, but not even getting the chance to battle just sucks. It sucks even more win your in a title chase!

At this point, there is nothing I can do to change what happened but we can sure as hell make sure it doesn’t happen again. The one positive thing to come out of this event was the fact every driver still in the chase for the championship had a bad event too. Although I dropped from 3rd to 5th in the championship, I’m only 5 points out 3rd and 15 points out of 2nd. I’m still in a great position to finish my first year in the Falken Tire’s Nissan 350Z at the sharp end of the very competitive Formula D Field.

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!!!!
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Today’s practice at Formula D Seattle went well in the Falken Tire Nissan 350z. I love this track! Its fast and long so you get to spend a lot of time riding the wall, which is a great feeling. We made a few gear changes, which is easy to do since we have a quick change rear end. I did many runs and got the car dialed in.

Here are a couple of GoPro video’s of my practice runs.

Tyler McQuarrie GoPro video from Seattle FD from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.

Tyler McQuarrie GoPro practice video from Formula D Seattle from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.

Another disapointing weekend that turned around and ended up being a win. We went to this event as a test for the Redline event at the end of the year. We came with a few changes that we thought would make the car much faster and beat our 1:41 that we did last year.

I went out the first session and the car was stupid fast on the out lap and I was pretty sure that it would get us into the high 1:30′s but it blew an oil line on my timed lap. After we cleaned things up, I went out for another run and the car felt a bit slower but still managed a 1:40, which beat our time from last year. On my second lap, it blew the intercooler pipe off, so session done. That was the last session of the event so we had to settle for a 1:40, which gave us first place for this event.

Yes we won but it was still disapointing simply because we know to win the Redline event here, we need to get into the 37′s or even 36′s. So we have some work to do on keeping the car running long enough for me to run more than 1 lap.