Rhys Millen
The current Red Bull World and 2005 Formula D champ finished Third last year without contributing to Diaries or making it to the first round in Long Beach. Guess what? He's in a brand spankin' new Hyundai Genesis Coupe, in Diaries, and he made it to the LBC. Hear that? That's the sound of the competition quivering to the Kiwi.
You know that feeling you get when you are super busy, and before you know it, your day has ended? Try substituting that day for weeks with what seemingly started on January 19th and ended April 10th with Round 1 of Formula D!
With only three days of testing prior to Long Beach, I knew that this was going to be an uphill battle of on-track tweaks and tuning after every lap. My weapon of choice for the 2009 Championship chase is the new Hyundai Genesis Coupe. With nothing off-the-shelf to simply bolt on, and no prior racing efforts to draw from, we had just time and tools . . . and the clock had already started ticking. After driving the new Genesis Coupe for Hyundai's Super Bowl commercial, I did know a few things about the new car. The Genesis Coupe is fun, affordable and a great starting point to build from.
Qualifying would prove to be a little disappointing, placing 11th after the first lap and 17th after the second. This was also my first time running on the Toyo Proxes R1R tire, and to be honest, I never gave the tire the respect for the grip that it has, and Long Beach wasn't the place to start testing limits. To add to my disappointment, I was knocked out in the first round--not what we were looking for. But, we did get 48.5 points! We finished Third in the championship last year with zero points at Round 1, so don't count us out!
Red Bull
www.redbullusa.com
Hyundai
www.hyundaiusa.com
Rhys Millen
www.rhysmillen.com
Tyler McQuarrie
If you could sum up Tyler McQuarrie's 2008 season in one word it would be "breakage." Issue upon issue, it culminated with a shifter coming out in his hand during competition in one round, and the motor going out in the next. This year, Tyler's in a whole new team and a whole new 350Z. It's about damn time.
Thank God 2009 is finally here, so I can officially put last season behind me. What I love most about the First round in the championship is that every driver is tied for first in points. It doesn't matter what happened last year, everyone has a clean slate. This season is a fresh start for me on so many levels: new team, tire, and car. I'm very excited to be on Team Falken Tire, and in the Nissan 350Z built by ASD. One look at the car up close, and you know it's an amazing machine.
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