Ryan Tuerck

For as long as he can remember, Ryan has loved Extreme Sports, and at a young age he became interested in BMX and Motocross. At the age of nine, his father bought him his first dirt bike, and by ten years old he started racing motocross. As he progressed through the ranks of amateur motocross he had countless podium finishes. The highlight of Tuerck’s amateur career was placing 7th in the nation, at Lorreta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals. At 16, he received his professional license from the American Motocross Association (AMA), and by 17, Ryan earned the opportunity to travel Canada, to race in the professional Canadian Nationals. Some of the highlights of his professional career included, placing 5th in the 125cc Canadian Nationals Championship, as well as qualifying for Budds Creek, and Unadilla in the AMA Motocross Nationals. Though Ryan’s motocross career looked promising, he was forced to stop due to personal reasons.

For the 2018 Formula Drift Season, Both Tuerck and Forsberg partnered with Nexen Tire, following Hankook Tire’s withdrawal from the sport at the end of the 2017 season. Both Ryan Tuerck and Chris Forsberg rebuilt their vehicles firsthand with no assistance from any other companies.

For his 2017 season Ryan announced a partnership with drifting comrade Chris Forsberg. Both vehicles were maintained that year by Nameless Performance, resulting in one of the worst seasons for both drivers.

Ryan has had many drift cars but 2017 brought a new car to his garage. A Scion FR-S with a Ferrari 458 Italia motor swapped into it. The car is being called the GT4586 and has brought Ryan much fame and many YouTube views. He demos this car at Formula D events and also at grassroots drift party events such as Street Driven and Gridlife.

Ryan now drifts a 2013 Scion FR-S, originally built by Portland Speed Industries, in Formula D. This car has been in use since the 2013 season and has been updated every season making it now very efficient.

As of November 28, 2012, Ryan stars in his own internet show "Tuerck'd" of which focuses on exhibition drifting and challenges with other professionals. Tuerck'd is aired on Network A every two weeks and is current on a second season.

Before joining Formula D, he completed successfully in Drift Mania Canadian Championship. In 2005, Ryan Competed in Two Rounds or Formula Drift where he did well enough to get noticed by a few sponsors. In 2006, Ryan competed in the entire Formula Drift series with help from his Drift Alliance brothers, Cooper Tires, Discount Tire, and 240sxMotoring. Ryan did exceptional in his rookie season with a 6th-place finish at the Sonoma round. In 2007, Ryan moved to California with his Drift Alliance Teammate Tony Angelo and started “Team Snakebite” together and ran the whole Formula Drift season independently with help from sponsors which resulted in Ryan finishing the season 15th in points. In 2008, Ryan was picked up by Gardella Racing and drove a 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP sponsored by Gardella Racing, Mobil 1, GM Racing, and Maxxis Tires. Following in 2009, Ryan won first place on podium in Round 1 at Long Beach and again later in the year at Irwindale and in 2010 came 3rd in series points. In 2011, Gardella retired the Solstice from Ryan, picked up Red Bull as a lead sponsor and drove the 2011 Mobil 1/Red Bull Chevrolet Camaro in which he finished 15th that year. The 2012 season began with a shuffle of sponsorships, Ryan left Gardella Racing for personal reasons, and was picked up by Retaks before the first event at long beach. He finished off the season in fifth after a third-place finish at Irwindale.

Ryan was gaining a lot of interest in cars since he turned 16. When he stopped racing, he bought his first car, a 1990 Ford Mustang. At night, feeling the need to challenge himself he would get his car sideways pulling out of stop signs and slide around in empty parking lots near his home. After having the Mustang for a year, Ryan found out on the internet that sliding your car around or “Drifting” was actually a real sport. Ryan immediately sold his Mustang to buy a lighter, and better handling Nissan 240sx. He upgraded the suspension and bought a 2-way LSD for the car to help it drift. In 2003, Ryan went to his first formal event at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ where he met future “Drift Alliance” teammates Tony Angelo, Chris Forsberg, and Vaughn Gittin Jr. Ryan did very well at first winning the competition. Ryan continued to do very well everywhere he went and constantly spending all his money upgrading his car.

Ryan Tuerck (born April 10, 1985), is an American professional drifter from Derry, New Hampshire who currently competes in the U.S. Formula Drift series in his Toyota GT86 for Gumout.