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Verena Mei | |
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 Verena Mei at the Sno*Drift 2012 |
Verena Mei (born in Pearl City, Hawaii) [1] is a Chinese-American model and rally car driver. [2]
Mei began her career as a poster model for tire companies. [3] Mei is credited with minor appearances in Carolina, Rush Hour 2, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. [4]
In 2002, Mei entered a stunt driving school and earned a professional competition drag racing license. [2] Mei competed in Formula Drift for five years and became the first female to win the Redline Time Attack Series. [2]
In 2012, Mei won the Rally America B-Spec National Championship together with co-driver Leanna Junnila in their first year of competition, becoming the first all-female team to ever win a national title in the history of Rally America. [2]
The Nissan 350Z is a two-door, two-seater sports car that was manufactured by Nissan Motor Corporation from 2002 until 2009 and marks the fifth generation of Nissan's Z-car line. The 350Z entered production in 2002 and was sold and marketed as a 2003 model from August 2002. The first year there was only a coupe, as the roadster did not debut until the following year. Initially, the coupe came in Base, Enthusiast, Performance, Touring and Track versions, while the Roadster was limited to Enthusiast and Touring trim levels. The Track trim came with lightweight wheels and Brembo brakes, but its suspension tuning was the same as all other coupes. The Nissan 350Z was succeeded by the 370Z for the 2009 model year.
Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, with loss of traction, while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of a corner. The technique causes the rear slip angle to exceed the front slip angle to such an extent that often the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. Drifting is traditionally done by clutch kicking, then intentionally oversteering and countersteering. This sense of drift is not to be confused with the four wheel drift, a classic cornering technique established in Grand Prix and sports car racing.
Formula Drift is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that introduced D1 Grand Prix to the United States. The new entity would solely own, operate and launch the first official drifting series in North America. Formula D is not affiliated with the FIA series of formula racing championships.
Christopher Forsberg, is a self-taught, three-time Formula Drift Champion and Formula Drift World Champion race car driver from Doylestown, Pennsylvania who currently competes in the Formula Drift series in his Nissan Z (Z34) for NOS Energy Drink. He is the owner, driver and shop manager of Forsberg Racing.
Nicholas Mark Grist is a Welsh former rally co-driver, born in Ebbw Vale. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1993 to 2002. He won 21 rallies with more than one driver.
Andrew Comrie-Picard is a Canadian race car driver, X Games athlete, stuntman, and TV personality. At age 32, he left his career as an entertainment lawyer in New York City to pursue a career in race driving. He has since competed at the top levels of pro rally racing pro drifting desert off-road racing, short course off-road, hillclimbing, and endurance circuit racing. Other than racing, he has hosted and produced several automotive TV shows, as well as coordinated and driven stunts in feature films and television.
Falken Tire is a brand of passenger car, light truck, and medium truck tires owned by the Japanese company Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI). It was launched in its native country of Japan in 1983, and was introduced to the North American market two years later and in Europe in 1988. Falken has now become a stand-alone brand that focuses on UHP products while utilizing professional motorsports to further develop and improve products for worldwide distribution.
Tanner Foust is an American professional racing driver, stunt driver, and television host. He competes in rally, drift, ice racing, time attack, hill climb and rallycross with multiple podium placements, national championships, and world records. He was a co-host of the American version of the motoring television series Top Gear.
NZ Performance Car is a monthly automobile magazine and website, and is the biggest selling automotive and men's lifestyle magazine in New Zealand.
Kenneth Paul Block was an American professional rally driver with the Hoonigan Racing Division, formerly known as the Monster World Rally Team. Block was also one of the co-founders of DC Shoes. He also competed in many action sports events, including skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross.
Hyundai Motorsport GmbH (HMSG) is a division of South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Company responsible for the brand's global motorsport activities. The company was established in December 2012 and is based in Alzenau, Germany.
Molly Anne Taylor is an Australian rally car driver. She is the 2016 Australian Rally Champion, the first and only woman to win the Australian Rally Championship and the youngest regardless of gender, and the 2021 Extreme E Champion.
Leonid "Crazy Leo" Urlichich is a Russian-Canadian rally driver currently competing in the Canadian and the US national championships. He drives for a Toronto-based team Can-Jam Motorsports and has expressed ambitions to compete in the World Rally Championship.
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Mevlud Meladze is Georgia's best known motorsports promoter and road safety activist, the founder and vice-president of the Georgian Automobile Sport Federation, a non-profit association that represents the interests of motoring organizations and car users in Georgia. A former Sambo practitioner, he entered the racing career in 2001 and became the Formula Alfa Champion of Georgia in 2014.
The 2017 FIA World Rally Championship was the 45th season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. Teams and crews contested in thirteen events—starting in Monte Carlo on 19 January and ending in Australia on 19 November—for the World Rally Championships for Drivers, Co-drivers and Manufacturers. Drivers were free to compete in cars complying with World Rally Car and Group R regulations; however, only Manufacturers competing with 2017-specification World Rally Cars were eligible to score points in the Manufacturers' championship. The series were supported by the WRC-2 and WRC-3 championships and the newly created WRC Trophy at every round, and by the Junior World Rally Championship at selected rounds.
Motor sport in New Zealand can be traced back to a least 1901 when the Pioneer Cycle Club held a three-mile handicap race which included both motor bikes and cars. Since then it has developed and now almost all types of motor sport events are represented.
Sara Price is an American racing driver, having competed in motocross, rallying, the X Games, Stadium Super Trucks and Extreme E. She currently races in Extreme E for Chip Ganassi Racing.
James Deane is an Irish professional drift driver. He is a former 3 time Formula D champion, having won the series in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and has won multiple National and European titles.
The J29/DB Toyota Supra, also known as the Toyota GR Supra, is the fifth generation of the Supra, a sports car produced by Toyota since 2019. The GR Supra was sold under and developed by Toyota's Gazoo Racing (GR) brand, in collaboration with BMW, and replaces the A80 Supra, which stopped production in 2002. The GR Supra rides on a new jointly-developed sports car platform by Toyota and BMW, with a short wheelbase, wide track, and low center of gravity, that also underpins the G29 BMW Z4. Initially, BMW considered using a pre-existing platform of their own to underpin the new Supra, to which chief engineer Tada-san declined. Both cars are also manufactured at the Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria.