Foust Joins Travis Pastrana At The Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium In Beijing
Los Angeles, CA October 22, 2009 – Drift Champion and X Games Rally Gold Medalist, Tanner Foust, has been invited to compete at the Race of Champions on November 3rd and 4th in the iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China. The Rockstar Energy Drink sponsored racer joins 2009 Rally America Champion and Freestyle Motocross star, Travis Pastrana, to represent America as Team USA.
The Race of Champions is an annual event that pits champions from Formula One, World Rally Championship, NASCAR, Le Mans, Touring Car Racing and other motorsports from around the world against each other in a series of head to head races in an assortment of race cars. The drivers compete both individually in the Race of Champions and as teams representing their countries for the Race of Nations Cup.
The Race of Champions makes a historic move from Europe to China after several years of competition in London’s Wembley Stadium and the Stade de Paris. Foust competed at the 2008 Race of Champions for Team USA alongside NASCAR racer, Carl Edwards, as Pastrana’s alternate. Pastrana sustained an injury filming his hit MTV show, Nitro Circus. Foust beat current Formula One Champion, Jensen Button, in front of a home crowd of 80,000 in his first round of the Race of Champions, and then was defeated by 2008 ROC runner-up, David Coulthard. The 2008 event was certainly a learning experience for Foust and he is ready to do battle for Team USA alongside Pastrana who has attended ROC several times.
Foust remarks: “What an honor to be invited back to the Race of Champions! This year I’m teamed with the man I replaced in ‘08, Travis Pastrana. Besides being THE most competitive human being on the planet, he’s an extremely talented driver. I just hope he doesn’t bring the Nitro Circus crew–I’d like to make it back to the States in one piece!”
In addition to the Race of Champions and Race of Nations Cup, Foust will be headlining daily tandem drifting demonstrations against a top Chinese drifter on a modified version of the ROC course. These demos along with the race action will be broadcast on TV live in forty countries and streamed over the internet.
The ROC is a gathering of the world’s motorsport elite. The event drew eighty thousand plus live spectators and millions of live TV viewers worldwide last year. This is the twenty-second year of the Race of Champions. ROC is expected to air in the USA on Discovery HD early in the New Year.