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Tanner Foust is a versatile and multi-talented driver known for his supreme car control and a proven track record of podium placements, national championships and world records. He is a three-time U.S. rallycross champion (2012, 2011, 2010) who has also won four X Games gold medals (2013, 2010, 2007), and two Formula Drift championships (2008, 2007).
He has also held multiple world records including for the astonishing Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare, which saw Foust drive a car through a 66-foot loop-the-loop. He also scored the indoor speed record for TV’s Top Gear USA, and set a distance jump record with Hot Wheels when he made a 332′ ramp-to-ramp leap in a truck at the Indy 500 in 2011.
Foust is the first American driver to win a round of the European Rallycross Championship and finished both 2011 and 2012 ranked in the top three. At home, Foust has been a dominant driver in rallycross since the sport of rallycross was first introduced to the United States in 2010. His varied race experience includes multiple years of open wheel competition, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, rally racing, various types of sports car racing and the SCORE Baja. He has represented the USA in the annual Race of Champions three times (2010, 2009, 2008).
Off the track, Tanner demonstrates his impressive car control and driving experience on-camera as host for History Channel’s Top Gear and performing stunts for various films, TV shows, and commercials.
The ultimate test of driver and machine, Rallycross is an action-packed blend of circuit racing, off-road racing and rally. Drivers line up in heats of up to six cars for a hard-hitting race over a challenging short course featuring jumps, unbanked turns, hills and transitions between pavement and gravel.
Tanner is a 3x Champion (2012, 2011, 2010) in the Global Rallycross series and has also won four X Games gold medals (2013, 2010, 2007). He finished 3rd in the 2015 driver’s championship points race while contributing to a second place finish in the manufacturer championship for Volkswagen. Tanner is aiming for the top of the podium and a 4th championship in 2016 with the Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross (VARX) team.
In additional to Red Bull GRC, Tanner will also be competing in select World RX and Formula Drift events during the year.
A high-skill, high-powered motorsport, drifting puts the emphasis on car control skill. Drivers compete in knockout heats on a closed course, sliding sideways at high speed in trials judged on speed and style. With origins in Japan, it is the fastest growing form of motorsport in the world.
Tanner started drifting at the very beginning of the sport in the US and has gone on to set an impressive record of top placements. He is a two-time Formula Drift champion, taking the series wins in 2007 and 2008, and is the only driver ever to earn back-to-back titles. In 2010, he drove his Rockstar Energy Scion TC to the championship runner-up position.
The Rockstar Energy Drink / Volkswagen Passat features a four-speed dog-engagement transmission, a Tilton clutch, AEM Infinity-10 fuel injection, RS-R suspension and an extroverted APR Performance swan-mount wing. Its distinctive supercar exhaust note comes from a specially designed eight into one sequential collector. It rides on KMC wheels.
Given his comfort at the helm of just about anything on wheels, it was a natural progression for Tanner to join the ranks of Hollywood stunt performers. He is a regular stunt and precision driver for movies, TV shows, and many other commercial productions.
He is featured as a stunt driver in the recent Need 4 Speed film, as well as other major releases including the Bourne Legacy, Bourne Ultimatum, Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Dukes of Hazzard, Red Dawn and Iron Man 2 movies. He was nominated for a Taurus Stunt Award for his work on the 2006 film, Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, which featured Tanner in his element sliding high-power cars through unusual urban settings.
When he isn’t racing, the professional driver also performs in films and on television. He is an on-air host for the U.S. version of the seminal BBC auto show Top Gear, produced by BBC Worldwide Productions and airing on the HISTORY channel. Episodes of his online documentary series, Life in the Foust Lane, are available on the Rockstar Energy Drink YouTube channel.
His TV hosting experience also includes stints on Battle of the Supercars, Redline TV, Import Racers, RM Auctions and Auto Access and he is regularly featured in sports coverage of his various competition disciplines.
Growing up in a navy family, Foust spent several years of his childhood in Scotland where he discovered rally racing and learned to drive on the country roads near his home. He returned to the U.S. and went into a pre-med track at the University of Colorado, earning a biology degree. He spent his summers at the track, trading seat time in racecars for mechanic work and driver coaching jobs. After graduating from college, he began working as an ice driving coach and competing in anything he could — including rally and drifting. He made the transition to professional racing in 2003, and moved to California to pursue his career.
Foust is one of the most in-demand professional drivers in the United States, thanks to his unflagging passion for cars. He is grateful that his career has allowed him the opportunity to compete alongside drivers he has long considered heroes including Colin McRae, Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Rod Millen and Sebastian Vettel.
