Formula Drift star Ryan Tuerck took part in his first Gymkhana event last weekend, joining Ken Block‘s Gymkhana GRiD for the season finale at Santa Pod Raceway in the United Kingdom.
The American, who was behind the wheel of Block’s recently unveiled Hoonigan Ford Escort Mk II, took part if various runs throughout the weekend before taking on RWD champion Luke Woodham at the end of the weekend.
Tuerck beat two-time champion Woodham, setting a record time in the process to cap off a big first weekend in Gymkhana for the New Hampshire native.
Credit: Dominik Wilde/Dominik Wilde Motorsport
The Escort that Tuerck drove, making it’s first ever public appearance, is powered by a 2.5 Millington engine churning out 333 horsepower. Built in collaboration by teams in the UK and US, the Hoonigan Escort clearly left an impression on Tuerck following it’s maiden outing.
“It was phenomenal,” said Tuerck. “As soon as I got behind the wheel of the thing I already felt at home for the most part and it just kept getting better and better as I got more acquainted with it. It was an honour to put it though it’s paces in it’s first competition and hopefully I’ll be able to do more of that in the future.”
“I dinged it a couple of times but I didn’t tell Ken until just now,” he added. “The car is such a compact car and a short wheelbase and you can see out the windscreen quite well so you can really kind of pick your lines really good and get super close to the obstacles out there on the course and make it exciting.”
