HOWELL, NJ (March 3, 2011) - Gardella Racing, along with Ryan Tuerck, made the trek half way across the globe to run at one of the top F1 facilities in the entire world; the Yas Marina in the UAE. A total of nine teams had their cars shipped over, the driver’s list included Ryan Tuerck, Tony B, Mad Mike Whiddet, Michael Essa, Ken Gushi, Tanner Foust, Chris Forsberg & Dia Yoshiara. With the exception of Tanner Foust’s Scion TC, most of cars that made the trip were the back ups for these teams.
The festivities kicked off Wednesday morning with the drivers engaging in media related projects. Later that afternoon, things got more exciting when all of the drivers went head to head in some serious kart racing. Over the next few days the teams and drivers prepared to tackle this challenging course with a ton of practice. The track was different than any one on the FD schedule; the surface was perfectly smooth and the track was super fast with a high-speed entry that made things very exciting for the fans.
Friday started off with a few rounds of practice which led into qualifying in front of a massive crowd. Right from the start, the fans were on their toe’s screaming. After the first round of qualifying, Tuerck was sitting respectfully in 4th position. The GR team discussed a plan that helped place Tuerck in the number one qualifying position after the 3rd pass.
The first elimination round was a little different than what teams are accustomed to, instead of running the normal 32 car field with 16 rounds, the teams were only running 8 total rounds, so the GR camp had to be prepared for anything. Tuerck ended up facing one of the fiercest drivers in the industry, Fredrick Aasbo, in the Top 8 round of elimination. It was an epic battle with Tuerck running very well, but Aasbo was able to edge him to move on to the next round and win the event.
Overall, it was a major success for the Gardella Racing program that was pleased to showcase their new tire partner for the 2011 season, Nitto. During first test session, the entire team believed that the tires were very good and were going to give them a competitive edge.
“This was a great opportunity for Tuerck, Scott Davidson, Michael Whitney and I,” started team owner Gary Gardella. “I really want to thank all of the great people at Mobil 1, Theory Communication, and Formula Drift, especially Ryan Sage, Jim Law and best in the business Casidi. I also can’t leave out the great staff at Yas Marina for inviting us all to their beautiful facility and giving us this phenomenal opportunity. Thank you all”
In the coming weeks, the team will be announcing more exciting projects and partnerships. With the season opener only 6 weeks away in Long Beach on April 8th-9th, the team is down to crunch time. The entire Gardella Racing crew will be working overtime to be prepared to make this the most memorable season opener in their teams history.
