Tanner Foust

Tanner Foust (born June 13, 1973) is a professional racing driver, stunt driver, and television host. He competes in rally, drift, ice racing, time attack and rallycross with multiple podium placements, national championships, and world records. He is a co-host on the American version of the motoring television series, Top Gear.

Background

Growing up in a naval family, Foust spent several years as a child in Scotland, where he discovered rally racing and learned to drive on the country roads near his home. He returned to the United States 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 college, he began working as an ice driving coach, an instructor at automotive marketing events and competing in anything he could, including rally and drifting. He made the transition to professional racing in 2003, and soon moved to California to begin stunt driving for Hollywood films. With his passion for cars, he has rapidly become one of the busiest professional drivers in the United States. He considers himself fortunate that, in just over ten years of professional racing, he has had the opportunity to compete against the likes of Rod Millen, Colin McRae, Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel.^[1]

Career

Foust in action during the 2014 World RX of Great Britain. Later that same year he won the World RX of Finland.

He was slated to become co-host for the original American version of the motoring television series, Top Gear, on NBC and filmed a pilot before the series was dropped. The series has since been picked up by the History Channel and Foust was the only pilot presenter to be picked up when the program finally made it on air in the U.S. in late 2010. He has also hosted other shows including SPEED Channel's SuperCars Exposed, SPEED Channel's Redline TV and ESPN's Import Tuners. On November 21, 2010, he made his debut for the History Channel series, Top Gear, the American version of the BBC hit series of the same name.

Foust has been a stunt driver for films such as The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift, Iron Man 2, Need For Speed (film) and The Dukes of Hazzard and set multiple world records with Hot Wheels and Top Gear. He was a prominent competitor in the Formula Drift series, winning the 2007 and 2008 championship. Foust is the first driver in Formula Drift history to win back-to-back series championships. He is the most decorated driver in X Games history with 9 medals. Foust first competed in X Games XIII in 2007 where he won the gold in the rally racing event. He also participated in Rally America in 2009. In 2010 at X Games XVI he won gold in Rally Car Racing and Rally Car Super Rally, driving the Rockstar Energy Ford Fiesta. He also competed in the European Rallycross Championship, becoming the first American to do so. After leaving the drifting scene in favor of RallyCross in 2011, Foust became a regular ERC competitor, taking part in all 10 rounds of the FIA recognized series as well as Global RallyCross - winning the championship. In 2012, Foust continued his success with another Global RallyCross championship.

For 2013, Foust medaled in both racing events at X Games XIX Los Angeles with a gold in Gymkhana Grid and silver in RallyCross. These marked his eighth and ninth X Games medals. He is currently in second place in points behind Ford Racing teammate Toomas Heikkinen. Foust will return for a fourth season as host of Top Gear at the end of the summer.

In Summer 2014 he started shooting the fifth season of Top Gear.^[2]

At the Chicago Auto Show in February 2014, Foust announced a new partnership with Volkswagen and Andretti Autosport. He drove a Volkswagen New Beetle for the 2014 Global RallyCross Championship season as well as selected events with Marklund Motorsport in the inaugural season of the FIA World Rallycross Championship. He became the first, and so far only, driver from outside Europe to win a round of the championship, winning the 2014 World RX of Finland.

Achievements

• 2005 Rally America PGT Champion [Flatirons Tuning 429 WRX]
• 2006 Summer X Games Rally Third fastest time in the Stadium Super Special
• 2006 Rally America PGT Class Championship Second place overall [Flatirons Tuning 429 WRX]
• 2006 Formula Drift Championship third place overall [McKinney Nissan Silvia]
• 2007 Rally America Series Fourth Place (with 6 podium placements)^[3]
• 2007 Formula Drift Pro Drift Champion [Rockstar-AEM 350z]^[4]
• 2007 X Games Rally Gold Medalist [Rockstar Subaru STI]
• 2008 X Games Rally Silver Medalist [Rockstar Subaru STI]
• 2008 Race of Champions Competitor
• 2008 Formula Drift Pro Drift Champion [Rockstar-AEM 350z]^[5]
• 2009 Formula Drift Sixth Place (with 3 podium placements) [Rockstar-Scion Scion TC]^[6]
• 2009 Race of Champions Competitor
• 2009 X Games Rally Bronze Medalist [Rockstar-Etnies Ford Fiesta]
• 2010 Formula Drift Silver Medalist [Rockstar-Scion Scion TC]^[7]
• 2010 X Games Super Rally Gold Medalist [Rockstar-Etnies Ford Fiesta]^[8]
• 2010 X Games Rally Gold Medalist [Rockstar-Etnies Ford Fiesta]^[9]
• 2010 Race of Champions Competitor
• 2010 Gymkhana Grid Gold Medalist AWD Division [Rockstar-Etnies Ford Fiesta]^[10]
• 2011 World Record for Longest Jump in a four-wheeled vehicle (332 feet)^[11]
• 2011 World Indoor Speed Record till 24.2.2013, new Record holder 25.2.2013 Mikko Hirvonen Finland (Speedcar XTREME)
• 2011 European Rallycross Championship Silver Medalist [Rockstar-Etnies Ford Fiesta]^[12]
• 2011 Global RallyCross Champion [Rockstar-Etnies Ford Fiesta]^[13]
• 2011 X Games RallyCross Silver Medal [Rockstar-Etnies Ford Fiesta]^[14]
• 2012 World Record for Largest Loop-the-Loop in a car (60 feet in diameter)^[15]
• 2012 Global RallyCross Champion [Rockstar-Etnies Ford Fiesta]^[16]
• 2013 X Games Munich RallyCross Bronze Medalist [Rockstar Energy Ford Fiesta ST] ^[17]
• 2013 X Games Los Angeles Gymkhana Grid Gold Medalist [Rockstar Energy Ford Fiesta ST]^[18]
• 2013 X Games Los Angeles RallyCross SIlver Medalist [Rockstar Energy Ford Fiesta ST] ^[19]

Racing record

Complete FIA European Rallycross Championship results

Division 1

Supercar

¹Excluded by the Stewards of the Meeting, but exclusion was later quashed by FIAs International Court of Appeal

Complete FIA World Rallycross Championship results

Supercar

Complete Global RallyCross Championship results

AWD

Supercar

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	GRC	Points
2012	Olsbergs MSE Ford Racing	Ford Fiesta	CHA 2	TEX 2	LA 5	LOU 4	LV 1	LVC 1							1st	94
2013	Olsbergs MSE	Ford Fiesta ST	BRA 8	MUN1 6	MUN2 3	LOU 4	BRI 7	IRW 2	ATL 2	CHA 10	LV 2				2nd	123
2014	Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross	Volkswagen Polo	BAR 11	AUS 18	DC 5	NY 1	CHA 8	DAY 6							9th	209
		Volkswagen Beetle							LA1 8	LA2 13	SEA 10	LV 6
2015	Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross	Volkswagen Beetle	FTA 5	DAY1 1	DAY2 5	MCAS 12	DET1 10	DET2 10	DC 5	LA1 2	LA2 3	BAR1 1	BAR2 1	LV 9	3rd	388
2016	Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross	Volkswagen Beetle	PHO1 1	PHO2 1	DAL 3	DAY1 5	DAY2 1	MCAS1 8	MCAS2	DC 3	AC 4	SEA 1	LA1 2	LA2 4	2nd	565

Race cancelled.

TV and film

Foust, for Team Hot Wheels, jumping across the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's infield at turn 4

• The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) stunt driver
• Rally America (2005–2007) as Himself
• Formula D (2005–2007) as Himself
• Auto Access (2005–2007) Host
• Import Racers: "Bull Run" (2006) as Himself
• CSI: Miami: "Driven" (2006) stunt driver
• Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) stunt driver
• Master of Champions: "Premiere" (2006) Contestant
• RM Classic Car Auction (2007) Host
• Redline TV (2007) Host
• Dirt: "Ita Missa Est" (2007) stunt double
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) stunt performer
• Numb3rs: "Velocity" (2007) stunt driver
• Top Gear (NBC) (2008) Host
• Mad Skills: Rhys Millen Is the Kiwi Drifter (2008) as Himself
• SuperCars Exposed (2008–2009) Host
• Fast & Furious (2009) stunt double
• Street Customs: "GTO" (2009) as Himself
• Battle of the Supercars (2010) as Himself
• Iron Man 2 (2010) stunt double
• Top Gear (U.S.) (2010—present) Host
• Sonic X: The Final Stand (2011) as Jet the Hawk (voice)
• Hot Wheels: Fearless at the 500 (2011) as Himself
• Red Dawn (2012) stunt double
• The Bourne Legacy (2012) stunt double
• Octane Academy (2012) as Himself
• Octane Academy (2013) as Himself
• Need for Speed (2014) stunt driver
• Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) hitman stunt driver

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tanner Foust.

• Official website
• Papadakis Racing Tanner Foust Bio
• Scion Racing About Team Rockstar
• Rockstar Racing Tanner Foust Bio
• Tanner Foust at the Internet Movie Database