By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
Tanner Foust, a professional racing driver, stunt driver, television host, X Games legend, and Rally Car driver, who took second place at the Us Rally Car Championship in Millville, New Jersey, recently took time to do a Q&A session with The Capital Sports Report. His interview is about his sports career and views.
TJSR: who is your biggest role model outside of sports
TF: “There’s a lot of things about my parents that are pretty awesome. My folks were divorced when I was 3, like a lot of parents, do in the US. Nearly 50% of all marriages end in a divorce. But they were always best friends, even when I was growing up. They made my sister and I believe that they were best friends. That kind of maturity is what inspired me when I was growing up. Your parents are there to teach you, so hopefully, they do a good job. My parents were great!”
TJSR: favorite motto
TF: “It’s awful to say, but I don’t like to compromise. I like to have my cake and eat it, too. Another is going big or go home.”
TJSR: how have sports impacted your life
TF: “I was just finishing my undergrad at the University of Colorado at Boulder, when I got into racing. When I got into racing, it got me out of the labs, because I was focusing on being a doctor. It has changed my life completely. It started with a passion since I’ve had since I was a child and now, I’ve gone into coaching, ice driving, now into drifting. That’s when I first started to become a professional at it. I owe a lot to the sport of drifting.”
TJSR: why did you choose to attend Colorado
TF: “My dad always lived in Denver and Colorado has always been my home base. CU is a great school and its right near the mountains. I like rock climbing, skiing, and hiking. I also like just being in the outdoors. I got a lot of memories from my time in Colorado. Now that I live in Southern California, I really miss the mountains.”
TJSR: what sparked your interest to get into Rally Cars
TF: “When I was working at the Ice Driving School, in Steamboat (Colorado), I was road racing. And in the world of motorsports, it’s the path that’s more traveled. It’s really expensive to make headway in that sport. A lot of people are doing that, where Rally was the path less traveled. There was a better chance to raise money and to have somebody else pay for it. There was also the opportunity to do more races. So, when I was in school, I worked in a car dealership parking cars. One of my bosses had a Subaru business and went sliding around on the ice track a few times in a Subaru. I jokingly said we needed to get a Rally Car to go have some fun, and that afternoon, we found a used Rally Car. We were racing in the next 4-years in that Subaru Rally Car. That was the beginning of it for me.”
TJSR: competing at the X Games
TF: “The X Games has been an injection of energy into the sport. It has helped the Rally Car generation in the US. It is also a good thing for the X Games to have motor manufacturers involved. It’s given the legends of X Games an opportunity to do something outside of their traditional sports, like Travis Pastrana always said, with age comes a cage. I think you are going to see more than just Travis (Pastrana), (Dave) Mirra, and myself jump into these cars.”
TJSR: having Rally Car and Super Rally, which you won the gold medal in each one, in this past summer’s X Games
TF: “This year, we had two separate events. Hopefully, there will be even more of that. It’s great for the fans, because not everybody plays sports, but nearly everybody in our country spends time in a car. It is something that you can relate to, and so its beneficial for the sponsors and its good for the fans. It gives us an amazing playground. It is a great thing to be a part of. ”
TJSR: future of Rally Car
TF: “I think the sport is here to stay. It has transcended the X Games in the short time its been around. In the short time that it has been around, it already has gained huge exposure. As you can see today (Nov. 7th), there are a lot of fans here to watch us. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this sport.”
