For as long as he can remember, Ryan has loved Extreme Sports, and at
a young age he became interested in BMX and Motocross. At the age of
nine, his father bought him his first dirt bike, and by ten years old he
started racing motocross. As he progressed through the ranks of amateur
motocross he had countless podium finishes. The highlight of Tuerck’s
amateur career was placing 7th in the nation, at Lorreta Lynn’s Amateur
Nationals. At 16, he received his professional license from the American
Motocross Association (AMA), and by 17, Ryan earned the opportunity to
travel Canada, to race in the professional Canadian Nationals. Some of
the highlights of his professional career included, placing 5th in the
125cc Canadian Nationals Championship, as well as qualifying for Budds
Creek, and Unadilla in the AMA Motocross Nationals. Though Ryan’s
motocross career looked promising, he was forced to stop due to personal
reasons.
Ryan was gaining a lot of interest in cars since he turned 16. When
he stopped racing, he bought his first car, a 1990 Ford Mustang. At
night, feeling the need to challenge himself he would get his car
sideways pulling out of stop signs and slide around in empty parking
lots near his home. After having the Mustang for a year, Ryan found out
on the internet that sliding your car around or “Drifting” was actually a
real sport. Ryan immediately sold his Mustang to buy a lighter, and
better handling Nissan 240sx. He upgraded the suspension and bought a
2-way LSD for the car to help it drift. In 2003, Ryan went to his first
formal event at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ where he met future
“Drift Alliance” teammates Tony Angelo, Chris Forsberg, and Vaughn
Gittin Jr. Ryan did very well at first winning the competition. Ryan
continued to do very well everywhere he went and constantly spending all
his money upgrading his car.
In 2005, Ryan Competed in Two Rounds or Formula Drift where he did
well enough to get noticed by a few sponsors. In 2006, Ryan competed in
the entire Formula Drift series with help from his Drift Alliance
brothers, Cooper Tires, Discount Tire, and 240sxMotoring. Ryan did
exceptional in his rookie season with a 6th place finish at the Sonoma
round. In 2007, Ryan moved to California with his Drift Alliance
Teammate Tony Angelo and started “Team Snakebite” together and ran the
whole Formula Drift season independently with help from sponsors which
resulted in Ryan finishing the season 15th in points. In 2008, Ryan was
picked up by Gardella Racing and drove a 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP
sponsored by Gardella Racing, Mobil 1, GM Racing, and Maxxis Tires.
Following in 2009, Ryan won first place on podium in Round 1 at Long
Beach and again later in the year at Irwindale and in 2010 came 3rd in
series points. In 2011, Gardella retired the Soltice from Ryan, picked
up Red Bull as a lead sponsor and drove the 2011 Mobil 1/Red Bull
Chevrolet Camaro in which he finished 15th that year.
The 2012 season began with a shuffle of sponsorships, Ryan left
Gardella Racing for personal reasons, and was picked up by Retaks before
the first event at long beach. He finished off the season in fifth
after a third place finish at Irwindale.
