Tony Angelo (born December 24, 1978) is an American professional
drift
Drift or Drifts may refer to:
Geography
* Drift or ford (crossing) of a river
* Drift, Kentucky, unincorporated community in the United States
* In Cornwall, England:
** Drift, Cornwall, village
** Drift Reservoir, associated with the village
...
racer and stunt driver. Tony formerly drove in the
Formula Drift
Formula Drift (also known as Formula D) is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that int ...
Scion
Scion may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
*Scion, a playable class in the game ''Path of Exile'' (2013)
*Atlantean Scion, a device in the ''Tomb Raider'' video game series
*Scions, an alien race in the video game ''Ba ...
Racing and is also the former host for
Motor Trend
''MotorTrend'' is an American automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, and designated the first Car of the Year, also in 1949.
Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles published ''MotorTrend'' until 19 ...
Channel's Hot Rod Garage.
Career
Tony began building and modifying his own cars as a teenager in his hometown of
Doylestown, PA
Doylestown is a borough and the county seat of Bucks County in Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Trenton,
north of Center City, Philadelphia,
southeast of Allentown, and southwest of New York City.
As of the 2020 cen ...
. In the late 90s, Tony was inspired to start drifting by Japanese videos and magazines. He and friend and future pro-driver
Chris Forsberg
Christopher Forsberg (born April 6, 1982), is a self-taught, three-time Formula Drift Champion and Formula Drift World Champion race car driver from Doylestown, Pennsylvania who currently competes in the Formula Drift series in his Nissan Z (Z34 ...
soon helped to start East Coast grassroots drifting events which quickly took off.
In 2003, Tony personally gained national exposure in an article in
Wired Magazine
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online magazine, online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquar ...
at the same time that drifting was gaining massive popularity. At this time doors began to open for Tony to race in the pro series.
Tony began racing professionally in 2004 in
Formula Drift
Formula Drift (also known as Formula D) is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that int ...
’s first year. He was quickly seen as a force on the track. In 2005, Tony earned his D1 license by placing first in a national driver’s search.
After years in FD as a serious competitor, Tony took a break from driving professionally in the U.S. in 2009 and became a judge for Formula Drift. Tony is credited with having majorly changed FD judging and scoring format for the better during this time.
Tony returned to the driver’s seat in 2012 for Scion Racing in his 2009
Scion tC
The Scion tC is a compact car manufactured by Toyota under its Scion brand from 2004 to 2016 over two generations: ANT10 (2004–2010) and AGT20 (2010–2016). Both generations were built in Japan. The tC was introduced first in the United States ...
.
In 2013, Tony purchased a salvage Scion FR-S that had been damaged during Hurricane Sandy. In just ten weeks, Tony and his TAngelo Racing team transformed the car into his 750 hp racecar.
Tony Angelo also does stunt work, having driven in ads for
Audi
Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide.
Th ...
,
Nissan
, trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...
and
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
.
Tony is the founder and president of Drift Alliance, based out of
Englishtown, New Jersey
Englishtown is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The community is nestled within the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 1,847,Scion Racing
* Hoonigan
*
Hankook Tires
Hankook Tire & Technology (; , also known simply as Hankook and stylised ), is a South Korean tire company. Based in Seoul, Hankook is the seventh largest tire company in the world.
History
Hankook Tire was established by Jae Hun Chung's grandf ...
* Exedy Clutches
*
Alpinestars
Alpinestars is a manufacturer of clothing and protective gear for motorsports and action sports founded in 1963, and located in Asolo, Italy. Its lines include specialized products for MotoGP, motocross, motorcycling, Formula One, WEC, V8 S ...
* Electric Visual
* Brian Crower
*
Recaro
Recaro Holding, as the parent company of the Recaro Group, owns the Recaro brand and the independently operating companies Recaro Aircraft Seating (aircraft seats) based in Schwäbisch Hall and Recaro eGaming (gaming seats) based in Stuttgart, Germ ...