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Podiums At Ultimate Street Car Association Event In Portland

PORTLAND, OR – Falken Tires earned three class podiums from the fourth round of the 2023 Ultimate Street Car Association (USCA) at Portland International Raceway this past weekend.

Driver Jordan Priestly took first place in the GTS Class fielding a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Performance and running on Falken Azenis RT660 tires. He is currently in second place in his class standings, just 15 points behind Falken’s Bob Sobey, who leads GTS, but did not participate at Portland.

Koda Altwood in a 2022 Tesla Model 3 Performance followed Priestly in second place, adding 461 points. Like all Team Falken drivers, he ran on Azenis RT660 tires.

In the GTT class, it was David Carroll in a 1974 Chevrolet Blazer who took third place, garnering 434 points and placing him in second in the class standings.

Sponsored by Optima Batteries, the USCA is a sanctioning body formed to create safe, fun, and high-profile national automotive events for street-legal performance vehicles. A USCA event includes five competitions that test both driver capabilities as well as vehicle and tire performance, including street-ability and engineering workmanship. Within those five segments are a road rally, acceleration and braking, autocross, road course – which Falken Tires sponsors – and design & engineering.

Seven rounds will take drivers and their teams to tracks around the country, often competing with major racing series and therefore, large crowds, with the final held in conjunction with the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas the first week of November. The series, which began in 2014, is in its 10th year of competition.

The next round is scheduled for this coming weekend, July 28-30, 2023, at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI.

On the East Coast, New Jersey Motorsports Park was host to the popular GRIDLIFE tour which has substantially expanded in 2023 to bring two separate event platforms to automotive enthusiasts. The first is a more fan-based spectator experience, called GRIDLIFE Festival Tour. The second is more driver-focused – identified as GRIDLIFE Club Weekends and centered around TrackBattle Time Attack, designed to encourage greater driver participation.

Within the various competitions in the Club Weekend at the Thunderbolt course of New Jersey’s Motorsports Park, Falken drivers running Azenis RT660 tires took the top three positions in the Sundae Cup, with Michael Ross Smith in 1st; Jason Davidson, 2nd; and Isaac Rodriguez rounding out the podium in 3rd.

In Club TR, the same results for Falken were achieved, with Evan McLaren in 1st; Evan Motl in 2nd; and Farzad Karkvandeian in 3rd.

Nicholas Korhs took second in Street Mod.

“From coast to coast, Falken Tires had a great weekend,” stated Gerald Alvarado, Falken’s Motorsports & Events Supervisor. “Both the Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car and GRIDLIFE continue to grow in popularity and the driving skill required to remain competitive is getting very demanding. It’s great to see so many different classes – and vehicles – race at all these tracks across the country and that’s been Falken’s goal – to offer our tires to the widest variety of enthusiasts and drivers possible.

“It’s so important to let our customers know that Falken is out there supporting our drivers and even more so, that they’re consistently winning or placing on our tires. We have the brand to beat.”

GRIDLIFE Club Weekend will move on to the heartland of America, competing September 23-24 at Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, KS.