Tony Angelo (born December 24, 1978) is an American professional drift racer and stunt driver. Angelo formerly drove in the

Formula Drift Formula DRIFT (also known as Formula D or FD) is an American drifting series, and was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that introduced D1 Grand Prix to the ...

series in his 2013 Scion FR-S for

Scion Scion may refer to: Horticulture *Scion (grafting), in horticulture, the upper part of a combined plant Arts, entertainment, and media Characters *Atlantean Scion, a device in the ''Tomb Raider'' video game series *Scion, avatar of the warrior en ...

Racing and is also the former host for

Motor Trend ''Motor Trend'' 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 published ''Motor Trend'' until 1998, when it was sold ...

Channel's Hot Rod Garage. He currently hosts his own YouTube Channel ‘Stay Tuned’ with 368k subscribers as of 1/31/25.

Career

Tony began building and modifying his own cars as a teenager in his hometown of

Doylestown, PA Doylestown is a borough in and the county seat of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the borough population was 8,300. Doylestown is located northwest of Trenton, north of Center City Philadelphia, and sout ...

. 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 an American Formula D driver from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He competes in the Formula Drift series in his Nissan Z (Z34) for Forsberg Racing, where he is the owner and shop manager. NOS Energy Dri ...

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'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and Online magazine, online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in public ...

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

’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 (2011–2016). Both generations were built in Japan. The tC was introduced first in the United State ...

. In 2013, Tony purchased a salvage Scion FR-S that had been damaged during

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

. 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. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

and

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

. Tony is the founder and president of Drift Alliance, based out of

Englishtown, New Jersey Englishtown is a rapidly growing Borough (New Jersey), borough in western Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The community is located within the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region. As of the 2020 Uni ...

. He is also a member of the Blood Masters team. Tony often drifts his Lexus SC 300 missile car at grassroots events alongside amateur drivers at the Englishtown track where his career started. Tony was a host on the Motor Trend show Hot Rod Garage, which he left after 6 seasons.

Achievements

* President of Drift Alliance * Multiple Formula Drift top 10 and top 8 finished * 2013 FD Palm Beach Top 16 * 2013 FD Palm Beach Top FR-S qualifier * 2013 Drift Week Triple Crown at Pikes Peak - 3rd Place * 2012 FD Palm Beach Top Scion qualifier * 2012 FD Palm Beach Top 4-cylinder qualifier * 2012 Top 32 Qualifier all Formula Drift events * 2010 FX Open Belarus - 5th Place * 3 Formula Drift Team Drift wins * 1st place D1 driver’s search * Fastest qualifier record on fastest FD track, Evergreen Speedway

References

External links

Tony Angelo Driver Page at Scion.com

Formula Drift Profile
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Angelo, Tony Racing drivers from Pennsylvania D1 Grand Prix drivers Drifting drivers Living people Formula D drivers 1978 births Sportspeople from Doylestown, Pennsylvania