Team Member - Tom Yates
Name: Tom 'Mad' Yates
Nationality: English
Car Driven: Skyline R32 500hp
Driver Website: n/a
Driver Biography:
Tom could be said to have been born into the auto world, his father was involved in the car trade for many years and this lead Tom straight into car racing at an early age.
At 14 Tom found 'Autograss' and in a 1000cc mini, won virtually every title there was. At just 16 he made move up to the Men's class and got himself a specially converted V8 RWD Vauxhall Nova. His success continued and he became the youngest person ever to qualify for the men's finals.
Then came time to leave school and work took priority, until in late 2006 he found drifting!
In November 2006 Tom entered the SVA Challenge, a fun event and his first drift event. Driving a newly purchased Toyota Soarer, this made Tom stand out from the crowd. He showed early signs of his excellent skills by making it through to the Top16 in a good field. He came up against Mark Luney (now a fellow Drift Republic team-mate) and couldn't overcome the skills of the then European No3
Within a year of Tom's first drift competition he had gained Top16 finishes at every event he entered, picking up Prodrift & JDM Allstars licenses along the way.
Realising that his ageing Soarer required alot of work to make it competitive at the top level, Tom managed to Purchase the very car that had beaten him at his first event. Mark Luney was persuaded to part with his 500hp R32 GTR Skyline from the 2006 D1GB Championship.
Tom is now able to compete at the top levels in Europe and this year is competing in the Prodrift European Series and the JDM Allstars events in addition to some visits to the IDC events in Germany.
