User:Tagg9996/sandbox/Ryu Taggart

Ryu Taggart Ryu (pronounced Reeyou), born in 2001, Japanese born race car driver. Ryu is half Okinawan and half American. He first started racing karts in 2006 at the age of 5. Over the next ten years he amassed several karting track champions in Japan and in 2015 Ryu finished 3rd (out of over 7000 drivers) in the highly competitive Red Bull Kart Fight. Ryu moved to America in 2016 and resumed his racing career in 2017. Competing in America was critical to the pursuit of his ultimate ambition: becoming a Professional Racecar driver. During his first season in the USA, he placed 163rd out of 1000+ drivers nationally (USRA National Dirt Modifieds) and this, after having missed two races. Ryu was honored to get a trophy dash win on his birthday and three months after, his first feature victory. In 2018, Ryu finished 4th in the championship and was awarded Missouri State Rookie of the Year in the Pro Late Model Division. In October of 2018 Ryu was selected as one of the twelve drivers to go to NASCAR’s Diversity Combine. In 2020 and 2021 Ryu has been driving in the USRA A-Modifieds. Ryu has started to work his way into drifting in 2021 and is planning on doing more with drifting in the 2022 season.