Carl Rydquist is a new addition to Formula Drift, but also one of the series' most internationally merited racedrivers. His driving career started in Sweden 1996 where he won his first club racing championship in 2000. The real break through came when he beat more than 1000 contestants in the Eurosport Super Racing Weekend Challenge 2001 (gocarts) and went on to test a Porsche 964 RS in which he went on to win the 2001 Swedish Endurance 8h/12h GT Racing Cup. After this he notched up podium finishes visiting the 2002 Junior Touring Car Championship (Volvo S40 Racing) and the 2003 Scandinavian Sportscar Challenge (Radical, sportscar prototype). From then on it´s all Porsches.
Carl won the Swedish Endurance 3h GT Racing Championship in 2004 (Porsche 993 RSR), became the runner-up in the same championship 2005 (996 GT3 Cup), then went on to be the first Swede to ever win the Zandvoort 500 that same year (996 GT3 RS), had a 9th in class finish at the 35th annual 24 hours of Nürburgring 2006 (996 Cup) and qualified 18th out of well over 200 cars in the 2007 24 hours of Nürburgring, running in the top 10 on the legendary Nordschleife before the engine broke down (996 GT3 RS). 2008 saw Rydquist make his best racing effort so far at the 36th 24 Hours of Nurburgring, but fate wanted different as a team mate had an incident and they dropped down the field. In May 2009 Rydquist is again ready to charge for a top position in the Hankook Levin Racing 996 GT3 RSR. Rydquist also hosts sponsor events, track days, instructs and demo drivers for sportscar manufacturers media and customer events, works everyday as a test engineer, precision driver and development driver for various OEM and performance car projects.
Carl started drifting in 2008 and secured a total 8th in the 2008 Just Drift series driving his commuter car, a stock Nissan 350Z, supported by City Tire Online. 2009 is Rydquist's rookie year in FD, but he is in no way a rookie behind the wheel of extreme sportscars.