LeftCoastTireCo was not founded because we wanted to start a company, it was actually quite the opposite. We were just a group of friends and drifters that got tired of carrying sets of wheels to events. So we instead loaded a tire machine into our trailer and started bringing bare tires, changing tires at the track for each other. They say if you want to make friends, get a trailer, so you can imagine how many friends we made bringing a tire machine to drift events!
Eventually, we go to the point that people knew that if we were at the track, they could get their tires changed. We were grateful and lucky enough to have the support of a local tire shop (shoutout to Big Joe’s Tires!) and started bringing in some of their affordable tires for drivers that ran through their supply at the events. Not a company, not a tire dealer, just some well equipped middle-men. And so it went for years!
Then, one fateful day, our founder had just gotten home from a work trip when a good friend in the industry hit him up saying there was a tire emergency. A shipment of tires had been delayed and would not make it to a north-west event in time. The tires? Zestino competition tires. The event? Round 6 Formula D, Seattle… OH SHI-
We split the mission into two legs, with one of their people making the first leg from Los Angeles to us in the central valley. When it got to us, strapped tires three-tiers high onto the only trailer we had available at the time – a dirtbike trailer. We picked up some friends along the way for emotional support and made the 827 mile drive overnight, arriving just as the gate opened, and started handing tires off the trailer like a farmer chucking hay.
