2010 was by far the best year in the successful career of Formula Drift Champion, Vaughn Gittin Jr. When the season ended, Vaughn had podiumed an incredible 6 out of 7 Formula Drift events. He started the season out with a win at Round 1 in Long Beach, and then took second place at both Round 2 in Atlanta and Round 3 in New Jersey. At Round 5 in Las Vegas, he took third place in the Falken Tire podium sweep, and at Round 6 in Sonoma, he once again took the win. At the final event of the season at Irwindale Speedway, Vaughn podiumed one last time when he took the second place spot. Vaughn and his team’s consistency, passion, and hard work earned them their first Formula Drift Championship; a goal Vaughn has been chasing for the past seven years.
Always wanting to test himself, Vaughn dabbled in a few other motorsports in 2011. He teamed up with fellow Monster Energy athlete, Casey Currie, to drive in the TORC Off Road series. More recently, Vaughn teamed up with Ken Block and the Monster Rally Team to compete in the first-ever Gymkhana GRID Invitational at Irwindale Speedway. Vaughn proved successful in Ken’s 1978 Ford Escort MKII, and had a lot of fun in the process.
Vaughn’s highly-anticipated ’69 Mustang project, the Need for Speed RTR-X, debuted at SEMA in Las Vegas and was quite a hit, attracting attention from media and car enthusiasts alike. Vaughn is pumped to get in the driver’s seat in 2011 and let the world see this incredible machine in action.
Vaughn continued to tour world-wide spreading drifting awareness and creating new fans at events like NASCAR, X-Games, Barrett Jackson, SEMA, Rob Dyrdek’s Skateboard Street League, Kolher International at Road America, Shelby Mid-America Meet, Mustangs of the Queen Mary meet, and the International Motor Show.
With a new year ahead, Vaughn hopes to take his momentum into 2011 and pursue another Formula Drift Championship while continuing to take his traveling smoke show world-wide in hopes of turning more automotive enthusiasts into drift fans. He will still be rocking the Monster Energy Falken Tire 2011 Ford Mustang that has proven quite a successful machine.
Check out Vaughn’s newly designed website (VaughnGittin.com) to see more from the past year, and be sure to check back frequently for updates. Happy Holidays and best wishes in the New Year to all of Vaughn’s supporters, fans, and friends. It’s going to be hard for him to top 2010, but you can bet Vaughn will try!