Vaughn Gittin Jr and His Superbad Falken Drift 2010 Mustang GT

I first met Vaughn Gittin Jr. in a non-descript Maryland strip mall parking lot on a Wednesday night in September of 2001. He was hanging out at the kickoff party for the old Super Street Tour. He was introduced to me as a “drifter” but I was nonplussed. Keep in mind, at this point I had already been to Japan and witnessed Taniguchi manji the OG HKS S15 at Bihoku Highland. I was already a JDM drift fan boy with no time for a wannabe. Fast forward to last Saturday night and I see JR at a party. He is no longer the fresh-faced kid I remember. Now he walks with a swagger that can only come after running the high bank of Irwindale harder than the world’s best drifters. In this picture he’s riding the wall on the 100 mph first turn at the Red Bull event in his 2008 car, “Betsy”. On this day he would later tag the wall too hard retiring the car. But that’s his style – go big or… you know the rest. This year, poppa JR’s gotta a brand new bag. Hit the jump to see the video. As an added bonus check out the verbal smackdown he lays on Samuel Hubinette at the 1:57 mark.

The best thing about JR is that he’s not a classically trained product of any motorsports academy or a transplant from another form of racing looking to ride the drift wave onto better ride. He’s a pure drifter and his full-throttle driving style suits his 2010 Mustang perfectly. What I like best about JR is no matter how big his skills have taken him he still maintains that same enthusiasm he had in a parking lot in Maryland some eight years back.