Vaughn Gittin Jr'S BIO

 

Name: Vaughn Gittin Jr. aka JR

Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland

Previous Location's: Maryland my whole life but I have been fortunate enough to travel my share of the world!

Career Path: Destroyer of Falken tires and professional Drifter

Previous Career paths:  Worked at Wendy's flipping burgers, owned my own mobile car detailing business, project manager and designer for the implementation of large scale wireless networks in high class communities, information technology manager for well known economic consulting firm.

Notable Projects/Wins: 2007 D1GP World Champion, 2005 D1GP USA vs. Japan Champion, Formula Drift Hardest Charger Award 2004-2006

Cars: 2005 Ford Mustang, Lexus GS300, 1993 Nissan 240sx coupe, 1955 Chevy 2 door hard top

Fav Past cars: 1964 Cutlass with hydraulics, 1988 Maxima, Toyota Tercel 3 door (best car to jump ever)

Next car: Porsche GT3 or 911 slant nose

Car Passions: I got my first taste of speed when I got a go kart for my 4th birthday. I was immediately in love. My father had a slew of sick cars throughout my childhood so I would always beg him to take me to races. At age 13 I got my first dirt bike and found another love. I raced motocross pretty heavily from 16-20. At age 18 I got my first of over ten 240sx's I have owned.  I would spend every dollar I had just burning tires down, powerslides donuts and just fun driving with it. I then learned of drifting and found my true love and passion. I worked my IT job to support my drifting habit and here I am living a dream drifting for a living. I have always loved fast cars and motocross. In the last 6 years of being heavily into drifting I have also become interested in V8 supercar racing and time attack as well as the Mustang challenge series and hope to test myself in those events as well

Personal style: Well used jeans, t-shirts and DC shoes < that's me.

Favorite band of the moment: It is absolutely impossible for me to name that...Motley crue, old AFI, Rise against, Hellacopters

Personal Motto: Ready to Rock!


2,133 Posted Dec 04 2008, 01:30 PM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 18 comment(s)

DRIVERS BLOG: VAUGHN GITTIN JR>> RBWC... MUCH MORE THAN A COMPETITION
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I know everyone has already seen all the pictures and read all the coverage of the Red Bull World Championship, but I just wanted to touch on it from my point of view. My brain analyzes nonstop; sometimes I love it, sometimes I want it to turn off. At this event I had the realization of just how far our sport has come, especially in America. I mean I obviously have realized it to a certain degree, but this event was just like "WOW...we are doing it." I think some of this came from the overall...

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Posted Nov 14 2008, 02:29 PM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 7 comment(s)

DRIVERS BLOG>> VAUGHN GITTIN JR: PLAYING IN THE DIRT!
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I'm going to travel back in time to about two months ago in the middle of September. From my win at Irwindale, my excitement overcame me when writing my last blog and I had to share that with you all, instead of what I should have been writing about - which was a week of real-life Speedhunting. During SEMA 2007, I walked into a sushi place at the Hard Rock hotel when I ran into Shawn Crawford from my sponsor JE Pistons. Shawn introduced me to a gentleman by the name of Karl Fredrickson who is...

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2,133 Posted Oct 31 2008, 09:00 PM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 19 comment(s)

DRIVERS BLOG>> VAUGHN GITTIN JR. BLOG ENTRY #7
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As I write this, I am reliving my victory three weeks ago at Irwindale Speedway during the final round of Formula Drift, firstly I just want to say WOOOOOOHOOOYAAAA!!!! For me this victory was long awaited and well deserved if I don't say so myself. I've won two prestigious drifting events in the past: the 2005 D1GP USA vs. Japan and the 2007 D1GP World Championship. But I have yet to taste the glory and stand on the top of the podium in a Formula Drift event. The final round of FD proved...

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Posted Oct 03 2008, 06:10 PM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 26 comment(s)

DRIVERS BLOG>> VAUGHN GITTIN JR. BLOG ENTRY #6
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It has been a crazy last couple of months for me; I'm going to refrain from putting everything into this one blog of mine. After all, I don't want to take up the entire Speedhunters site with my blog, now do I? For this blog, I am going to talk about my Bosch Performance Art shoot in which I got the opportunity to drift the Streets of Los Angeles and also my trip to Detroit to the Ford Headquarters, the Woodward Dream Cruise, and the Bill Ford Museum. A couple months back, I was on a conference...

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2,133 Posted Aug 06 2008, 11:08 PM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 8 comment(s)

DRIVERS>> VAUGHN GITTIN JR BLOG ENTRY #5
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A few weeks ago I was invited out to X Games 14 by my friend and rally driver Ken Block. He had mentioned he would like me to be an extra set of eyes as well as his technical advisor, not to mention I doubled as his "party sub" since he had to skip out on all the festivities until the weekend was over in order to perform at 110%. Even though I have an already insane schedule this month, how could I resist this opportunity? Being a spawn of action sports, this was like an invite to my fantasy...

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Posted Jul 09 2008, 11:00 AM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 23 comment(s)

DRIVERS>> VAUGHN GITTIN JR BLOG ENTRY#4
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I was introduced to Ken Block at Formula Drift in the Streets of Long Beach 2006 from a mutual friend. Some of you might know Ken as the cofounder of DC Shoes, but most of you know as him as a pro rally driver and the maniac behind the wheel of a factory supported, Vermont Sport Cars built, Monster Energy Drink/Subaru Impreza WRX STI that jumped over 170 feet for the Stunt Junkies show. Since our introduction we have had a number of conversations and we have always talked about getting together to...

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2,133 Posted Jun 25 2008, 04:30 AM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 27 comment(s)

DRIVERS>>VAUGHN GITTIN JR BLOG ENTRY#3
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WARNING!!! This should not be read by those with a weak stomach!!! I have been waiting for a long time to publicly tell this story and share this build to the world. Out of respect for my friends at Super Street and unwritten industry laws, I had to wait for the feature to be released before I could spill the beans. For those of you that haven't gotten the July 2008 issue of Super Street, pick it up and check out the story on my S14 - it has a bit happier ending than the following story! I bought...

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Posted Jun 02 2008, 02:20 PM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 7 comment(s)

DRIVERS>>VAUGHN GITTIN JR BLOG ENTRY#2
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The rest of the Drift Alliance boys and I decided to premiere the new Drift Alliance DVD Stay Hungry in Atlanta while we were out there for Formula Drift Round Two. We held the premiere at Midtown Art Cinema just outside of the city. It was a badical movie theatre – so classy in fact that they served beer and wine. Nothing but the best for Drift Alliance. We went all out for the premiere – red carpet, satin ropes, the whole enchilada. It was absolutely everything we wanted it to be and...

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2,133 Posted May 28 2008, 07:36 AM by Vaughn Gittin Jr with 8 comment(s)

DRIVERS>>VAUGHN GITTIN JR BLOG ENTRY#1
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Hello all! My name is Vaughn Gittin Jr., otherwise known as JR. You might know me as a founding member of Drift Alliance or possibly as the driver of the Falken Tire Ford Racing Mustang who won the 2005 D1 Grand Prix USA vs. Japan and the 2007 D1 Grand Prix World Championship. It is also very possible you may know me as the loud and proud American screaming Motley Crue’s “Live Wire” at the local karaoke joint in any town I have every been fortunate enough to travel to. I have earned...

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Vaughn Gittin Jr