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!

Here is a sweet video of Ryan Tuerck tearing it up in his street car I wanted to share. It was shot and edited by Andy Laputka. That is one huge snapping turtle!!!

- Vaughn Gittin Jr.

This past weekend in Vegas was a painful one full of bad luck... literally. Thursday night during practice I was on fire right off the trailer. The 2010 Falken Tire Ford Mustang was incredible and I was feeling great. But Friday's practice had other plans for me. On my first run I knew the track was slick as it was like 50 degrees hotter then the prior evening. I entered at about 70% just to get a feel of the course, and unfortunately, the car just wouldn't transition back from the feint entry. I did everything I could to keep it out of the wall but it just grew legs and came right out at me and bit the corner of the Mustang right off. Thanks to the team's dedication and preparation, ASD and Team Falken were able to get the car fixed within 2 hours and get me out to qualifying. Driving the track in my head all day paid off as I nailed my first qualifying run, considering the circumstances, and was in for Saturday.

Saturday we were on fire once again - that course entry was insane and fun. I ran Kenji in top 32 which was fun, and then I was up against JTP in the round of 16. Once again my bad luck in Vegas would put me out of the event as we picked up some debris in the back lot which caused the front right tire to flatten on the entry of second run. I kept it out of the wall but spun while fighting it. Check out the video of my hit from practice - definitely the hardest of my career - after watching this video I feel pretty lucky. The wheel seems to have taken most of the impact which is why I think I got off so easy.

Check out this preview of the drifting in Need for Speed Shift. Aside from my car being in the game, I have been very involved in the game development. I have been working on this behind the scenes with the developers for about a year, it has been so hard to keep my mouth shut. I have over 100 hours in developing and adjusting the drifting physics for this game and I am confident to say it is the most realistic drifting to date and you can actually feel it really good using a controller.

Our challenge was to make it accessible to everyone - from an 8 year old used to playing arcade-type games all the way to a pro driver; we accomplished that goal with the different modes. If you approach the game like your actually driving a car and not like your playing a game, you will get the hang of it real quick.  I have been a SIM gamer for years and I have never enjoyed a game with a controller until now. I am very happy with what we have been able to accomplish and am excited for everyone to be able to feel it when it comes out September 15th.  The graphics are insane and the in-car view is my absolute favorite.  

-Vaughn Gittin JR