USRC Series
2007 Schedule

Vaughn Gittin Jr. continues to prove his skills behind any machine thrown his way

Tooele, UT – Recently featured in a Super Street editorial column, Vaughn Gittin Jr. spoke about the troubles and triumphs in recently giving up his full-time IT job to work in a suit – a racing suit that is! JR promised his fans, family, and sponsors nothing but hard work and dedication, and thus far, he has kept his word.

JR traveled to Utah in late April for GT Live to participate in the Falken Tire Drift Experience. The Falken Tire Drift Experience is an event dedicated to giving fans a true, intimate feeling of being in a professional drift car on Falken Tires. JR says, “Falken Tire has worked unbelievably hard to make this dream for fans come true.”

“Miller Motorsports Park is an absolutely amazing dreamland for any motorsports enthusiast,” says JR. Miller Motorsports Park contains multiple tacks, karting facilities and supermoto tracks.

On practice day, JR and his team realized that the Falken Tire Mustang had some issues that needed to be taken care of before they got any worse. The team decided to pull the car out of the event to prepare it for D1 and Formula D coming up because the competition series is a number one priority.
“Being at this event and not being able to drive is like taking a little kid to a candy store and not letting him get a Snickers.”  Fortunately for JR, he was graciously allowed behind the wheel of one of the Miller Motorsports Mustang Challenge cars to participate in the Time Attack and do some road racing.
Always wanting to improve his skills, JR talked to many of the other drivers in order to learn some of the tricks and lines of the course. Only his second time participating in road racing, JR gave it is all and won 3rd overall and 1st in the RWD class. The Mustang JR was racing is one of the many Miller Motorsports Mustang challenge cars built for sale or rental by the general public; the car was lightly modified but good for road racing according to JR.

JR says he was “very impressed with the way it handled in general and the guys at Miller Motorsports  do a great job of building reliable and affordable cars for someone who wants to improve their skills, or just for those ‘weekend racers’.” JR genuinely appreciates the guys at Miller Motorsports for allowing him to have such a great experience and race one of their awesome cars.

Englishtown, NJ – Returning to the place where he started drifting about 4 years ago, JR was super excited to participate in the D1 U.S. season opener. This was truly a landmark event for JR and the rest of the boys of Drift Alliance, mainly because this venue was so special to their drifting careers. JR was excited to have his family, friends and East Coast fans in attendance supporting him at an event local to his hometown.

Engine problems arose during practice Friday and the team decided to pull the plug on driving his Mustang in order to get ready for Formula D Round 2 the following weekend.

Eric Davis, one of JR’s best friends, was at the event with his SR-powered Corolla built by Mid-Atlantic Motorsports with hopes of attaining his D1 license from the drivers search. Unfortunately, Eric did not get his license and ending up hitting a wall during practice – leaving the car with quite a nasty bruise. But luckily for JR, Eric agreed to let him drive his car for the competition.

JR was determined not to let his family, friends, and fans down and, without hesitation, hopped in the Corolla and qualified 11th after only two practice runs! Switching from a lighter, extremely less-powered vehicle proved to be no match for JR’s skills behind the wheel. “I was ecstatic… I was just having so much fun driving this little Corolla. It was a whole new challenge for me to conquer.”

For the Top 16 battles, JR was paired up with Takahiro Ueno in the 530hp Toyota Soarer. After an amazing battle and two “one more times”, Ueno took the victory over JR. Overall, JR was thrilled that he could just hop in a crashed Corolla and put on such a show for the crowd.

“I’m very confident in my new mechanics this year – Doug from Streetwise is a genius. Problems that we are having with the Mustang are a result of what we have done to give the car more bite. The car’s suspension is really working very well, but the motor is getting a lot more loaded from working so hard than it has in the past. We are finding that the motor-build that we have gone with in the past is not going to work for us this season. We have some new tricks up our sleeves and we are hoping to get through Atlanta with our spare motor, and we are doing everything possible to debut our new secret at Summit Point.”

Atlanta, GA –Vaughn Gittin Jr. traveled to “Hotlanta” in hopes of packing a major punch in Round Two “Fight Night” Formula D, and boy was it a scorcher. Due to the motor problems from the previous weekend, Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s Falken Tire Mustang ran with a spare motor. JR was in high spirits Friday even though the car was down in power about 100 hp. JR was forced to go down two sizes in tires as the power of the spare motor was unable to spin his usual massive 315 Falken RT615s.

Due to a dose of bad luck during qualifying Saturday, JR was the only driver who had to run during a heavy downpour. After making his way down the hill, his first entry was like a sheet of ice and threw him into the gravel pit. JR was very disappointed but decided to not let this occurrence get him down.
For the second qualifying round, JR put down the fastest entry speed of the day – 93 mph. His run started off beautifully, but on the last entry he misshifted into first rather than third gear. JR straightened up and unfortunately was completely taken out of the ballgame.

“I was feeling great all weekend. The guys from Falken Tire and Streetwise made sure I had an amazing car setup considering the circumstances. I made a very big mistake and it really cost me the event. It was a very big wake-up call – the first time I’ve had to sit on the sidelines for the top sixteen in three years! You can bet I will be putting this minor bump in the road behind me and I will be ready to rock at Summit Point in West Virginia June 2nd!

Written and edited by Abby Baker