Formula D Diaries - Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Vaughn Gittin Jr.
The D1GP title holder is looking for a Formula D title to add to his conquest. Will attitude, Falkens, and a Ford be enough?

With last year's D1GP World Championship under our belts, we were all excited to carry the momentum to Long Beach for Round One. While there is a brand new Mustang chassis in the works, we were in Old Faithful for the season opener. During Friday's practice I was dead on. I had a great line, speed, smoke, and angle. I was feeling both mentally and physically ready to rock for Saturday's main event. My first qualifying run set the bar and left me sitting in Sixth overall. I was paired up to be the leader of the first run against Kazu Hyashida in his R34 Skyline. Running the same line and speed I had been all weekend, I was able to create a slight gap on him in Turn 10 and the judges gave me an 8-6 advantage. My spotter called down to let me know that he had been entering the same speed as me all weekend, so I didn't need to change a thing.

As I left the line in the second run behind Kazu-san, I entered about 200 feet before Turn 9 and he was still straight. At the apex of Turn 9 he stood on his brakes for some insane reason. I successfully did everything I could not to hit him and stay in drift. On the exit of turn nine my door was about five inches from his front fender. I slowed to allow him to flick back prior to Turn 10 and, unfortunately, I had to slow too much which forced me on a shallow line and almost fully straight. The judges awarded him the win.

I was definitely not thrilled about the situation; his newly found braking point sure did mess me up and put me out of the event. All the drivers know I enter as fast and as hard as I can, however a few drivers try to take advantage of someone that goes all-out, and change up the pace to try to get a cheap advantage by forcing a mistake. So here's my new rule for all drivers that want to play around: If you don't enter hard and fast, plan on getting a Ford Mustang front end branded on the side of your car. That's for serious. This is PRO drifting, and I'm done playing games. Drive hard or go home!

Falken Tire
www.falkentire.com

K&N Filter
www.knfilters.com

Ford Racing
www.fordracing.com