Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Career

Gittin began racing in Formula D during its inaugural 2004 season, driving a self-built Nissan 240SX (S13) with Falken Tire sponsorship. He quit his job in information technology and began pursuing drifting full-time. In 2005, he drove for Team Falken in a Ford Mustang GT (S197), finishing fourth in the 2006 season. In 2010, he announced a partnership with Monster Energy as his title sponsor and won his first Formula Drift title that year with two event wins.

For 2013, he formally launched his own RTR Drift Team, retaining Monster Energy but switching from Falken Tire to Nitto Tire. That year he was awarded the Ace Driver of the Decade title for having more tandem battle victories than any other driver in ten years of Formula Drift history. He finished third in the 2016 championship after securing two victories, and fourth in the 2017 season after campaigning a brand-new engine program and two-car team.

Ten years after his first championship win, Gittin won the 2020 championship with a season that included two wins and two podium finishes. He stepped back from Formula Drift after the 2021 season, with Adam LZ taking his place in the RTR Racing team lineup alongside Chelsea DeNofa. He returned in 2023 in a part-time capacity, driving for half the season and sharing a car with LZ, scoring an event win at Round 2. Gittin also competed in the D1 Grand Prix All Star exhibition matches from 2004 to 2007, winning the USA vs Japan event in 2005 and the All Star Duel event in 2007.

In 2016, he began competing in Ultra4 USA at the King of the Hammers, finishing in the top-ten in his first appearance. He won the East Coast Championship in the Ultra4 4500 Class in 2018, and finished seventh in the highest 4400 class in 2019, the highest finish of any crossover driver in series history. He competed in NASCAR Canada for 2014 and 2015, finishing 14th out of 32 drivers in Québec in 2014, and finishing fifth during his first Trans-Am race at Road America in 2015.

From 2010 to 2012, he appeared as a guest driver alongside event creator and fellow Monster Energy teammate Ken Block in the Gymkhana Grid event, which featured drift stunts, pyrotechnics, and obstacles like barrels, tires, ship containers and tanks.

Other ventures

Gittin started RTR Vehicles in 2009, with RTR being an acronym for 'Ready To Rock'. RTR first announced the launch of a collaborative special edition of the Ford Mustang entitled the Mustang RTR-C, revealed at the 2009 SEMA Show and limited to 10 vehicles. Throughout the years, RTR has created aftermarket accessories, customization packages, and third-party special models for the Ford Mustang. This continued until 2025, when an official Ford Mustang RTR production model was announced in partnership with Ford, and later in 2026, a Ford Bronco RTR production model.

Gittin stated the purpose of launching the RTR brand in 2009 was to reinvigorate interest in the Ford Mustang for the younger generation, whose primary clientele was an aging demographic. Noting the interest in low-displacement, high-boost imports, Gittin and Ford reasoned that the drifter's influence could help market the Mustang in a new way. In 2023, Ford partnered with Gittin and RTR Vehicles to develop a 'Drift Brake' feature for the seventh-generation Mustang.

In lieu of a traditional hand brake actuated by a physical cable, this electronic parking brake in the Mustang's Performance Package can override the stability-controlled controller to lock the rear brakes with hydraulic line pressure. Gittin has appeared in multiple ad campaigns and viral video stunts for Ford and Monster Energy, such as the 'Fire Drift' video, 'Battle Drift' video with Daigo Saito, and 'Drift King of the Ring' video drifting on the Nürburgring race track.

He appears in the racing video game Shift 2: Unleashed as a character who guides the player through their career and teaches the player how to drift, and is also one of the rivals the player must beat in two career branches, 'Drift' and 'Muscle'. He also appears in a smaller capacity in the 2015 reboot of Need For Speed alongside fellow Monster Energy driver Ken Block for the 'Style' portion of its storyline.