Some professional athletes are known for their dogged training regimen and resolute pursuit of their passion, while others seem to be born to it. Vaughn Gittin Jr. is an amalgam, a product of both. Known simply as “JR” by many, Gittin Jr. is a self-taught and dedicated professional drift driver who has been rockin’ & rollin' his way through the sport virtually since its inception in the United States. However, this world-renowned extreme athlete did not simply arrive at the highest level of his sport; his journey featured combined elements of genetics, environment, determination and perseverance.

“Since I was born,” Gittin Jr. says, “I have done nothing but live and breathe cars.”  When he was a baby, his father would drive him around the neighborhood in his loud hot rods to make him stop crying and go to sleep. “The loud engine soothed me I guess.”

As a toddler, at his mother’s wedding, Vaughn held a Matchbox car during the entire ceremony, gripping it like it was gold. His father, Vaughn Gittin Sr., had numerous impressive cars when he was younger. Gittin Jr. recalls asking his dad do “fishtails” and “burnouts”.

"I have always loved that feeling of the back end skating around, engine screaming, and seeing the tire smoke,” said Gittin Jr., who eventually turned that love into a thriving and successful professional driving career.

Gittin Sr. gave his young son a go-cart for his birthday at the tender age of four. For his go-cart driving debut, the younger Gittin and his dad went to an open industrial park parking lot. Within the first hour, the four-year-old complained that it was too slow, so his dad removed the governor – making the cart much faster.

“I remember how much fun I had driving my go-cart as fast as possible and then pulling the paddle-brake to slide,” said Gittin Jr. Of course, at four years of age, he had no idea where this behind-the-wheel behavior would lead in later life. He only knew he loved it.

Gittin Jr. received his first dirt bike when he was 13 years old. At age 16 he began competing in motocross events which continued for six years. His competitive nature and skill served him well as he was a consistent top-five finisher. While motocross was his first foray into both extreme sports and motorsports, and while he enjoyed it immensely, for Vaughn Gittin Jr., something was still missing – two wheels.

When he was 18, he bought a wrecked Nissan 240SX coupe from a friend. He repaired the car and it wasn’t long before he was slipping and sliding his car much in much the same way he had his go-cart as a child.

He earned his Microsoft certification when he was 19 and, at age 21, began working as an IT manager at Nathan Associates Inc. in Arlington, VA. He took on the challenge of handling a very demanding full-time job – while maintaining his passion for cars.

After watching some internet videos from Japan of cars sliding on streets and canyon roads he learned the techniques that he had been practicing were actually the same used in a professional motorsport called drifting. “I was blown away that there was a judged motorsport that included driving a car to the extreme – going sideways at insane speeds, angle, and crazy smoke; I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of – I was hooked.”

At the age of 22, Gittin Jr. was faced with a tough decision: motocross or drifting. After weighing the pros and cons for months, he realized that drifting was his true calling, put away the bike, and set out on a path to pursue his new passion.

“I did not want to risk ruining my dreams of drifting or let down my supporters due to my aggressiveness in motocross. It was impossible for me to ‘take it easy’ when it came to riding – it just wasn’t worth the chance of me folding myself up,” he recalls. “It was definitely a hard day for me; I liked motocross so much, but drifting was where my heart was and still is.”

Most of his practice and training was done in parking lots such as Englishtown Raceway. It was there Gittin Jr. met Chris Forsberg, Tony Angelo and Ryan Tuerck. The new fast friends were on parallel courses, all captured by this new extreme sport, all ready to dedicate their lives in pursuit of a life on the edge. Meeting regularly in that parking lot were the seeds of professional drifting in the U.S., and eventually one of drifting’s most identifiable entities, Drift Alliance.

In 2003, Gittin Jr. entered his first drift competition at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. He drove his heart out and finished 2nd in the event. Later in the year, he entered a DG Trials competition at Englishtown, New Jersey where he won 1st place. Taking the win was a huge deal because the competition was judged by Japanese drivers Kazuya Bai and Atsushi Kuroi – two of the most respected D1GP drivers.

Before long, Gittin Jr. had earned a reputation and was considered to be one of the top drift drivers on the east coast. In October 2003, he was invited to southern California to participate in a drifting exhibition with Team Orange. He was ecstatic and invested everything he had into the trip. He maxed out his credit cards, had his car shipped across the country, and armed himself with proposals to hand out like candy to potential sponsors. “I really saw this event as my chance to make a name for myself and I put it all on the line.”

The trip was everything he had hoped for, and more. At the demo, Gittin attracted the attention of Nick Fousekis, a representative of Falken Tire Corporation. In drifting, tires are like air and water, you can’t live without them, and Falken, already deeply involved in the sport in Japan, was ready to make the plunge in a big way in the United States. Falken would establish a preeminent team in American drifting and Vaughn Gittin Jr. would be its poster boy later on down the road.

Just before the Formula D 2004 season began, Gittin Jr. competed in an amateur drift competition at Beaver Run in Pennsylvania and placed first. He carried the momentum into his career as a professional drifter in the Formula Drift series where he has since established himself as one of the most popular and competitive drivers on the pro circuit.

The rest, as they say, is history. Gittin Jr. has become one of the sports most iconic figures and his mount, the 650 hp Team Falken Ford Mustang it’s most identifiable car. He would go on to anchor the powerful Team Falken effort and eventually become the first American drift driver to beat the Japanese at their own game, not once, but twice.

These days Gittin Jr. draws big crowds and media attention wherever he goes. Team Falken is building the now 26-year-old Gittin Jr. a brand new, state of the art Ford Mustang to replace the car that brought him to prominence.

He’s come a long way from those early days of driving his go-cart, but Vaughn Gittin Jr. still feels the same rush of adrenaline as he did then – the same sense of adventure every time he enters a turn and throws his 3000 pound Mustang into a hard drift at 90 miles an hour.