Vaughn Gittin holds off late charge by Aasbo and Forsberg to take Formula DRIFT event in Atlanta

Not only was his Monster Energy/Nitto Ford Mustang hitting on all cylinders, so too was Vaughn Gittin and his team as Gittin held on to win Formula Drift’s Round 2: Road to the Championship event Saturday at Road Atlanta.

“Tonight my team and I were truly one,” Gittin said. “We communicated and worked super hard. These were some of the most hard fought battles that I remember ever having and it says a lot about our sport, where we are going and what we are doing. And I’m just super proud to be standing on the top step.”

Gittin held off runner-up Fredric Aasbo in the Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC in the finals. Chris Forsberg, who won the season-opening event three weeks ago at Long Beach, finished third in his Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z.

The win also pushes Gittin up to second place in the overall Formula DRIFT points standings, while Forsberg remains in first place.

“It’s wonderful to see the growth in attendance each year at Road Atlanta, where we held our first Formula DRIFT event eleven years ago,” said Formula DRIFT president Jim Liaw. “The fans of the South are so passionate for the sport and we love coming to this venue.”

Round 3 of the Formula DRIFT series takes place May 30–31 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in south Florida. For more information visit:www.formuladrift.com and find Formula DRIFT on Instagram @formulad, Facebook www.facebook.com/formuladrift and Twitter @FormulaD.

Formula DRIFT Round 2: Road to the Championship Event Results
1. Gittin Jr., Vaughn	Monster Energy / Nitto Tire Ford Mustang RTR	Winner
2. Aasbo, Fredric	Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC	2nd Place
3. Forsberg, Chris	Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z	3rd Place

Formula DRIFT Professional Championship Presented by GoPro 2014 Standings After 2 Rounds

1. Forsberg, Chris

Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z

173.00 Points

2. Gittin Jr., Vaughn

Monster Energy / Nitto Tire Ford Mustang RTR

145.50 Points

3. Aasbo, Fredric

Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC

137.00 Points

4. Moen, Kenneth

Bridges Racing Nissan 240SX

135.50 Points

5. Pawlak, Justin

Falken Tire Ford Mustang

103.50 Points

6. Bakchis, Aurimas

Feal Suspension / Nitto Tire Nissan 240SX

102.00 Points

7. Wang, Forrest

Get Nuts Lab / Hankook Tire / STR Racing Nissan S14

93.00 Points

8. Essa, Michael

Essa Autosport / Yokohama BMW M3

91.50 Points

9. McNamara, Darren

Falken Tire Nissan S14

84.50 Points

10. Nishida, Robbie

Achilles Radial / Bridges Racing Lexus SC300

83.00 Points

11. Gushi, Ken

GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S V2

70.00 Points

12. Grunewald, Conrad

Megan Racing / Top 1 Oil / BRE Chevrolet Camaro

70.00 Points

13. Saito, Daigo

Achilles Radial Lexus SC430

68.50 Points

14. McQuarrie, Tyler

GoPro Mobil 1Chevrolet Camaro

61.50 Points

15. DeNofa, Chelsea

BC Racing Nitto Tire BMW 3-Series

57.00 Points

16. Tuerck, Ryan

Retaks Maxxis Tires Air Force PSI Scion FR-S

55.50 Points

Manufacturers Championship Standings After Two Rounds

1. Ford

249.00 Points

2. Scion

224.50 Points

3. Nissan

209.50 Points

4. Lexus

151.50 Points

5. BMW

148.50 Points

Tire Championship Standings After Two Rounds

1. Hankook

310.00 Points

2. Nitto

247.50 Points

3. Achilles

218.50 Points

4. Falken

188.00 Points

5. Yokohama

109.00 Points

For most of the team’s existence, Dale Coyne Racing has been the Chicago Cubs of American Open Wheel Racing – a team whose history was more defined by failures, at times comically so, than success.

The last decade, however, has seen the tide completely change. In 2007, they scored three podium finishes with Bruno Junqueira. In 2009, they won at Watkins Glen with the late Justin Wilson.

The combination won again at Texas Motor Speedway in 2012, and finished sixth in the 2013 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. That same year, Mike Conway took a shock win for them in Race 1 at the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit.

Carlos Huertas scored an upset win for them in Race 1 at the Houston double-header in 2014, and while 2015 and 2016 yielded no wins, Tristan Vautier and Conor Daly gave them several strong runs – Vautier’s best finish was fourth in Race 2 at Detroit, while Daly finished second in Race 1 at Detroit, finished fourth at Watkins Glen, and scored a trio of sixth-place finishes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Race 2 at Detroit, and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

And 2017 was set to possibly be the best year the team has ever had. Sebastien Bourdais gave the team a popular win in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, and then rookie Ed Jones scored back-to-back top tens – 10th and sixth – at St. Pete and the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach to start his career.

But, things started unraveling at the Indianapolis 500. Bourdais appeared set to be in the Fast Nine Pole Shootout during his first qualifying run – both of his first two laps were above 231 mph – before his horrifying crash in Turn 2.

While Jones qualified an impressive 11th and finished an even more impressive third, results for the rest of the season became hard to come by – Jones only scored two more Top 10s, with a best result of seventh at Road America.

But, retooled for 2018, the Coyne team is a legitimate threat at the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500.

Bourdais, whose No. 18 Honda features new sponsorship from SealMaster and now ownership partners in Jimmy Vasser and James “Sulli” Sullivan, has a win already, again at St. Pete, and sits third in the championship.

And Bourdais may also be Honda’s best hope, given that he was the fastest Honda in qualifying – he’ll start fifth behind Ed Carpenter, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, and Josef Newgarden.

“I think it speaks volumes about their work, their passion and their dedication to this program, Dale (Coyne), Jimmy (Vasser) and Sulli (James Sullivan) and everybody from top to bottom. I can’t thank them enough for the opportunity, for the support,” Bourdais said of the team’s effort.

Rookie Zachary Claman De Melo has been progressing nicely, and his Month of May has been very solid – he finished 12th at the INDYCAR Grand Prix on the IMS Road Course and qualified a strong 13th for the “500.”

“It’s been surreal to be here as rookie. I’m a bit at a loss for words,” Claman De Melo revealed after qualifying. “The fans, driving around this place, being with the team, everything is amazing. I have a great engineer, a great group of experienced mechanics at Dale Coyne Racing.”

While Conor Daly and Pippa Mann struggled in one-off entries, with Mann getting bumped out of the field in Saturday qualifying, Daly’s entry essentially puts three Coyne cars in the race – Daly’s No. 17 United States Air Force Honda is a Dale Coyne car that has been leased to Thom Burns Racing.

Rest assured, the days of Coyne being an “also ran” are long gone, and a Coyne car ending up in Victory Lane at the biggest race of the year would complete the Chicago Cubs analogy – the Cubs won a World Series title in 2016, and an Indy 500 triumph would be the crowning achievement in Coyne’s career.

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