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 Professional Championship Presented by GoPro 2014 Standings After 2 Rounds |
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| 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 | |||||||||||||