Formula Drift Brings The Heat to Miami!

A huge congrats to two of the hardest working guys in the Formula Drift series- Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Geoff Stoneback! Both took first place wins in their respective class!

Vaughn Gittin Jr. just came back from a win at Road Atlanta a little over two weeks ago. It’s great to see his Monster Energy/Nitto Tire Ford Mustang in top form and getting podiums once again! He certainly knows how to please the crowd!

FD HMS Vaughn (Custom)

Our good friend Geoff Stoneback took part in the Pro 2 battle, which is a new addition to the Pro Championship series. Since this is Geoff’s rookie year running with some of these seasoned FD vets, this new Pro 2 series is a great way in showcasing his talents while working towards racing against the Pro Championship guys. And he didn’t disappoint!

FD HMS Geoff (Custom) (Custom)

Pics sourced from the following links:

Formula Drift Homepage

Vaughn Gittin Jr. Facebook

Geoff Stoneback Drifting Facebook

Vaughn Gittin Jr’s Formula D Ride for 2013

Once again, we are glad to be a part of the Formula Drift series supplying Vaughn Gittin Jr. in the Monster Energy Nitto Tire Ford Mustang RTR. Whew…. quite a mouthful of words.

It sports a great livery for this season, even more popping to the eye than his 2012 season ride.

In case the sponsor names didn’t catch your attention, you’ll notice he’s got a new tire sponsor- Nitto Tire. For years, Falken has been backing Vaughn. But now, Vaughn has decided to venture out on his own and prove his worth.

Other than that, he’s paired with the engineers at Autosport Dynamics once again to create a truly competitive Mustang, using much of what has worked for them in the past, and combining some new ideas to keep them podium worthy. We’re definitely excited for this new season.

To date, Vaughn has placed 2nd at the inaugural event in Long Beach, CA. Great finish for what is essentially a completely new team.

Get some more information on the driver and the team on his site vaughngittin.com

We grabbed these photos from his page for your viewing pleasure

Getting ready for some practice runs

Getting ready for some practice runs

Seriously loving the new livery.

Seriously loving the new livery.

FD3 (Custom)FD2 (Custom)

While you may think Vaughn’s hands are full with just the 2013 Formula D series, he’s also going overseas to compete in the World Drift Series. So be sure to follow him as he lays his patch of rubber all around the globe on his quest for multiple podium finishes!

 

 

2013 Formula Drift

If you didn’t get a chance to be at the Long Beach Formula Drift event this past weekend, then wow you missed a great start to the season.

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As most of you know, we will try to make an appearance to all the local events. This was the first one of the season, and let’s say it was a good turn out and a good start as shown in the pictures below.

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Although it was a drifting event, I like the fact that they have a Car Show for the slammed vehicles.

For those who attended our booth and purchased some of our discounted item, such as shirts, key chains, and other goods, thank you for all your support!

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Majority of the Vehicles on display were the New BRZ and FR-S models, but they all have there unique styles.

 

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Check out this awesome 240Sx showing off their TEIN Flex!

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Vaughn Gittin Jr. Holds on to Formula Drift #1 Spot

As the final race for the Formula Drift season approaches, we should be prepping ourselves for one great season finale!

As it currently stands, Vaughn Gittin Jr. holds first place with a 25.5 points lead over second place Daigo Saito. And just 44.75 points back sits Rhys Millen, the winner of this past weekend’s Formula Drift in Las Vegas. I find myself growing more and more white hairs on my head than ever before just thinking about how many close battles there are in competition, whatever the sport. And Formula Drift is no different. This has been one of the best seasons so far. Just a little stressful to watch, I suppose!

As aforementioned, Rhys Millen in the Red Bull Hyundai Genesis Coupe, took the win this past weekend. Remaining podium spots were filled with Fredric Aasbo in the Team Need For Speed Scion tC and Vaughn Gittin Jr. in his Monster Falken Mustang.

Great work, Vaughn! We look forward to catching another exciting race at the season closer!

Pics sourced from Speedhunters.com

Back to Back Wins for Vaughn Gittin Jr.!!!

Needless to say, we are very happy to see Mr. Gittin grace the Formula D podium once again! THAT’S TWO IN A ROW!!! Great work, Vaughn. And great job, Autosport Dynamics.

Obivously, we think that pairing is one of the best on the Formula D grid. We’re very fortunate to have our association with both Autosport Dynamics and Vaughn Gittin Jr., as well as Justin Pawlak- part of the Falken Tires-backed drivers using a custom set of our very own Super Racing dampers!

It’s been a series of ups and downs for the Falken boys. As you can imagine, the field is getting tougher, setups getting crazier, and the amount of dedication to handle the horsepower levels this generation of Formula D puts out (average of about 600 hp) getting more demanding than ever, and you’ll know that these guys don’t have it so easy. That being said, it is great to see how level the playing field is. It makes for an exciting race season, and it also gives fans the opportunity to see their favorite drivers take some of the top spots of the podium. I’ll tell you this- it’s much more exciting than seeing one driver continually win, event after event. Kinda like watching Sebastien Loeb win WRC events, or even Michael Schumacher win his 7 Formula One championship titles. No offense to those guys. They are awesome! Quite obviously, it’s every race team and driver’s intention to bring home the victories. But it just.gets.so.boring……

Seeing different drivers take the top steps just lets you know that everyone has a chance at winning, and that’s how evenly matched the teams are becoming year after year.

But, to be honest, I’d like to see Vaughn’s car take win after win. For one, his Mustang is rad. 2) the Mustang has more than a few hints of green (my favorite color), 3) it’s backed by Monster Energy drinks (an energy drink that tastes awesome), and 4) his car number is 25 (one of my favorite/lucky numbers)!!! It’s like this car is meant to be mine one day!!!! Yeah right. I’m sure Vaughn would never part from this car. It’s too nice to give away! Oh, let’s not forget that Vaughn is clearly a great driver. We can’t leave that last element out of the winning equation.

Also, it’s a lot of fun getting to work with the Autosport Dynamics (ASD) guys in getting the Falken Mustangs set up. They’ve been a group that is easy to work with. They clearly know what they’re doing, and they have an outstanding record in motorsports.

So with The Wall and Evergreen Speedway 2012 in the books, Vaughn and his crew look towards another great victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

As this Formula D season gets close to closing out, we wish the best for both Vaughn and Justin, as well as the crew at Autosport Dynamics. They’ve made another year even more exciting than the last. Best of luck for this season! Let’s see the last two races as podium finishes!

Pics sourced from Formula D (www.formulad.com) and Speedhunters (www.speedhunters.com)

Formula D Rd.1

Only our engineer attended Friday’s practice and qualify. A few of us here in the office watched qualifying from live stream on various websites. We were disappointed that not all our sponsored vehicles qualified for the event but I guess that is how it goes. Part of what makes it exciting to watch. “Any Given Sunday.”

After Friday’s Qualify
DMac qualified the highest amongst TEIN users in 6th position.

Tyler McQuarrie qualified two spots behind in 8th.

JTP got the 11th spot.

Charles Ng qualified 20th.

2010 Champion Vaughn Gittin Jr unfortunately did not qualify. Hopefully JR tears it up at Rd. 2 in Atlanta.

Found another competitor, Guthrie on TEIN Super Racing coilovers. Guthrie unfortunately did not qualify but his FD3S looks pretty buff. Might remember this car from HERE.

Saturday’s Main Event
The weather was awesome with clear skies and a nice cool ocean breeze. Spectators filled all the stands around the track and between rounds there was plenty to see. Full vendor area, race pits, car show and of course food.

The stands were packed with spectators.

The vendor area had both products and vehicles on display.

Found a twin turbo Mustang from HESS Motorsports which we sponsor in the Exedy booth.

Lots of high quality cars on display for the FATLACE show.

Cruising through the car show area I found Abe K.’s Lexus on display. He is rocking FLEX Sedan coilovers and a Platnium VIP cup kit.

I was fortunate to get a VIP wristband from a friend at NOS who had a hospitality tent and their own section of bleachers. Here is the view from their bleachers.

CONGRATULATIONS to JTP, Falken Tire and ASD. TEIN Coilovers for the WIN!

Some photos taken from Formula D and ASD.

Formula Drift Rd. 5 After Dark Results

This past Thursday night I was able to take a trip out to Vegas for Round 5 of the Formula Drift series.  As much as I love the sport of drifting, the smell of burning tires and the sound of V8’s, Turbocharged and Rotary vehicles around the track,  It was HOT at this event!

Tyler McQuarrie during practice. Photo from www.speedhunters.com

Vaughn Gittin JR’s new Mustang laying down tracks. Photo from www.speedhunters.com

In the pits: Tyler McQuarrie’s Vert 350z, Darren McNamara’s Saturn Sky, Justin Pawlak’s Ford Mustang and Vaughn Gittin JR’s Ford Mustang all currently running TEIN coilovers. Photo from www.wreckedmagazine.com

Congrats to Team Falken on their full podium sweep at Formula D Round 5 After Dark. Photo from www.wreckedmagazine.com

Results:

1st place: Tyler McQuarrie

2nd place: Daijiro Yoshihara

3rd place: Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Video of Vaughn Gittin Jr’s drift Mustang at Long Beach

Awesome video of Vaughn Gittin Jr at Formula Drift – Long Beach. You can see the dual EDFC controllers mounted in the dashboard. ASD did an awesome job building this car in a short time. Everything about the car is all business especially the interior – So fresh and clean.

Vaughn Gittin Jr: Monster’s Street Fighting Man from Drift Alliance on Vimeo.