Before hitting it big with a million-dollar Ford sponsorship and winning the 2010 Formula Drift Championship, Vaughn Gittin Jr. was a one of a handful of guys trying to make their dreams of drifting professionally happen. Gittin’s car of choice for most of the past decade has been the Ford Mustang, and he has made a lot of friends along the way who have had their own drifting successes.
Gittin recently took some time out from racing to go visit his old Drift Alliance buddy Ryan Tuerck, appearing on his creatively-named YouTube show “Tuerek’d.” While there, Gittin got behind the wheel of his old Fox-body Mustang for a game of Drift involving baseball bats and unfortunate fruits.
And pray tell, what is a game of drift? Well quite simply put, it is an exhibition of a driver’s ability to get their car sideways in a controlled fashion and completing a unique set of challenges, with each loss earning a letter in the word “DRIFT.”Like the game of HORSE in basketball, spell the word, lose the competition.
One such challenge, called drift-limbo, has Gittin and Tuerck drifting sideways around a corner, trying to squeeze between some plastic barrels. There’s also the double-drift-dare, where the drivers have to hold on to a glass of water whilst getting sideways. It’s amazing how much control these two can exert on their cars, even with one hand cupping a full glass of water.
There are plenty of other challenges in the 12-minute video, which is absolutely worth checking out for any fans of Fox-body Mustangs, professional drifting, or Vaughn Gittin Jr. Plenty of awesome sideways action, and comedy as well. So this is what professional drivers do in their off time.