Vaughn Gittin Jr. talks Baja 500 and finding fulfillment in Formula DRIFT

Vaughn Gittin Jr. cleans up on any surface. In May, the semi-retired and two-time Formula Drift PRO Champion showed up at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and took down his RTR teammate and five-time Formula Drift PRO Champion James Deane at round two of the 2026 Formula Drift PRO Championship. Exactly one month later, Vaughn Gittin and teammate Loren Healy entered the 2026 Baja 500 in Ensenada, Mexico and lined up in their Ultra4 4400 Ford Bronco Raptors. After all was said and done during the grueling, teeth chattering 468.70-mile race across the Baja Peninsula, Healy and Gittin placed second and sixth, respectively, in the fiercely competitive Class 1 classification.

Back home in Concord, North Carolina, Gittin took a breather to talk about his recent competitive travels and accomplishments.

“I’m back at the RTR Lab,” said Gittin. “I just got back from the Baja 500, and I’m heading to a test tomorrow with some of our production vehicles. I am super pumped. Baja is such a freaking crazy challenge, right? Man, machine, team and terrain. This was our second Baja 500 that we’ve done in the big trucks. We took our Ultra 4400 Raptors out there. Myself and my teammate Loren Healy went out there and put in the work. We pre-ran for almost a week. We put in about 800 miles before the race started. It was really, really amazing to get the work put in.

"Last year, I blew the corner off my truck off a big a** rock that I forgot to put a note in about. This year, I noted every single rock on the left and the right side of the course. We were in Class 1. They changed the rules a bit and now our trucks were eligible for that. Frankly, it’s a better place for us. We put the work in pre-running, and then come race day, we were ready to rock. It really showed that putting in the work allowed us to have the confidence and the ability to have the pace.

"The race was going really incredible. Loren and I were following our strategy and running in the top three for the majority of the race and the first few hundred miles. Unfortunately, I had some mechanical gremlins. I had a transmission that was only giving me one gear. I also had a spare driveshaft fall off its mount and create some issues. We ended up figuring it out and getting it done and finishing the race. For me, an amazing highlight was that Loren was in first for a while. Then there was an unfortunate incident on the racetrack and there was corrected time that kind of changed what we thought the result was, and Loren ended up second.

"Big picture, and for our second time in Baja and what the team did and the strategy and how we performed as a whole, it was a huge win. Just feeling a lot of pride. Coming off a win in Formula Drift, I was just ready to do it again. It’s always a little bit of a kick in the gut when you don’t get the results that you feel you worked for, but this is motorsport, right? We know how it goes.”

Gittin Jr. entered the Formula Drift PRO Championship round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and after winning the Top 32, Top 16, Great Eight and Final Four tandem battles, took down teammate James Deane in the Final to score the Round 2 victory.

Gittin Jr. won Round 2 of the Formula DRIFT Pro action at Road Atlanta.

“Going into Atlanta, I had high hopes,” explained Gittin. “You know I’ve won there more than anyone. The whole weekend, myself and my teammate James Deane were talking trash. He knocked me out in the Top 32 two years before this, and I was like, ‘I’m going to see you in the freaking finals and I’m going to whoop your ass!’ Sure enough, after qualifying they lined us up to where we sure could meet in the Finals.

When I got there, we had so many changes to the Mustang since I drove in the off-season that I realized in the first lap, ‘Shit! I don’t even know how to drive this car.’ It was so different that the timing and approach to it was different. I just put my head down and really intensely focused on learning the car, learning what the judges were looking for and just staying really dialed, and that unlocked a really great performance. When it came to competition, I was just really, really dialed in. I got the grasp of the car and felt super, super connected to it. It would let me do anything. It was like a fairy tale. I mean, I just knocked out competitor after competitor.

"I had a good race with my good buddy Chris Forsberg. I figured the car out, and it felt better than it ever has in my entire career. My ability to unlock it and drive aggressive and push hard really got me to the top. James and I lined up and had an incredible battle and I got the win and an incredible, incredible end of the event. It was awesome. I got the monkey off my back and beat James. James is a five-time champion and arguably the greatest of all time when it comes to competition, and I got to whoop-up on him. It was really cool. I’m just grateful and proud to been able to make it happen. Being able to come and do a couple rounds a year really is filling what was a hole in my competitive spirit. To be able to come back and win, especially at the level that things are happening, is really reassuring. It feels really good.

"I mean, the sport is as competitive as it ever has been. To be able to be on the outside, but to really have the ability to just come in and lock in and focus feels really good, and I think it is a testament to my craft and my ability to be diverse and jump from vehicle to vehicle and just get my focus where it needs to be and go. For me, knowing where I came from and having a lot of mental blocks and challenges early in my career, to the ability to now just lock in at a moment’s notice, is very fulfilling. All the effort and studying I’ve done of the brain and the body, it’s just a testament to all that. It feels really good. Kind of like validation that I made the right decisions to support my continued competitiveness.

"I’m 46 years old this year, and I am really excited to keep it going, you know? My brother Ken Block was a big inspiration for me with his age and how he kept being competitive. Yeah, I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”

So what else might be next for motorsports Renaissance man Vaughn Gittin Jr.?

“We have a Trophy Truck that we’re building right now to get to that pinnacle of off-road,” answered Gittin Jr. “I’ve got my eye on maybe some hill climb stuff. I am talking in hoping in for a roadrace here or there in the next couple years. I’m not crazy interested in NASCAR Cup. A road course would be fun, but I am not interested in putting in the time it would take to get on the level of those guys on an oval. Whatever is challenging and fun, you know? That’s what I am. My compass is in the pursuit of fun and inspiring people and challenging myself. Whatever that may be right now, I don’t know. I really love what I’m doing, but I am looking at some more bigger scale events in a similar space. We’re assessing the future, and one thing I know for sure: it’s going to be awesome.”