As seen on Speed.com:
For the first time, and American with an American Car wins the All-Star Drift Competition v.s. the best Japan has to offer:
Gittin, “JR” to his friends, owned the night at Irwindale Speedway, winning the D1GP All-Star event in front of 10,000-plus (one web report said 8,500 but, as a personal observation, that seemed very low!) who alternately chanted “U-S-A!!” and “ONE MORE TIME!!” when it appeared the D1GP judges might not find it within themselves to vote a win for Gittin over D1 favorite Tatsuya Sakuma, the other finalist.
“I’m super thrilled about winning,” Gittin told me in the aftermath of the party. And it was a party, one that will change the face of drifting in America. No one expected JR to be the first to knock off the Japanese at their own game. That was conceded to Sam Hubinette, America’s first Formula Drift champion in 2004, or Rhys Millen, this year’s Formula Drift champion. Both are among the best drifters in the world and were D1GP license holders who refused to sign contracts with D1 because D1 drivers aren’t allowed to drive in non-D1GP sanctioned events including the U.S. Formula Drift series.
Another curiousity about the night turned out to be the Ford win. GM heavily backs Millen’s GTO. The same with Mopar and Hubinette’s Viper. Ford’s money was on Ken Gushi in 2005 and Gushi wasn’t among the 16 members of Team USA when the finals started at Irwindale. The Formula D points ended up Millen, Hubinette, Gushi, Gittin. And it was Gittin who brought home the golden chalice to the USA. Let’s see if even a picture of it gets to Dearborn or in an advertisement brought to you by Dearborn in the near future.
Drifting’s Golden Chalice comes to the U.S. (Bill Wood photo)Here’s some perspective from Hubinette’s team owner Shaun Carlson, himself a veteran of factory-backed Mopar support as a Sport Compact drag racer.
“To have the sport (of drifting) grow, it’s going to take new people coming in, and not just have two or three people at the top like Rhys and Sam. I think for a while now people have looked at (them) as being the only ones who could compete with the Japanese. I think there’ve been a lot of younger people who’ve said, ‘I’m not even going to try because we’re never going to get that good.’
“I think the D1 event, with an underdog who’s never won an event before, without a big time (factory) sponsor and an American driver, a young one beating the Americans and the Japanese, I think that was the turning point of drifting.”
Carlson said JR is a perfect example of someone coming up through the ranks who can be big in the sport. And, just as important, there wasn’t a French judge to see things a bit differently. The D1GP judges couldn’t take the win away from JR.
“That is one of the issues people have had over the years with drifting. It’s not first across the line. It’s not an easy win/lose situation. It’s judgmental. The thing JR proved was the fact that when the pressure was on and the stress increased, I got goose-bumps watching JR because he got better and better and better.”
When Gittin returned to his pit, there were young kids, fans and, even, legendary D1GP drivers and former champions, who came to ask for an autograph, pose for a picture or shake his hand. It was heady to even watch.