I was 5 years old when I set a goal to buy a Mustang for my first car.

My father has worked on Ford’s tool and die for over 25 years now. Like many in the Detroit area (and, around the world), loyalty to the Blue Oval was something I was born into. My dad has never really been a car guy himself. My passion for cars, for building them and getting out on the track - that, too, feels like something I was born with. Perhaps, from my mother’s side: my uncle and my grandfather both were full time motor heads while being mechanics on the side to fuel their passion.

I remember vividly telling myself “I’ll have my own Mustang one day” when I was just 5 years old. It’s funny how, as a child, you can latch onto such simple ambitions. So, I set out on a mission. Each year, I was fortunate to be able ask for money instead of gifts for my birthday. Each week, I would offer my father to cut the lawn or do chores for some income. Each day, I would skip school lunch and save my lunch money, finding different ways to eat during the day (some of my friend’s parents would pity me and pack extra lunch since my friends would share theirs with me).

Such a simple goal, but a goal nonetheless for someone that’s goal oriented. The day I turned 14 and 9 months, the legal age to obtain a permit in Michigan, I was at the DMV. A week before I turned 16, I had already spent months looking for the perfect Mustang within the budget I had saved up, and I found the right car. I wasn’t looking for something heavily modified, I was looking for a clean slate for me to start with. A 2002 Mustang GT in Black down in Ohio with just 66,026 miles on it. It was perfect. I had to have washed my car 20 times in the first week I got it. I felt lucky. I felt like I had been saving up for 11 years, over two-thirds of my life, just to get to this moment.

With a bone-stock car, I became obsessed with tweaking and tuning. It all started with a new intake, then a chin spoiler, then new wheels, then an exhaust, then a tune. Before I knew it, I was 10 pages into a thread on Mustang enthusiast forums learning every detail about what was needed to add a centrifugal supercharger - from fuel pumps to intercoolers. The idea of being able to double the power and torque output while working within the bounds of the factory drivetrain’s limits fascinated me. It was a street car, through and through.

When I got into and went out to study at Brown University, I had developed some new, perhaps unrealistic, goals. I used to dream of being able to find a way to bring my car out to the east coast from Detroit with me. Other schools did it - could I get Brown to sponsor my efforts to get into racing? Not a chance. 800 miles away from my car, I started to ask myself what I was really reaching toward. That’s when I stumbled across Ford’s entry into the sport of drifting. A bit sacrilegious, American cars were not particularly common in drifting because the art of drifting really has its origins in Japan. American muscle and its corresponding suspension wasn’t setup for the demands of drifting. With newfound inspiration, I was facing against another mountain to climb and goal to achieve. A set of tires every event? I could barely afford the tires I currently have! $200 just to participate in the event? Goodness. I can’t daily drive the car and drift it because it’ll probably break at every event? What I was striving toward felt far away.

With any big goal, you’ll need to reach. I remember emailing Vaughn Gittin Jr., Ford’s professional drift driver in their Formula Drift Mustang (and the icon that got me to see myself drifting my Mustang), asking him “how in the world do I get into this sport?” Unsurprisingly in retrospect, I got the obvious answer: “just get out there are work really hard.” I emailed around trying to find somebody else, a sponsor, to foot the bill for this incredibly expensive sport. Shocker - no bites for a kid with no experience and just a dream.

I spent every summer away from college tackling a new project on the car in the most affordable way I could. I did every bit of work myself to keep the cost down. Everything from rebuilding the motor with stronger internals, piecing together my own turbocharger, building the transmission, installing a hydraulic handbrake, tweaking the suspension to fit the application — even going as far as learning to weld so I could weld in my own roll cage. 600 horsepower later and too many late nights banging my hand trying to loosen a bolt — then yelling at an inanimate object — I built something I was proud of.

A master of delayed gratification, after years of over-building the car and trying to figure out how I could get out to the track, I finally found myself in the staging line at my first event at Auto City speedway near Detroit in October of 2020. My mint-condition, beautiful 2002 Mustang surrounded by cars that have clearly been through the wringer (think of drifting like a contact sport - you’re drifting right next to other cars). I had no idea what I was doing, but I sure did have a lot of fun doing it.

In 2021, I set another big goal to find my way into a league beyond my capabilities. I went to every drift event I could throughout the midwest, almost every weekend, to gain the experience necessary to get into Holley’s Ford Fest. After about 10 events, I had the media to prove I could drift consistently (albeit, not yet alongside other cars). So, I applied to Ford Fest. DENIED - they weren’t convinced I had enough experience. With a few months before the event, I kept at it, doing everything I could to gain more seat time, more experience. After emailing Holley again showcasing the experience I’ve gained since my first application and just two weeks before the event, they decided to give me a chance.

Prepping the car until the very last second, I loaded up and drove 8 hours straight down to Kentucky in late 2021. Yet again, I found myself in the staging line, this time surrounded by thrashed Ford-powered-only cars, mostly Mustangs. But, you know who I was behind? Vaughn Gittin Jr. in his Ford Formula Drift Mustang. 6 years after I emailed him asking him how to get into drifting, 5 of which I spent finding the resources just to get started, less than 1 year into actually getting out on the track, I was lined up next to very person that inspired me to set out on this journey.

Dream, set big goals, use the resources around you in clever ways to get there, and be patient during the long journey. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

With all of that said... any sponsors out there yet? :)