Everything a race fan could ask for, the smell of burning rubber, the squeal of tires rounding the track, a beautiful Arizona night perfect for road racing at the Main track at Firebird International Raceway. Victor is ready and looking forward to the racing action.

The main track has a long straightaway where the car builds an incredible amount of speed. At the end of the straightaway the braking system is relied upon heavily to do its job. The main track also features giant sweeping curves and chicanes (A chicane is a series of tight curves in a road race used to slow cars.), one of the places where Victor typically shows his talent on the race track. Further along the course is the impressive tower turn and the only place on the track with a wall as the outer boundary.

The practice session went smoothly. A tire from a different manufacturer has Victor and his crew adjusting the car for maximum performance. All is looking good and Victor is thrilled to be able to race again. The qualifying race is next and Victor is lined up to start in fourth place. The racing has started and the first four cars pull away from the rest of the field of racers. Victor passes the third place car in the chicanes. The fourth place car now passes him back. It is into the chicanes again and Victor passes back to third. Victor’s lap times are getting faster and all is looking good. The second place car is coming within Victor’s grasp and car owner and crew feel the adrenaline rush that comes when Victor is one with his racing.

Alas it is not to be Victor’s night. The car overheats and the cab fills with smoke. The only option is to bring the car to the pits and try to diagnose the problem. However any time he gets to race and have fun doing what he enjoys is a good night and next race will be better.

A special thanks to car owner Shirl Dickey. Victor’s next race will take place at Firebird International Raceway, June 5th and 6th morning only.

Pfluger Nails 6th Place Finish in US Army 150

In a car out-classed by most of the field, the young driver from Morristown, AZ had to rely on his skills and a bit of luck to even finish the 150 lap, 2 hour marathon that was the inaugural US Army 150 at Shasta Raceway Park in Anderson, CA. With an unexpectedly unremarkable qualifying time that marked him to 15th out of the 27 entries, and a pack-back finish in the qualifying main event on Saturday things could only get better for the feature event on Sunday. And it did.

From a deeply mired 19th position start Pfluger had one thing in mind: this is a long race, and it is all about patience and working a steady pace forward. It was a combination of hard runs on the outside in turns 3 and 4 and full-bore straight-away dashes that kept his car climbing up the ladder. Out horsepowered by as much as 200hp by many competitors it was clearly the setup and the driving savvy that moved him forward instead of being shuffled to the back.

By about 1/4 way thru the race Pfluger had moved up 5 positions and was racing hard with the 25x of Eric Williamson when contact was made coming out of turn 4. The resulting melee saw officials to put Victor to the back of the train. Now, a lot of drivers lose their cool and concentration when this sort of thing happens, but not Pfluger. If anything his instincts seem to hone and focus on maintaining complete control of his emotions and his car. This unique characteristic certainly served him well this time as he quickly worked his way back up thru traffic. Aided by the inevitable attrition rate that so many cars on a short track can generate, the #Z2 car owned by Jerry Blaco was once more on the move the front.

As action started to heat up in the later stages of the event the Parker Farms, Copperstate Tires car showed its mettle as the top-running cars of Howard Ford and Randy Houston (both having the same luck of having to come from the back of the field) struggled a bit to put a passing move on Victor.

When all was said and done only 15 cars crossed the checkered flag, at that many were several laps down, but Pfluger’s “little black car that could” showed that it isn’t always about horsepower and expensive gear, but sometimes skill can play a part. Local boy Steven Gannon, many-time Shasta Raceway track champion in just about every division took home the giant eagle trophy as he edged out a win over Randy Houston who had battled back to second.

Victor and Scott Winters in Qualifying Main

Saturday saw Victor’s first run in a Modified. Team friend Rick Fasano told Victor if he could fix his idle Modified, he could take it to the Open Show to run. Though a challenge, Victor went to work, and once the car arrived in California crew-chief and mentor Chuck Lahorgue helped ge the team get the car prepped for Shasta’s unique configurations. This car turned out to be a testament to Chuck’s ability, as Victor wheeled the car to a 17th place, mid-pack qualifying time well ahead of some very seasoned veterans. Speaking of which, there were some of the top names in Modfied racing gathered for this, the Western Modified Nationals, including Scott Winters, Guy Young, Kevin Brink, David Furia, Norm Boucher, and Clint Bowers. Saturday evening’s main event saw Victor starting second position, in front of Winters, Kramm, and Scott Winters. The Racing 4 Reasons #80 Modified held its ground for more than a dozen laps only dropping to third after a hard-fought pass by Andy Field. But all too soon contact on the track ended Victor’s run early as a tap from behind sent him spinning in to the concrete wall edge at the track exit in turn one.

Shaken and bit bruised, Victor was towed off the track. Time didn’t permit a complete fix on the car in time for the main events on Sunday, but the experience he gained was immeasurable.

The Victor Pfluger Racing team is back in business. VPR will be attending the Shasta Open Show in Anderson, Ca with an all-star team in attendance. “We are so happy and proud of our relationships that we have been fortunate enough to make through Victor’s career, and for that, we want to thank everyone involved.” Quoted team owner Art Pfluger.

Victor will be driving the VPR Super Late Model entry owned by Jerry Blaco of Redding, Ca known as the Z2 Car. Victor’s had great success with this car, even winning a race against 3 time NASCAR Truck Series Champion Ron Hornaday. “Ron was a great and gracious competitor: it was a wonderful win!” Victor told the press after the event.

VPR has assembled a great team for the Shasta Open Show which is being sponsored in part by the US Army. The team will be led by long time VPR crew chief Chuck LaHorgue. “His insight and ability to assemble an amazing team has brought in some highly valued team members, including Tony Wilhelmson and Mike Ketka. These guys are long time friends and supporters with the “never say die” attitude that makes this team a race winning effort.” Art, Victor’s father continued.

“We are really looking forward to this race! Shasta is a great facility and we had a awesome time there last year. I understand that the show is going to be even better this year under the auspices of the new promoter Rick Faeth.” It will be a lot of fun to see all our friends from the west coast in their own location.” Said Victor.

Shasta Raceway Park is practically in Jack Waterman’s backyard. Art wrote, “Jack has worked on our website for many years with little return from us other than more requests to change this and add that on our site. He of course always gets the job done without any fuss and usually makes great suggestions along the way. We appreciate what he does.”

Victor will be driving in two classes, both the Super Late Models and the fiercely competed Modified Series. VPR’s decision to run the Modified race raises the bar of expectations and allows the team the opportunity to fight for a win for car owner Rick Fasano of Glendale Arizona.

VPR is also proud to announce that this will be their first event supporting the Racing4reasons.com campaign. Racing4 reasons exists because of the hard work of family and team friend Julian Wray. Wray created the organization based on supporting charitable causes through mainstream motorsports marketing. “We take pride in the fact that we can be associated with such a wonderful organization. We invite everyone to please take a look at the www.racing4reasons.com site and see the awesome things that Mr.Wray is attempting to accomplish. ” Urged Art.

“We are proudly attending this event with the support of our long time relationships; Parker Farms, Copperstate Tire, Maxima Oil, Racing4reasons, AlpineStars, AZ Pro Signs, Pimp Hammer Clothing, LaHorgue Race Cars, JWwebs.com, Mondello Tech, LifeLock, Bud Harvey, Galen Puccini, Carl Phlum, and A.J.Promotions. Without each and everyone of these people we could NOT attend this event.

Thank you to everyone involved. We are VERY excited and couldn’t do it without you. Wish us Luck!”

In the dark hours just before dawn Victor and his race crew (Mom and Dad) made their way to Firebird Raceway. Today’s objective: Test drive a C – 5TTR Corvette for NASA Pro Racing. Although Victor has raced here before in karts,dwarfs and A.S.A. Speed Trucks, today’s running will be a first for him.

This C-5 TTR Corvette is not an ordinary Corvette, it is a hybrid! Part street car and part race car. Shirl Dickey of Shirl Dickey Racing in Aguila, Az. who builds and maintains custom Corvettes invited Victor to come and run his car with him.

Victor got 3 sessions in the car and started off 1 second behind Shirl Dickey’s time. By the third session though Victor’s time was as fast as Shirl’s time. Victor was used to the track (Firebird Raceway West) and had a great time running this car.

“The car was a blast to drive, I’ve never raced anything like this before and couldn’t believe how quick it was. There was a lot of power, great handling and amazing brakes.

“Thank you for the opportunity to run your car Mr. Dickey”