Rose Cup Double Header Won by Fluge Global Adventures
Todd Harris nearly laps the field for the Rose Cup Victory, while Nick Fluge captures the Festival Trophy Race in a 50-car field.
Portland, Ore. (PRWEB) June 6, 2007 -- Todd Harris of Tigard, Ore. capped off the perfect weekend Sunday with his convincing victory in the 47th Annual Rose Cup Races, just one day after team owner Nick Fluge scored a narrow win in Saturday's Festival Trophy race at Portland International Raceway (PIR).
"We set out to do what has rarely, if ever, been done and that was to win both the Festival Trophy Race and the Rose Cup race in one weekend with one team," explained team owner and Saturday's Festival Trophy winner Nick Fluge of Portland, Ore. "It was really beyond my wildest dreams that it could possibly happen," he added.
Teammate Todd Harris, owner of the Pro Drive Racing School at Portland International Raceway, qualified the Fluge Global Adventures GT1 class Corvette on the pole position for Sunday's feature race, with Trans-Am champion and legend Greg Pickett of Benecia, Calif. lining up along side in his Jaguar XKR.
"I knew my team prepared a great car for me, but also knew how tough a competitor Greg Pickett can be, along with a number of other drivers like Rich Sloma, Cindi Lux and Scotty B. White," Harris said after the race. "It was important to get a clean start through the hairpin Festival Curves, keep Greg in my mirrors, and thread my way through traffic when we began lapping the slower cars," he added.
Indeed, Harris jumped into an early lead in front of the 35-car field and entered the tight Festival Curves at PIR with a two-car length lead over Pickett's Jaguar. Meanwhile, teammate Matt Crandall of Wilsonville, Ore was starting eighth in the field in the Fluge Global Adventures Panoz GTS and immediately experienced handling and transmission problems with fourth gear.
"I had no grip on the rear of the car and had to shift from third gear to fifth for much of the race," Crandall said, "but later on I found I could use fourth part of the time and that helped me move up." In fact, even with all his problems Crandall advanced from his eighth place starting position to a hard earned sixth place behind Harris, Pickett, Sloma, Lux and White.
Meanwhile, Harris picked his way through traffic and was never seriously challenged, lapping the entire field except for second place finishing Pickett. His margin of victory was 16.061 seconds with an average speed of 94.409 mph. His fastest lap of the race was a 1:12.166 at 97.974 mph around the 1.967- mile road racing circuit.
"By winning the double header I think we've set a mark that may take years to equal," Harris said.
No less impressive than Harris' win in Sunday's Rose Cup race was Fluge's triumph on Saturday. Fluge was competing with his 500 HP ITE class Corvette, similar to those you can buy off the showroom floor, and faced a field of 20 ITE class cars and 30 other racers in a variety of other classes, making for the largest field of the weekend.
Fluge fought a battle with a number of Porsche competitors and held onto second place for much of the 30-minute race, until moving into the lead late in the race to take the Festival Trophy victory. He, too, turned the fastest lap of the race with a 1:22.44 at 85.762 mph. His race average was 73.591 mph and margin of victory a slim 1.609 seconds.
Fluge Global Adventures rounded off the winning weekend by making charitable donations to several Portland organizations in the names of both race winners, and the second and third place finishers in the Rose Cup race. A total of $10,000 was donated for North Portland Youth Soccer to the Santos FC, $5000 was presented to the Portland Rose Festival Committee Foundation, $2500 to Friends of Portland International Raceway, and $1000 to the Community Transitional School.
The team's next adventure is the June 30-July 1 Pro Drive Regional Races at Portland International Raceway.
About Fluge Global Adventures
For 2007, Fluge has custom designed a series of events and adventures sure to please anyone wishing to rekindle their relationship with adrenaline and excitement.
These include a 19,000 foot summit run at Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, a 3,000-mile cross country road race in The Great American Run, a very serious hike to the Base Camp at Mt. Everest in Nepal, a full scale onslaught on the World Series of Poker, and high octane adventures in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) behind the wheel of Corvette super cars.
His SCCA auto racing adventure is in full swing, with Fluge leading the championship point standings for the year in the ITE class with his Chevrolet Corvette. His final race of the year will be the June 30-July1 Pro Drive Regional Races at PIR.
Fluge then moves on to Las Vegas to play in three World Series of Poker Events (WSOP) on June 9, June 20 and in the Main Event on July 8.
What follows is a two-car assault on the world's largest car rally, the Great American Run, from July 29-Aug 2. After crossing the United States he is on to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro from August 14-30, and later to the Mt. Everest Base Camp Oct 6-30.
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