Local Race Team Makes Attempt at Rare Double Header: Victories in Both the Rose Cup and Rose Festival Trophy Races this Weekend
47th Annual Rose Cup Races Feature Top Amateur Competitors
Portland, Ore. (PRWEB) May 29, 2007 -- Fluge Global Adventures (FGA) attempts to capture a rare doubleheader this weekend with a three car assault in Saturday's featured Festival Trophy Race and Sunday's Rose Cup race at Portland International Raceway (PIR).
P ortland's Nick Fluge competes Saturday in his 2005 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 in the ITE class in hopes of beating a pack of turbo Porsches in the Festival Trophy Race. The Corvette boasts over 500 horsepower and is just like one off the dealer showroom floor, other than required safety equipment and special D.O.T. racing tires. Fluge currently leads the ITE class in the Oregon Region Sports Car Club of America Regional Championship Series, presented by Fluge Global Adventures.
Professional race car driver and local racing school owner Todd Harris drives the FGA entry in Sunday's featured Rose Cup race in the GT1 class, with a full race modified Corvette that used to compete in the professional Trans-Am series. The tube frame GT race car, built by Derhaag Motorsports, sports over 650 horsepower and will be one of the fastest entries in Sunday's feature race. Derhaag Corvettes have a Trans-Am race winning heritage, including victories at such famed circuits and events as the Long Beach Grand Prix, Cleveland Grand Prix, Road America, Laguna Seca and more.
Matt Crandall drives the FGA Panoz GTS in the GT2 class of Sunday's Rose Cup race. The Panoz GTS is also a purpose-built, tube-frame race car weighing in at just 2,685 lbs., and is powered by a Ford Motorsports 5.8 liter, 16-valve V-8.
The 47th Annual Rose Cup Races are sponsored by Temp-Control Mechanical Corp. and the Festival Trophy race by Pro Drive Racing School.
"Many teams spend years trying to win just the Rose Cup or Festival Trophy races, but we're going to try and do something unheard of, and win both the same weekend," explained team leader Nick Fluge. "It may be an impossible dream, but sometimes those are the only dreams worth having," he added.
To assist in this quest, Fluge has recruited two of the top race drivers in the area.
About Todd Harris
Todd Harris is the president of Pro Drive, Inc., and has been competing in a variety of motor racing events throughout North America over the past 15 years.
The Tigard, Oregon resident is a Northern Pacific and Oregon Region Champion and has set track records at race tracks up and down the west coast. During a two-year period, Todd won 17 races in a row while racing in Sports Car Club of America's most competitive class, Spec Racer Ford. In 1997, Todd was bestowed the award of "National Driver of the Year" by the Sports Car Club of America's Oregon Region.
His exceptional driving versatility was most recently evident when he entered races in a 125cc go-kart, a Mazdaspeed Miata, a Spec Racer Ford, and a 600 horsepowered GT-I Camaro all within a few weeks. He finished with three wins and a second.
When Todd is not behind the wheel of a race car, he is coaching drivers ranging from amateur club racers to professional race car drivers competing in the likes of NASCAR and Champ Car. He can also be found on local television and radio stations offering valuable driving advice to motorists.
About Matt Crandall
Matt Crandall, Wilsonville, Ore. has been involved in the automotive and racing business for all his adult life. He is an entrepreneur, involved in the selling of exotic sports cars and luxury automobiles, and is a recognized amateur race car driver with the Sports Car Club of America. He has excellent mechanical skills and knowledge, helps other drivers hone their skills on the race track as an instructor, and is also capable of providing track support as needed.
He is a five-time Oregon Region Champion with wins in Formula Atlantic, C-Sport Racer and, most recently, the 2006 GT-2 Class Champ in a Panoz. He has raced successfully on nearly all West Coast race tracks, including Willow Springs, Laguna Seca, Infineon, Thunderhill, Portland and Seattle. He also has experience at Road Atlanta. In Europe, through his prior association with Ferrari and Maserati sales, Matt had the opportunity to experience these automobiles at the world-famous Fiorano and Parma race tracks in Italy.
As the general manager of Gran Prix Imports in Wilsonville, OR, Matt is a major supporter of amateur racing in Oregon. He was instrumental in having Gran Prix Imports become a distributor for Panoz Race Cars and Pirelli tires. His current sponsors include Gran Prix Imports and MJ2 Racing, which also sponsors Super Stock Teams in the Late Model Challenge Series.
About Nick Fluge
Fluge holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from Portland State University. In 1999 he completed Management Programs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and followed in 2000 with continued studies at Harvard University in Internet Technology. In 2001, he completed the "eBusiness: Models and Applications for eCommerce" certificate program at The Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania.
In 1999, Fluge was pivotal in securing CEC's exclusive partnership with the world-renowned Le Cordon Bleu brand from Paris France. He was integral in the development of CEC's culinary division, helping it to become the world's largest provider of culinary arts education. Fluge served on the Executive Board of the Le Cordon Bleu Schools, North America, until December of 2006.
In 2001, Fluge launched CEC's Online Education Group, which provides a unique online education to over 25,000 students annually from every state in the U.S. and 50 countries abroad. At the time of his departure in 2005, the group generated over $650,000,000 in revenue. The Online Education Group has been recognized for its leadership in non-linear, multi-media courseware, proprietary course platforms, a comprehensive virtual campus, a virtual lead management system and other software all developed in house. One of the groups' online universities also participated in the prestigious U.S. Department of Education Demonstration Program from 2002 -- 2005.
Nick Fluge was the Chief Visionary of Innovative Online development for JDV Online, a vibrant Internet marketplace for lifestyle sites and digital marketplaces until December 2006. In 2005, Chefs.com was born providing culinary insight via podcasts, recipes, and historical information to an enthusiastic audience that grew to over 2 million unique visitors by December 2005. Then, in February 2006, Fluge helped launch Blish.com, a digital marketplace bringing together buyers and sellers. Blish became connected with the 2.0 community when Boris Karadogan, partner at ComVentures, recognized its potential and cited it as a prime example of Web 2.0 eCommerce. It was later immortalized in Stabilo Boss' Web 2.0 Collage.
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