ASA SPEED TRUCK CHALLENGE ON THE ROAD AT FIREBIRD INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

Source: dg
Date: 05/03/2007

The ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck Challenge will be taking their high flying truck racing action on the road this Saturday. The series' drivers will be literally on the road when they take on the challenge of the 1.7 mile road course at the Firebird International Raceway in Chandler-Arizona. This event is a day race that begins at 240 PM

Making this race even more challenging is the fact that it's not about a scheduled ammount of laps. It's about the element of time. This race is exactly 40 minutes long and that means qualifying is going to be especially intense because track position at the start of the race is going to be crucial. In this type of racing you often hear the term "road course specialists." The ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck Challenge Series is loaded with specialists many, of whom, gained that experience from racing karts on a road course at a very early age.

Yet another exciting aspect of this race is the highly competitive season the series is enjoying. The first four races of the year has turned up four different winners, starting fields literally one second apart from first to last and a very close points race for the series' championship.

Going into Saturday afternoon's race, Victor Pfluger, driver of the #80 Parker Farms-Copperstate Tire-La Horgue Race Cars Dodge, is currently on top of the championship standings with 228 points which was aided by his first win of the season, last April 21st, in Tucson. The 16 year old driver, from Morristown-Arizona, has also received some bonus points. The series awards five bonus points to the fastest qualifier in each race. So far, in four races, Pfluger has set the fast time in all four races and has earned 20 bonus points.

But his highly impressive qualifying ability will force the team to start Saturday's race with a brand new engine. The ASA Speed Truck Challenge Series' official rule book states that a team can put a $7,500 claim on another team's engine and that's exactly what happened to Pfluger Motorsports following his fast time and win at the Tucson race.

Pfluger is one of the series' road course specialists and is in the record books as the youngest driver to win an ASA Speed Truck Challenge race which ocurred two years ago,on a road course, during the ST John's Grand Prix. Pfluger is looking forward to Saturday's race at Firebird International Raceway and said "I love road couse racing, it's what I grew up doing."

Second in the series' standings is veteran driver Jim Putman who goes into Saturday's race only ten points behind the leader. The California native, and driver of the #12 Performance Grading Dodge, started his season off right by winning the first race of the year at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway in Blythe-California. When asked about the series' upcoming two road course races, at Firebird International and the California Speedway, he had a big smile on his face and said "I can't wait. They're really good and we did really well at both of them last year. I think the road courses mixes up things a little bit and we'll do allright."

Third in the standings is Randel "The Rocket" King the driver of the Hype Manufacturing-Clay Andrews Racing Chevrolet. The Riverside-California driver scored his first win of the season last March at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino-California. When asked about Saturday's race he said "I'm pretty familiar with road courses, I came from them while kart racing. We had two road course races last year and did pretty good with them. In fact, we finished third in both of them. This year we're a lot stronger and our team has really pulled together. We're also al lot more familiar with the set ups needed for road course racing. We'll definitely be there."

Fourth in the standings, with 204 points, is Gilbert-Arizona's Darren Young the driver of the #18 United Nissan-Sudden Impact-Quaker State Chevrolet. The two time, and current, series champion was all smiles over the prospect of road course racing and said "you just got to love that, I came from a road racing background and I'm looking to, hopefully, shine on them. I'm definitely looking forward to the next two road course events."

ASA-Go Fast- Speed Truck Challenge Series President, and CEO, Jay Rutherford is also very enthused over the return to road courses and said "without question it's a world of difference. These trucks are going to have to be completely manipulated in terms of balance. Everythings going to have to be equalized because we're going to be racing on a road course. The key reason why we do them is because of our logo: ASA we build champions. If these guys are going to move up into the big leagues they better have road course experience."

When you put it all together the ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck Challenge Series' event at the Firebird International Raceway has all of the components of being a very exciting Saturday afternoon and well worth the trip to Chandler-Arizona. In fact, it's likely to be the most exciting 40 minutes you'll ever see at a race track.

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