ANDERSON, California — 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 expectedly 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 get 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 Modified 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.
