This year popular off-road racer Alan Pflueger enters the illustrious SCORE Baja 1000 with one thing on his mind - earning the SCORE Baja 1000 title in the elite Trophy Truck category. After moving up to the Trophy Truck class in 2004, Pflueger won the Primm 300 and SCORE Baja 500, finishing the year second in points just shy of the championship. In 2005, he was runner-up at the SCORE Baja 1000 but unfortunately fell prey to various technical conundrums in 2006 and barely made the finish. This year Pflueger has put the past behind him while being committed to capturing the elusive SCORE Baja 1000 Trophy Truck title at the 40^th annual running of the event and reaching the next pinnacle of his career. "Ask the Experts" sat down with Alan to talk about how the upcoming SCORE Baja 1000, the many complexities it takes to race in the elite Trophy Truck category and what it takes to prepare both physically and mentally for one of the most grueling off-road races in history.

So Alan, what got you started in off-road racing?
It’s really about following in my father’s footsteps. I remembered looking at pictures of my dad racing when I was a kid and it seemed fun and adventurous, he raced everything for years and I wanted to get into it. I had an opportunity to go down to the Baja 1000 on a motorcycle in 2000 and that lead to me seeing it up-close and personal. From then on, I wanted to get into bigger and faster vehicles. I did the Baja 500 in 2001 on a motorcycle and then moved on up to a Pro Truck in 2002 and worked with Brian Collins who helped me out and we won Rookie of the Year that year. In 2003, we won the championship and then I moved up to the Trophy Truck ranks in 2004.

Do you feel that being raised in a racing family helped with your progression from riding motorcycles to racing off-road trucks?
Yeah, I feel that it all plays into it because I was always racing something. From running go-karts with lawn mower engines to riding dirt bikes. I learned how to read the terrain at an early age and that also helped with my driving. Living in Hawaii also gives me an advantage because I’m active in a lot of different sports on land and in the water, which are pretty competitive and help me get prepared. That’s what I like about off-road racing, because when you are racing in the Baja 1000, you are competitive for hours and it’s important to be mentally and physically tough. Being competitive in so many forms of sports and racing has helped me adjust to the rigors of Baja.

Considering your background, you are a driver who is very capable of handling the endurance and fatigue that comes with competing in a race such as the Baja 1000. What do you do to prepare?
I do a lot of different things. I have a number of sports that I do to get me prepared but I don’t just do one thing. I think in order to be prepared you need to work on multiple exercises and sports to get your body and mind in tune. It’s also important to do as much as you possibly can to get your body to a point to where your mind tells you to stop. It’s important to know how much you think you can take and then push through it. It’s that type of endurance training that prepares you the best. It helps prepare you for when your body starts telling you “hey this isn’t very much fun,” and then you know that it will pass and you’ll be able to push through it. That’s where a lot of racers fall short in their physical preparation because they don’t push themselves to exhaustion and keep going, which then allows for the mental challenge to take over. I work out with a lot of guys who don’t participate in my sport, but they are champions in their own sports and we push each other to a breaking point, then adapt and overcome the pain and frustration of wanting to quit. We do all sorts of things from swimming to paddle boarding to running and circuit training. We punish ourselves for an end result and that end result of knowing how we can overcome our limits better prepares us physically and mentally for the Baja 1000.

Do you do anything to prepare yourself to react quickly and have good hand and eye coordination?
I think a lot of the quick reaction stuff is natural talent. Most racers are gifted to process information quickly and the top drivers are comfortable with going fast. A lot of the sports I do help with my ability to react to unusual circumstances and make quick decisions, but I also think most of it comes naturally. Plus, growing up in a family of racers helps a bunch also. You learn to race anything all the time and almost anywhere.

What do you do to stay nourished and hydrated during a race such as the Baja 1000?
If you look at other endurance sports and what those athletes do, we pretty much do the same thing. We don’t try to re-invent the process or use new products; we try to do what works best for us. Sometimes certain products and energy drinks don’t work as well as they do for others, so we have to work out and test new things until we find a regimen and plan that works best to maintain the level of nourishment and stay as hydrated as possible. We use Monster Energy drinks on our team and they work really well for us.

How does a racer deal with the various obstacles and tricky portions of the racecourse?
We pre-run the course so we know where the tough parts are. We are always aware and try to be careful as much as we can. The thing about Baja is that you can’t run flat out all the time. You also have to respect the land and the race itself and you’ve got to learn where you can go slow and where you can go fast. When you can go fast, you have to take the opportunity to go as fast as you can. Then when you have to go slow you have to really pay attention to how you’ve prepared for the race and understand that it’s OK to go slow in some areas.

What kind of advice would you give someone who wants to move up to the Trophy Truck ranks?
I think there are a lot of great racers out there, but I think there are only a handful of real “Baja” guys and you’ve got to take the time to understand the land and race on the desert’s many different types of landscapes and conditions. I think it’s important that if someone wants to race Baja they should try to get help from a veteran of desert racing and from someone who’s raced Baja specifically, that advice is priceless. I also think it’s important to go to Baja and pre-run as much as possible because if you are familiar with where you are at, then it’s less to remember.

When you got involved in off-road desert racing, who did you look up to the most?
The person who I most wanted to be like was Larry Ragland, who also drives for BFGoodrich Tires. For me I was lucky to be able to spend some time with Larry and learn how to drive like him and be a sponge for information. I enjoyed riding with Larry and pre-running with him while listening to how he approaches some situations, and then adapting my own driving style. I’m very appreciative of the time that I spent with Larry because he’s one of the best, so that time was priceless.

How do off-road racers decide on what tires to race with?
I think a large majority of off-road racers look closely to who’s winning and what tires they use. Off-road racing is still a sport where winning on Sunday and buying on Monday matters. BFGoodrich Tires has set the standard as the premier tire in off-road racing. You are not going to find another tire manufacturer that is as committed to supporting the sport of off-road racing while designing and engineering tires that work well for the grueling conditions of off-road racing and that’s why I use BFGoodrich tires for off-road competition.

Pflueger’s choice of tires for tackling the challenging, dust-filled Baja 1000 is a set of BFGoodrich^® Baja T/A^{® KR} tires. The legendary Baja T/A^KR tire was purposely engineered to handle the grueling conditions that desert racing and a Trophy Truck can dish out. A substantial amount of the design and engineering characteristics that are found in BFGoodrich tires has been derived from gathering data from drivers such as Pflueger. You can bet that he will be putting his Baja T/A^{® KR} tires to the test at this year’s SCORE Baja 1000. Stay tuned.