Feature
 
Tortillas, yes. Flats, no way.
September 2, 2004

The 2004 SCORE Baja 500 was another tribute to the world's toughest off-road tires. BFGoodrich® tires took the first 16 places - and 13 of 14 class victories overall. The winning Pflueger Racing Trophy Truck only replaced two tires the entire way.

"We had no flats at all," says Pflueger Racing Crew Chief John Hoffman, speaking from team headquarters in Murietta, California. "We only had to change the rear tires that (owner and driver) Alan (Pflueger) wore out. The BFGoodrich tires were amazing."

The team was even able to skip some of its planned tire stops in order to stretch out its lead because the tires were performing so well.

"It was pretty incredible to run the race without having a flat," Hoffman said. "We had our scheduled pit stops and changed the rear tires, on account of wear, at the intervals we had laid out. But Alan said, 'Let's stretch it out, to get our lead up.' So we ran over 200 miles on one set of rear tires. That's a long way to run a set of tires."

That's an understatement. The 200 miles of torture that tires undergo in the pounding velocity of desert racing is more punishment than a set of off-road tires might receive in a year of non-competitive driving.

"Our top speed recorded on the GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) was 137 MPH," Hoffman said. "But there's a whole lot of the race that's gas-on-through the corners stuff, where you really chew the tires up."

The Pflueger Trophy Truck team had an extensive logistic support system in place for the race. "We had a total of 53 people, seven support trucks, a 36-foot fifth-wheel trailer and a tractor trailer. And a helicopter." But the support crew was hardly needed. "The guys didn't have to get out of the truck all day long," Hoffman said. "It was a good day."

BFGoodrich tires are the world's toughest off-road tires. From 1/1/04 through 7/31/04, BFGoodrich tires won 147 of 190 major off-road competitions.



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