Fluge Global Adventures Completes Successful 2007 and Ponders Future
Sunday, December 16th, 2007Nick Fluge and his many FGA partners and friends have completed a successful 2007 series of adventures. The Fluge Friends List (each of you who receive this zine) have also been instrumental in pushing the team to achievement. From contest entries and suggestions, to posts and general support – we thank each of you and wish you a happy holiday season.
Many questioned the determination of FGA as 2007 opened, but early successes ranging from participation of SCCA sports cars at Portland’s Auto Show to support and play in the Golden Foods Poker Tournament with Pros, Celebs, and everyday people (like us) – we were off to a good start. We had fun and tried to help others at every event.
Planned adventures hit full stride when in March we began our racing season (and won the Rose Cup and Rose Festival Trophies as well at the Overall Championship in ITE class for the 2007 racing year). The season extended into the summer (and was co-existent with our World Series of Poker presence). In WSOP our finishes were moderate – but our interaction with celebrities and pros – can’t be denied! Those first adventures led us to hold contests in “Show Us Your Fluge” and “FGA Suggestions for 08 (still to be determined)”. It also was a nice segue into the 3rd adventure: the Cannonball Run (aka The Great American Run) ‘race-rallying’ across the United States in late July.
Late summer and fall found the FGA team turning its attention to Man/Woman vs. Mountain as they conquered Kilimanjaro Summit in Africa, Mt. Everest Base Camp in Nepal, and the French Alps in France. Along the way more friends were made and a side trip into Scotland to prepare for a possible run at the Loch Ness Monster in the future was also completed.
So as December is a month of rest for FGA – they consider 2008. Will ‘The Adventures’ be limited to Mai Tai’s next to a private swimming pool for 6 months, will it mean a move back into the business and technology world, or will a new set of adventures arise? We hope to be able to let you know what our goals are by January – but those Mai Tai’s look good after our cool temperature mountain climbs! Here are some early thoughts.
Fluge Global Adventures has already locked up sponsorship of the 2008 road racing season of the Sports Car Club of America (which has 60,000 members in the US). We’ve also secured Matt Crandall of GPI to drive a FGA Panoz to a GT2 championship. Nick and Todd are still discussing whether or not they will once again drive last years’ victorious Corvettes in 08.
Fluge and Lowblad expect to participate in at least one (or several) 08 World Series of Poker events at the Rio in Las Vegas in June and July.
Other serious concepts include:
Immersing ourselves in education work with the Chagga peoples of Tanzania who were so wonderful to FGA in this years’ Kilimanjaro Summit. This would most probably be the most satisfying adventure that we could participate in.
Creating our own “Man vs. Fluge”month long journey into the tropics where Fluge and Carter are dropped onto a non-populated island with zero gear and food. Yelena would lead the mission back to find us (hopefully in good health) at the end of our mission.
Working to support a regional sports venue with the FGA name and adding charity work for that community could be another interesting path. Here you see two of our biggest fans who think “FGA Autzen” in Eugene would be great for the community, students, and spectators. (Could we really out-bid our friends at Nike?). Other possibilities are the Rose Garden and Portland International Raceway sporting the FGA brand.
FGA Spiritual Advisor Melissa and FGA fans in FGA section at Autzen
And of course there’s always the winter and spring laying out in the sun by an Olympic pool drinking those MaiTai’s!
