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Mike Oberg Motorsports - TORC
Crandon I Race Report
Eagle River, WI (June 22, 2010) - The Off-Road Championship
Series (TORC) has kicked off the 2010 season at the "Big House",
Crandon International Off-Road Raceway in the beautiful
Northwood's of Wisconsin. Old Friends and Foes have come
together with new to see who will rein Champion of the best
Off-Road Racing Series in the country. TORC is now under the
sole discretion of the United States Auto Club (USAC) who
promises to make TORC the next best form of racing there is.
With a comprehensive TV package to be aired on Discovery HD
Theater starting in September, USAC is setting the bar quite
high. If all the camera's we saw this past weekend are any
indicator of things to come, we are all going to be thrilled.
For those of you that are unable to make it on race weekend,
TORC is now streaming video live on the internet. This is
something new, so it may take some time to work the bugs out,
but I hear it had a great reaction from fans on the net. The
Oberg Team started their weekend
on Friday with a photo shoot for the TV coverage. It is
said that this will be presented in a "Reality TV Format". There
is a lot of behind the scenes footage being shot. There were
cameras mounted in the Oberg Truck all weekend so there should
be some really great shots for the fans to enjoy. We were all
impressed with the amount of TV people present at all times
throughout the weekend.
Qualifying was done during practice
on Saturday morning to set everyone's position for round
one later in the day. The top six in each class were to be
inverted for the start. Mike was looking really well out there
but he complained that something was holding him back. He said
the new King Shocks were working great after getting help with
the setup from Mike Leighton and his crew from King who traveled
to northern Wisconsin to help at this event. Mike said the
handling was the best he's had it. Mike said those
BFG Tires were grabbing all he needed so there must be
another problem in the drive train. Of course all the
AMSOIL Products kept everything else running cool and
smooth so the guys had their work cut out for them. Mike ended
up with seventh position for the race.
The guys did a great job checking over the AMSOIL Chevy but
couldn't find anything of concern. They thought that maybe the
brakes were hanging up so they installed a brand new set of
HAWK Brake Pads. Mike was happy with what they did in the
time they had and went to the starting line with much confidence
that this would be a good run. When the
green flag
flew, Mike entered turn one in fifth position and was doing
battle with the
Monster Truck of
Jeremy McGrath.
Mike worked him over pretty good until the gremlins took over.
The truck was losing power. Mike battled it the rest of the race
and finished 5th. "I'm a bit put out that something went wrong,
but I have faith in the crew to solve the problem and get me
back for tomorrow", Mike said. Post Race Inspection found that
one of the plug wires burned off on a header and dropped the
engine to seven cylinders. So when you consider that, Mike had a
good finish.
Sunday brought a brighter day and bigger expectations from the
crew. The truck performed well in practice but Mike still felt
there was something holding him back. The problem didn't show
when the green flag dropped as Mike entered turn one in 3rd
place. He did his best to hold that but the gremlins reappeared
on about the 3rd lap when the
drive shaft
snapped off at the yolk ending the day for #80. "It's a
disappointing start for the 2010 season but I think we can get
things straight and make up for it", said Mike.
The Team had a short period to get the truck ready for the
running of the "Crandon Cup Challenge" which pits the 2 Wheel
Drive Trucks against the 4 Wheel Drive Trucks in a 10 lap dash
for the cash. The 4 Wheel Drives have an advantage so the 2
Wheel Drive Trucks were given a 10 second lead. Mike had a great
start but we could tell from the start that he didn't have
enough power to keep up. He still managed to finish in about the
6th position. "This is so disappointing. What is the problem",
said Mike.
Bill Schlieper, from Pro Power, was at the pits to help solve
the issue. Pro Power builds the engines that power the mighty
AMSOIL Chevy. Upon inspection they came up with the conclusion
that the Torque
Converter is too tight. This was verified with Roger
Harrison of J&H Transmissions. Roger said "It has to be looser
or you're losing power".
With the initial weekend of racing now in the books the Team
will prep for rounds 3 and 4 in
Bark River
Michigan. We're all confident that the AMSOIL Chevy will
be in top form to challenge the field for the 2 Wheel Drive
Championship. Until then, Keep it Safe.
Gilly
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www.obergmotorsports.com
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