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The Buzz on Wheatland ....or should I say the Fuzz!
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Eagle River, WI (October 3, 2007) The season finale’ for the World
Series of Off-Road Racing in Wheatland Missouri has come and gone.
It was a long drive and a hard fought battle. We put in everything
we could to win that Championship battle and still fell short. We
knew it was going to be tough going into this weekend but we felt we
had what it took to do it. We were able to hold on to 2nd for the
2nd year in a row. We are happy with that and there is always next
season.
The crew was on hand Friday to prepare for the two scheduled
practicesessions. The weather was sunny, humid and in the 90’s. The
plan was to use both practice sessions. They tried different gearing
and did some different things with the suspension. Even though we
did this on Friday they still planned to use the practice on
Saturday too. By the time they got through that they figured it was
as good as they were goingto get. We were ready to race. We needed
to catch Taylor and keep Probst at bay. We hoped Taylor would have
problems early and we could finish well just to make up the 13
points we needed going into it.
The track was short and technical, the most technical we have yet to
see. Horsepower wasn’t going to do it here, this was all driver. So
this would be no problem for Mike. He got a great start going into
turn one side by side with another truck. They battled through turn
two and through number three. The fourth corner is a long sweeper
through turns three and four of the stock car track. Mike had the
upper hand as he was on the outside. Mike stayed high to build speed
for the back
stretch. The other guy was low and couldn’t maintain control of his
truck. He spun and came out and hit Mike. Mike was able to maintain
control and get through that
with the lead. We weren’t aware of any damage at this point. By lap
two the scenario we had been hoping for happened, Taylor went out
after suffering a loss of power. Mike only needed to maintain the
lead to bring him within one point of the Championship. But it
wasn’t meant to be. the fifth lap a tire had gone down due to the
hit early on. The wheel was bent and the tire lost air. Mike went in
for a tire change and returned to finish fifth. This only gave us
three points so we were still down by ten.
We were going to have to take it down to the wire.
Mike went out for practice on Sunday just to insure all was well.
The guys checked everything over afterwards and did find a cracked
spindle which they had plenty of time to replace. We were the last
event of the day. It was too long to wait though as we were all a
bundle of nerves.
Mike again got a great hole shot going into turn one three wide with
Mike on the outside, Evan Evans in the middle and Probst on the
inside. These guys stayed together all the way to the sweeper before
Evans got squirrelly and hit Mike in the right side. This gave
Probst the lead but Mike got free and went right after him.
Mike caught up in a heart beat and went for the challenge. It looked
like Mike was going to take him when our luck ran out once again.
The earlier incident with Evans must have bent the right rear shock
and it gave out locking up the right rear suspension. All Mike could
do was coast around the track and try and hold onto that2nd spot. It
looked like Probst would take the win which would have placed us 3rd
in points. Then Probst also had problems with his rear suspension
and he finished only one spot ahead of Mike. Taylor won it with Mike
having to settle with 6th position. It was a tough weekend but we
were all happy with it. Now it was time to load up and head home.
We left at 7:00 PM to make the 10 hour ride home. I had already had
a visit with a Missouri Police Officer the night before after I
apparently missed a stop sign (it was midnight and no cars around,
except one). I was following Matt and we made it about 60 miles
before I had another visit with an Officer. Apparently I was going a
little fast. He couldn’t catch both of us so Matt got away (I’m
starting Gilly’s Ticket Fund by the way). I can tell you that the
Officers in Missouri are very friendly. After this I left my Drivers
License on the console so I wouldn’t have to dig it out the next
time (if the Ticket Fund doesn’t work I may have to change that to a
Bail Fund). This was going to be an even longer ride home because
Illinois is usually worse. Everyone in my car went to sleep so I
talked with Mike for awhile. Then I talked with Matt a couple of
times to see where he was at. I should have caught up to him but he
took a different route (if the Bail Fund doesn’t work just send Soap
on-a Rope). The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived home
at 5:00 AM.
The WSORR is over but not our season. We plan to head west to jump
into the CORR Series at the TexasMotor Speedway in October and then
follow them to Las Vegas in November. We need to show those CORR
guys that the real racers were racing in the Midwest. Besides, we
need to go out and defend our win of the
Jason Baldwin Memorial Cup (I still haven’t seen that cup). We plan
to kick some butt out there. So if you have no plans it’s starting
to get colder in the north so head west and join us (I’m leaving the
car home and flying. I hear those Texas Rangers are something else).
I’ll let you all know how that works out and plan to see a lot of
you at the PRI Show in Orlando in December.
-Mark “Gilly” Gelhausen – Oberg Motorsports Crew Chief
www.obergmotorsports.com
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