Oberg Wins @ Crandon - General Tire
First TORC PRO-2WD Victory
Celebrates AMSOIL 50th annual Eagle River Snowmobile Derby
Eagle River, WI (September 10, 2012) - After battling various
issues all year long, Mike Oberg and his #80 PRO-2WD AMSOIL
General Tire Chevy had its best performance of the year winning
the Friday evening round of racing at Labor Day Weekend, World
Championship event at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway. The
victory was the first for General Tire in the PRO-2WD category and
helps keep the veteran racer inside the top five of the TORC
Championship standings.
Due to heavy rains during the June race at Crandon, Round 5 was
rescheduled for Friday evening during the traditional Labor Day
event. Now Oberg and his crew had their work cut out for them as
they had to prepare the AMSOIL Chevy for three rounds of TORC
Championship competition as well as the $40,000 AMSOIL Cup. Just
to make the weekend a little more interesting, the Crandon track
crew added three table top jumps, two on the front straightaway
and one on the skybox straightaway to the "Super Speedway" of
short-course off-racing.
Then the Friday evening races were run on what many call the
short-short track. The track layout is shortened to just under
one-mile in length by eliminating the Argonne Corner, the back
stretch, and the land rush straightaway. This kept all the racing
action in front of the spectators for the entire fourteen lap
competition.
The layout of
the short-short track had TORC use their typical two wide rolling
start as Mike Oberg and his #80 AMSOIL General Tire Chevy started
on the outside of the front row. The fourteen lap event would have
a mandatory caution after lap seven allowing for the thirteen
truck field to bunch back up together giving the fans even more to
cheer.
The first half of the race, Oberg stayed in the top three
positions. After the mandatory caution, the AMSOIL Chevy moved up
to second place and began closing on the leader MacCachern. Then
the leader blew an engine on lap nine, which put the General Tire
Chevy in the lead. The final five laps saw Oberg fend off the
competition to take his first win of the season.
"This short
layout sure suits our truck," commented Mike Oberg. "The AMSOIL
in our ProPower engine and J & H Transmission keep everything
running cool, and our General Tires were perfect for the track.
My crew has worked some long weekends this year, and have to
really thank them...Wow it's been two years since our last win
and to win at our home track in Crandon is just awesome. I gotta
tell 'ya it wasn't easy. First battling with Greaves, then
Menzies, then Hord and then to finally see the checkered flag it
was just awesome."
The racing
continued on Saturday as all TORC classes compete on the
traditional 1.6 mile long Crandon track with the traditional land
rush start. Round 11 action saw the Oberg Motorsports PRO-2WD
sporting a slightly different set of body panels, highlighting
AMSOIL and the upcoming 50th edition of the World Championship
Snowmobile Derby in Eagle River, WI. The race itself saw Oberg
fight through race traffic to finish a solid sixth place.
Sunday had two more races on the docket for Oberg Motorsports. The
Round 12 race saw Oberg fight through some dusty conditions that
caused a loss of a few positions on the track. At the finish the
AMSOIL /50th annual Eagle River Snowmobile Derby/General Tire
Chevy finished in ninth place.
The final race of the day was the AMSOIL Cup. The fastest PRO-2
and PRO-4 racers in the country race together for the bragging
rights and the $40,000 first place check. This year the race was
won by Ricky Johnson in a PRO-4. Mike Oberg and hisAMSOIL/ 50th
annual Eagle River Snowmobile Derby/General Tire Chevy ran well
until a damaged body panel blocked the race truck's transmission
coolers. With two laps remaining Oberg pulled off the track to
prevent any catastrophic damage to the truck.
With one weekend remaining in the 2012 Traxxas TORC Series
presented by AMSOIL PRO-2WD Championship, Mike Oberg is currently
in fifth place in the standings.
The final race of the season is the Huseman Memorial Cup Weekend,
September 29-30, in Lancaster, California.
