OSHKOSH TORC RACE REPORT

Eagle River, WI (July 27, 2010) - Oshkosh has come and gone and what a Hoot it was. This was such a small, tight, technical track that it was more of a Demolition Derby than a TORC Race. It was a great time. The Oberg/AMSOIL Chevrolet had to be towed from the track after the Saturday Night Event and pulled into the trailer with the winch.
 
The kids just loved the Tattoo the Oberg Team provided and I bet we installed 400 of them. The parents liked our new M-80 T-Shirts and we sold quite a few of them. The crowd turnout was awesome for both nights and the bad weather held off until after the races were done.
 
The Friday practice session was canceled due to all the rain that came on Thursday night. The first time anyone entered the track was for pre-race hot laps. Mike had a great starting position with the outside pole position. By the time the race started the track was in great shape for racing. Mike had a great start entering turn 1 on the outside of Scott Taylor. He caught the loose dirt on the outside and it started to pull him out. Mike made a correction which got him involved in a turn 2 pile up. Mike had to do some hard charging after that to catch up on such a small, tight track. He ended the night with a 6th place finish.
 
The guys were hard at work all day Saturday to get the truck ready to do battle. The team decided to make some gear changes after talking with Bill Schlieper of Pro Power and Roger Harrison of J&H Transmission.  They also made some suspension changes after consulting with Bill Smith of Pro Fab. Everyone was hoping this would give Mike the edge he needed for the Saturday Night Event. The 6th place finish gave him the inside pole position for the start.  
 
Mike looked good in the pre-race hot laps. The truck looked faster and smoother than on the previous night. He only needed a good jump on the green. Mike got just that when he entered turn 1 ahead of the pack. By turn 3 he drifted a little high and Ricky Johnson got under him to take the lead. After that it turned into a slam fest. Mike was hit so many times while dicing with Scott Taylor that he finally put the pedal to the metal when Scott tried to get under him and looped Scott right out of the way. Mike wasn’t aware of it yet but both tie rods had gotten bent during this battle and he was losing handling and slowly losing ground. On the last lap he was running hard with Keith Steele in the Monster Energy Truck when Mike got spun around and rolled onto his top. This ended his race and gave us an 8th place finish.
 
Mike is now 7th in points but only 8 points out of 3rd place. The Team can still have a good finish this season. We are only half way through the season with the next race back in Bark River in 3 weeks. “We have a lot of work to do to get ready for Bark River and the truck is already cleaned and stripped and back in the shop, says Mike, We will be ready.”  
 
So the saga continues for this small Northern Wisconsin Team. The Oberg/AMSOIL Team will prevail. So, until Bark River, Be Safe.