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- Oberg
Searches for Set-Up at Pomona
Eagle River, WI (May 2, 2008) - Mike Oberg and crew came to Pomona loaded
with a brand new Keith Stamper chassis under the AMSOIL Kumho Tire
fiberglass. The 2006 Baldwin Cup Champion knew that the competition in PRO-2
would be deep and talented, so crew chief Pete Hansen went to work building
a brand new race truck.
The .74 mile long track was tight with a good portion of asphalt down the
front straightaway and through turns one and two. The weather for the
weekend was hot. The air temperatures all weekend hovered around 100 degrees
F. In fact the temperature of the asphalt at 10am on Sunday was 132 degrees
F.
Saturday-Round One - Speed TV
The morning practice and qualifying sessions were only minutes apart. There
wasn’t much time to any serious adjustments to the truck. The AMSOIL Chevy
qualified eleventh out of twenty one PRO-2 trucks.
The race was run quickly and without any caution flags other than the
mandatory halfway slowdown. The run saw Mike fighting limited visibility and
some traction issues coming out of the infield corners. At the flag, Oberg
Motorsports finished fourteenth.
 “Starting
back in the back, the dust quickly became an issue,” commented Mike Oberg.
“More than once I headed for the tabletop and couldn’t see the truck in
front of me. Unfortunately on the final lap, after I passed a couple of
trucks, we made hard contact with someone just after landing the tabletop,
and it put me back a few spots at the flag. About midway through the run we
lost a front shock, probably from all the rubbin’ that goes on at the start.
We will replace the front shock and make a gear change looking for get more
bite out of the corners. The Kumho tires were not all used up; we just
didn’t have the right gearing to really launch the truck out of the corners.
We’ll have this issue cleared up and hopefully the track prep will improve
for Sunday,”
Sunday - Round Two - NBC Sports
The combined practice and qualifying session saw the AMSOIL Kumho Tire Chevy
take the track in the first qualifying session. Unfortunately it just after
track official watered the track, creating putting the first group out at a
disadvantage to due slick conditions. Ultimately Mike stopped the timers
sixteenth fastest.
The start of round two saw the top three trucks pull away from the rest of
the field. Mike found the new gear combination much to his liking. The Kumho
tires had great bite coming out of the corners, as well as good grip through
the pavement portion of the track. His starting position once again found
the #80 Chevy battling traffic much of the race. Mike found it difficult to
get into a good rhythm until the end of the run. In the end, the #80 AMSOIL
Kumho Tire Chevy Silverado finished eleventh.
Afterwards Mike Oberg commented, “The gearing change we made helped quite a
bit. I just have to get better at qualifying. The level of competition is so
deep, if you start too far back, even if you have a fast truck, getting on
the podium is a real challenge. All in all I’m pretty happy with changes we
made and the performance of the AMSOIL Kumho Chevy.”
Oberg Motorsports thanks all its sponsors including:
AMSOIL, Kumho Tire, Fox Racing Shox, Hawk Performance, J & H Transmission,
Lund, Mastercraft, Millwright Services, MSD Ignition, Oberg Filters,
Peterson Fluid Systems, Precision Gear, Raceline Oil Pumps, and Stewart
Warner Performance.
You can catch all the action from Round Two on NBC Sports, May 25, at 1:30pm
eastern.
The next weekend of Championship Off-Road Racing is May 17-18, at the Las
Vegas International Off-Road Raceway in Primm, Nevada.
-Mike Reusche, marketing, MTG
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