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- Oberg
Dials in New Truck – Finishes Second in Round 12
Driveline Problems Sideline #80 in Cup Race
Eagle River, WI (September 9 ,2008) - Oberg Motorsports used this
weekend to officially debut its new race truck. The team actually threw
the new truck to the wolves, at the last CORR event, due to a hard crash
the primary truck took while qualifying. Mike and the crew hurriedly got
the new truck race ready without any seat time in the new hot rod. The
results were were less than stellar, but the team was able to establish
a baseline for future chassis changes.
Thanks to the time the truck spent in race conditions on the West Coast,
Mike felt confident that a podium finish could be expected from the
weekend of racing.
Friday afternoon the Nissan Competition Parts Time Trials took place.
Mike Oberg qualified easily into the field. His time, 1:28.90, was the
seventh fastest two-wheel drive truck and thirteenth quickest in the
twenty-six truck filed.
Now with a couple more laps on the truck, Mike and crew chief Cory
Lambert made a few more changes, attempting to dial in the truck, for
current weather and track conditions.
Saturday – Round XI
Mike Oberg and his #80 AMSOIL Kumho Tire Chevrolet Silverado started
from the back row of the PRO-2WD grid. When the green flag dropped, all
fourteen trucks headed for Potawatomi Turn One. As the field came
through the first turn and towards the Barn Jump, the AMSOIL Kumho Chevy
was in the middle of the pack, looking to pickup positions quickly. On
lap three Mike’s steering somehow momentarily locked, causing him to
spin heading into the Argonne Corner. Quickly Mike Kept his foot on the
throttle turning the truck back around and preventing the truck from
rolling over, somehow nobody made contact during this hair raising
moment. Then a lap later, the AMSOIL Chevy, caught a small boulder with
the edge of one of his wheels, kicking it out into the driveshaft. The
boulder broke the driveshaft, ending Mike’s day, officially finishing in
eleventh place.
Overnight the crew went to work prepping the truck and replacing the
driveshaft. Mike took the time to talk about his new truck.
“After qualifying Cory and I made some changes and the truck really came
around. I thought we could get to the front and finish on the podium.
The steering locking up really scared me. It must have been a rock that
somehow got up in the front end to lock everything up. We just checked
everything out and steering is working fine. We will change to a
different torque converter tonight, which will give that little extra we
are looking for.”
Sunday – Round XII
The land rush start saw the #80 AMSOIL Kumho Tire Chevy really come to
life. As the field headed down in front of the crowd, Mike was in third
place behind #21 Hoek and #18 Konitzer. By lap three, Mike moved up to
second place with #8 Taylor in third. Two laps later, #8 Taylor passed
Mike for the second spot. Then with two laps to go, #21 Hoek faded back
with mechanical problem. At the finish it was Taylor 1st, Mike Oberg
2nd, and Konitzer 3rd.
Quickly, Oberg Motorsports went to work prepping the #80 AMSOIL Kumho
Chevy for the BorgWarner Shootout. The team had only a few hours to get
the truck ready for the “Big Race at the Big House.”
BorgWarner Heavy Metal Shootout
As soon as the green flag dropped, dust was everywhere really creating a
visibility problem in several places on the track. In an effort to
combat the dust, many of the drivers became very aggressive with their
tactics. Their were quite a few pileups in different parts of the track,
the #80 Chevy got caught up in one of those, in the dustiest part of the
track, the Argonne Corner. To break free, Mike had literally pushed
other trucks out of the way that were blocking the track. By lap three,
the #80 Chevy had a little breathing room, running third overall. Then
just past the start finish line, the driveshaft broke ending the
weekend.
“The truck was really running great,” remarked Mike Oberg. “The dust was
really a problem. At one point, in the Argonne Corner, there were four
of us piled into each because we couldn’t see. Then to get untangled, I
had to ram Dan in the rear to push him through the other trucks.
Afterwards, I heard the lead pack of PRO-4x4s had a similar deal in the
same area. Well, we’ve got about a week to get the trucks ready to go
back out to Chula Vista for the next CORR race. I think you will see our
team have better results, the rest of the year, thanks to our time in
Crandon.”
The next race for Oberg Motorsports is September 13-14, Championship
Off-Road Racing at the QUARRY, Chula Vista, California.
Oberg Motorsports thanks all its sponsors including:
AMSOIL, Kumho Tire, Fox Racing Shox, Hawk Performance, J & H
Transmission, Walker Evans Racing, Mastercraft, Millwright Services, MSD
Ignition, Oberg Filters, Peterson Fluid Systems, Precision Gear,
Raceline Oil Pumps, and Stewart Warner Performance.
- Mike Reusche,
mtgraphics@ymail.com
– photos by
www.jnlphoto.com
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