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Oberg Shows Potential, Looks to Crandon for Redemption
The two Friday afternoon practice sessions really helped Mike and his crew chief, Cory Lambert fine tune his Keith Stamper built chassis. As the sun set, the moisture in the clay track seemed to rise to the surface giving the TORC competitors a great surface for the third round of the TORC series. The starting grid for Round 3 is determined your finishing position from the previous round. This put the Kumho Tire shod Chevy back in row five. When the green flag was waved, the PRO-2WD field went into attack mode. Mike wanted be race the first half of the race aggressively, but not too hard as he was looking to conserve his tires for a hard charge the last five laps of the twenty lap event. The group of twelve PRO-2WD trucks went down the back straight in to the jumps, the grey and black AMSOIL truck got tagged from behind pushing the truck off-course and nearly into the concrete wall. Somehow, Mike made some great moves and gets back on course only a few positions back. The dogfight was on. At the halfway yellow, Mike had made up a few positions and was in eighth place. When green flag racing resumed, the AMSOIL truck avoided major contact picked up two more spots, finishing in sixth place. “Starting well back it’s really hard to stay out of trouble,” remarked Mike Oberg. “The intensity of the first half on the race had me use up my tires quicker than I had planned. The last couple of laps, I couldn’t make up any ground on the two guys battling in front of me. We will try a different groove and hope that will give us the launch we need at the end of the race.” While the team was made the needed chassis adjustments, left front spindle appeared to be bent. Quickly the crew went to work installing the new spindle and rechecking the front suspension ensuring nothing else needed work. The beginning of Round 4 saw the #80 AMSOIL Chevy running consistent lap times without overstressing the tires. Just before the mandatory yellow, Mike picked up the pace and moved into fourth place. Then after the caution period, he charged into third place, with his sights set on the second place truck of Jeremy McGrath. With five laps to go, something in the driveline broke. Mike was able to continue to the finish, but without much intensity, finishing the round in eighth place. After four rounds of racing in the 2009 Traxxas TORC Series presented by AMSOIL, Mike Oberg is in ninth place overall in the PRO-2WD division. “The changes we made for tonight really made the truck come to life,” explained Mike Oberg. “I had a plan out there tonight and I really stuck to it. I don’t know if I could catch Ricky, but I thought I would have a shot or two at Jeremy if the rear end didn’t go out. We are heading to the Midwest to race in our backyard; it will be great to racing on familiar ground.” You can see Mike Oberg and the rest of the PRO truck action, Sunday, June 7, at 4pm central time, on ABC Sports. Rounds 5 and 6 of the Traxxas TORC series presented by AMSOIL will be June 20-21, in Crandon, Wisconsin.
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