Oberg TORC Bark River Race Report

Eagle River, WI ( August 14, 2012) - The Oberg Motorsports team was coming off a solid run at Chicagoland where the #80 AMSOIL General Tire PRO-2WD truck just missed finishing on the podium and coming to Bark River looked like the right place for grabbing a spot “on the box.” Unfortunately the team fought through drive train issues throughout the weekend which prevented a more typical Mike Oberg performance.

The weekend started out on Friday with a transmission failure during the Friday afternoon practice session. The evening qualifying session saw the black Chevy hampered due to additional transmission problems. Afterwards the team determined the problem wasn’t in the transmission but with the rear end housing. Unfortunately the truck’s original housing needed replacement and the identical spare was destroyed a couple of weeks ago in the Jolene Van Vugt incident at Chicagoland. So team had no choice but to use an older housing from a different set-up. The components all bolted up, but weren’t working very well together. Both days, the AMSOIL Chevy lined up with a new transmission before each round of racing.

The Oberg Motorsports team was looking forward to Bark River as the next generation General Tires were mounted on the truck’s Walker Evans Racing Wheels for the first time. Then Matt, Brian and the rest of the team also installed a new suspension package to work with the new General Tire rubber.

The qualifying session saw Mike Oberg still adapting to the new chassis set-up and qualified in the fourth row.

Saturday – Round 9
The first couple of laps the #80 AMSOIL General Tire Chevy was holding its position as the truck was working really well with the changing track conditions. Then at the end of lap three, Oberg realized the transmission wasn’t working properly. The situation quickly became terminal as the #80 Chevy retired from the race on the following lap.
“Our AMSOIL General Tire was really working well,” noted Mike Oberg. “I believe if it weren’t for the transmission problem our new General Tires would have really set us up for a charge to podium in the second half of the race. We will replace the transmission and make a few minor adjustments for tomorrow’s race.”

Sunday – Round 10
After installing another transmission in the #80 AMSOIL General Tire Chevy, the crew had their fingers crossed hoping that Mike would take the checkered flag after eleven laps of racing. Due to his early retirement form Saturday Round 9 action, Mike Oberg was starting at the rear of the starting grid.

The start saw Oberg move into the eighth position looking to make a move to gain better track position. As the race unfolded, the #80 Chevy was working very well, unfortunately the pace of the race made for very few opportunities to make a pass for position. After eleven laps, Mike Oberg finished in eighth place.

“My guys and especially Roger Harrison from J & H Transmission really worked their tails off all weekend,” commented Mike Oberg. “We were caught without our good spare housing and we had to make do this weekend. Our back-up truck is supposed to be ready in a couple of weeks for Crandon. We will be ready for some good home cookin’ Labor Day Weekend.”


 

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