August 31, 2012 at 3:09 p.m.
Eagle River's Oberg looking forward to Crandon weekend
Eagle River's Oberg looking forward to Crandon weekend
He said fans can plenty of excitement from the TORC trucks and the support classes after Crandon made some tweaks to the track following the Brush Run weekend in June.
"They're going to be in for quite a show," said Oberg, who had his truck at Three Lakes TNT Speedway in Three Lakes. "With the extra drivers that are there, with the new jumps that they've got, everybody's going for it as hard as they can. Everybody's going to be putting it on the line."
According to track officials, the construction was done in July by track builder Cliff Flannery with consultation from defending Pro 2wd winner Bryce Menzies.
"The most noticeable feature will be the new Skybox Jump - sending racers 100-150 feet through the air down the 80-90 mph straight-away right in front of Crandon's VIP seating section on the east side of the track," the track said in a press release.
Speedway officials added that several drivers request the change.
The track also redesigned the finish line jump. The tabletop area of the jump has been extended back to the north roughly 100 feet, giving spectators on the hill and in the grandstands a better view of the air time. The track also put a new jump in the area by the timing stand, while also removing the pond in the center of the track and replacing it with a rock wall.
Oberg said the jumps led to some hair-raising moments during a test session last week.
"There were some pretty bad accidents on Friday," he said. "They've got some new jumps, so it should be pretty exciting when you start putting 15 to 20 trucks out there."
He said that action will only get more intense Sunday afternoon when the Pro 4x4 and Pro 2wd drivers go head-to-head in the $40,000 winner-take-all AMSOIL Cup.
"That's a good chunk of change to go out and run for," he said. "Everybody's going to be running to the limit right there. There is going to be a lot of carnage when that night's done."
Oberg enters this weekend's doubleheader in Crandon seventh in points in the TORC Pro 2wd division. His outfit, made up of local crew members, is trying to compete with the top teams in the sport.
"It could have been better," Oberg said of his 2012 season to date. "But in my class, Pro 2, you've got the best of the best racers in there. Right now, you have teams with multiple trucks. You've got the Traxxas team and they've got a number of trucks. You've got the Red Bull team. You've got some of these teams coming to the track with $3 to 4 million (of equipment). We've got all the good stuff they do, but (getting) test time and stuff like that, it makes it tough to compete."
Perhaps the highlight - or lowlight, depending on your perspective - for Oberg was what happened to his truck at Chicagoland Speedway when he lent it to a stunt driver from "Nitro Circus."
"She made it a lap and a quarter and she barrel-rolled that thing off a jump and pretty much wrecked it," he said. "Right now, that truck is sitting in Crandon getting fixed. The tally to fix that thing so far is just over $60,000 and it keeps climbing."
Oberg's raced his backup truck since the accident and was shook it down at TNT Speedway prior to this weekend's races.
"We just put this new Pro-power engine in here. We just got the thing fired up (last) Thursday night," he said "We've got a new J&H transmission in it. We wanted to get this motor out there and get it wound up a few times and make sure we're not going to have any problems."
Everybody wants to win at Crandon, but when the track is practically in your backyard - as it is for Oberg - winning there means something more.
"We've won four World Championship rings there in four different classes," he said. "Nobody has ever done that. I've been racing for 20 years out there and have a great time... We're shooting for a good finish this coming weekend in Crandon. We're going to see what can happen."
Racing at Crandon kicked off yesterday with practice and the make-up of a rained-out race from the Brush Run weekend. Eleven different classes will take to the track this weekend.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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