TORC Series at Oshkosh, WI. Rounds 5-6

After a record breaking 10” inches of rainfall in the first 22 days of July and flooding on the Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway grounds on Thursday morning, the TORC Series 3rd event looked dismal. But the promoting group for the weekend had experienced racers and dirt movers on staff. With a little prayer and lots of work, the Traxxas TORC Series Presented by AMSOIL went on as planned with great success.

Now, as for some racers, that’s another story. We start with a brand new track and conditions so critical, that practice was eliminated. In the drivers meeting, it was decided to run a parade lap at the start of each class race.

After the Sportsman races were completed late afternoon, the Pros took to the 1 mile race course. Having a similar layout to the Perris, CA event from previous year, it would put all racers into a driving game, rather than a big motor game. The short and technical off-road race track would bite back if a racer wasn’t running the preferred line while holding off the competition.

In the early stage of the Pro-Light race, Randy Eller and Mike Oberg were in front with a hard charging Marty Hart and Casey Currie in tow. Andrew Caddell seemed to be stuck in the rest of the traffic and was pushing his way to the front and got close until the rhythm section where the track bit back and he flipped his Traxxas # 43 truck. Thanks to ultra quick track crew, Caddell stayed on the lead lap and continued on for a 5th place finish. Further up the pack, TORC Series first timer, Todd Cunningham, was giving Currie all kinds of headaches as they changed positions countless times until the finish line. As Marty raced the # 15 “Hart-attack” machine to winners circle, Casey followed in 2nd and Todd in 3rd.

It was a repeat finish for the top 3 in the Saturday night races. At the start, Shawn Morris’s Pro-Light went barrel-rolling, then flipping end over end at the starting line jump. After the red flag was lifted and the racers took the green flag, Luke Johnson and Todd Cunningham led the pack into turn 3 when Marty & Casey split the track and raced around them. Once out front, Marty kept the reins until the checkers waved. Casey & Todd exchanged spots back & forth again. Towards the back, the 4 way fight between Chad Rayford, Andrew Caddell, Luke Johnson and Brad Lovell left a lot of rubber donuts on the body panels that were still hanging.

TORC Series Oshkosh WI

In the Pro-2 class, Ricky Johnson, Rob MacCachren and Jeremy McGrath put on a 3 way energy drink battle for the top 3 spots. Ricky held the lead from start to finish, even though The Flying Dutchman, Dan Vanden Heuvel and Rob put up a fight and left a ding in each others doors along the way. Dan’s truck started giving him a little grief and he fell back to fourth place. This opened a lane for McGrath and he raced after Rob Mac. The # 2 Showtime Toyota was pulling Rob on the outside straights and he put Rob back to 3rd for the last spot on the podium.

Round 6 found the same 3 racers beating the pack for the celebration in winners circle. Ricky grabbed the lead and The Mac wasn’t giving up any more ground over last round. As he caught Johnson’s Red Bull # 48 in the corners, the Kumho Tires on Rick’s truck hooked up and sped away on the oval section of the track. Then Rob would get close through corners & rhythm sections again and even stole the lead for a lap. Back in 3rd and 4th place, Chad Hord eventually lost the position to McGrath and held on for the 4th spot while Showtime couldn’t get past Rob this time and settled for 3rd. The race finished with a wild smash-fest on last 2 laps between Scott Taylor, Keith Steele and Mike Oberg, who ended up on his roof top. Rob still leads by 5 points over Ricky while Jeremy is only 1 point ahead of Hord. The # 21 Rockstar Energy Drink truck was also faster than the others to collect a 3rd Oakley Bomb Award.

The biggest draw for practice laps well before a race is, things could go wrong and not cost a team a race, as the Traxxas team found out on the parade laps right before their race. Mike was done before the race even started with driveline issues and Mark lasted a couple of laps before falling out of competition.
Once the AMSOIL–Kumho Tire # 7 Pro 4 of Scott Douglas took the lead, Johnny Greaves stayed on his bumper waiting for the right moment to pass. Even at the mandatory yellow flag, the # 22 Toyota punched the gas and was going for the lead, but Scott closed the door and Greaves thought better to not hit Douglas and spin him out. They finished 1 and 2 as Steve Barlow took 3rd.

TORC Series Oshkosh WI

The packed house on Saturday night got a great show during the final race of the weekend. Greaves was seeking revenge on Douglas and field for this round. At the drop of the green, the 2 by 2 rolling start was led by Mark Jenkins & Rick Huseman. The 2nd row was Greaves and Barlow. After couple of laps, Greaves made his move when Mark bobbled and opened the door. Then the # 22 Monster Toyota chased down teammate, Huseman, and after the pass was made, he checked out. Douglas was in pursuit when Rick spun his truck. Greaves started losing ground when the Kumho Tires on Scott’s truck gained more grip as the race continued. Somewhere though the infield, Scott & Johnny were side by side when, the Monster Toyota slowed down. Then Douglas slightly backed off while Huseman spun out again as he lost 4 wheel drive. Greaves had broken the left front suspension and Douglas had a right front tire going flat. Mike Jenkins said “see ya” and raced by everyone for the lead and to redeem Friday’s DNF. Steve Barlow added to the wild race by flipping his truck about 4-5 times on the back-stretch. The race was red flagged and after being up righted, he drove to the hot pits where his crew changed tires, tore off broken panels and he came back out for the rest of the race. Huseman caught Douglas again, but on the last turn to the checkered flag, spun again. Mike Jenkins took his # 47 Traxxas Pro-4 to winners circle for his 2nd career win followed by Douglas and Huseman. Barlow came back to fourth with Greaves limping in at 5th. Before his Monster Toyota broke, Greaves collected his 4th Oakley Bomb Award and still maintains a 12 point lead over Scott.

In the Sportsman races, Mike & Dan continued the war in Limited 2wd finishing one, two and Mike Baker in 3rd on Friday. Then on Saturday night, the # 299 of Mike Vanden Heuvel was chasing down Dan Baudoux and while racing side by side contact was made, but Dan seemed to see it another way and got back into Mikey. This took Dan out of the race and Mikey lasted 3 more laps before Rhonda Konitzer & Baker put on a show for the fans and duke it out for the win. Baker outlasted Konitzer for his 1st win of the season.

Eric Ruppel and Scott Beauchamp each collected a win as Mitch Dorr ran steady for 2nd both nights. Some of the best racing was Saturday night between the cousins of Scott & Dan Beauchamp. They leaned & banged into each other and not 1 panel was left un-touched. It was close racing, but Dan fell back after looping it in turn 4 and ended up 6th.

Bob Klaus grabbed his first victory on Friday night & Steve Krieman took his 2nd on Saturday. They grabbed 2nd place opposite nights as points leader, CJ Greaves had a little trouble navigating through all the traffic after being landed on from John Frana in turn four. He managed to return to the podium in 3rd place, but missed it on Saturday with his worse finish this season in 9th. Scott Schwalbe avoided traffic and took the final podium spot on Saturday.

1600 buggy class has new points leader after Mark Stienhardt fell to 4th place both nights. Brad Erickson held on for 2 podium finishes and a 10 point lead over Mark. Missing the last 2 events, Jeff Villemure returned at the top spot Friday night while John Fitzgerald added his 3rd win this season.

Matt Gerald, Matt Ashauer and Craig Paitl moved up in the 1600 Light Buggy points chase finishing 1, 2 and 3, respectively both nights. Points leader, Greg Stingle had a tough event ending in 7th & 5th.

Next up for the Traxxas TORC Series Presented by AMSOIL is a trip back to the Bark River Raceway in Upper Michigan on August 14th -15th.

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