JOLIET, Ill., (May 14, 2017) – An action-packed weekend of short course off-road racing wrapped up at The Dirt Oval at Route 66 Raceway on Sunday as the stars of TORC: The Off-Road Championship presented by AMSOIL, put the second round of the thirteen-round series in the books.
PRO 4
With Johnny Greaves checking out and dominating Sunday’s PRO 4 main event, one of the better battles of the weekend took place behind him as Keegan Kincaid, in only his second PRO 4 main, held off a feverous charge from two-time defending class champion CJ Greaves.
“My team works hard and it’s paid off,” said Kincaid. “We literally just started driving this thing, and it was a handful to hold on to. Props to John, and CJ right in there behind me. For how brutal this track was we had a pretty good weekend.”
Kincaid, in a brand new truck, would benefit by CJ Greaves suffering a flat tire right before the competition yellow, which put Greaves in the back of the field with eight laps remaining.
Johnny Greaves ran a flawless race. Started on the third row, took the lead on the second turn and ran it through to the checkers.
“Ah, man, ever since we started testing UTVs this winter, and they’re so similar to racing these PRO 4s, I think I actually got better, believe it or not. A lot smoother at least.” With a second and first in a brand-new truck, Johnny Greaves came away with the overall PRO 4 season point lead.
PRO 2
A slick check-up move by Luke Johnson on lap nine forced Brad Lovell to momentarily slow heading into his joker lap. The move proved to be just what Johnson needed to secure his first-ever PRO 2 victory. Johnson would distance himself from Lovell by five seconds heading to the checkers.
“Man, this is a dream come true,” said a teary-eyed Johnson. “We went through so much just to get here this weekend. Everybody donated their time to get me here. Had a rough offseason, so to be standing here … Woo!”
With Cody Conrad pulling the holeshot off the pole, a yellow flag and restart allowed Johnson to jump to the lead, with Lovell in third behind Conrad. On the next lap, Conrad would put his truck up on its side, leading to another full course yellow. Mitch Dorr would soon move up to third – and that’s how the podium would shape up at race’s end.
Added Lovell: “We were working hard and challenged for the lead early, but Luke was running real well today.”
PRO Light
Kyle Kleiman parlayed a pole position into a holeshot and ultimately, a wire-to-wire win in Sunday’s PRO Light race. It was a near textbook dash for Kleiman—overcoming a rough first round on Saturday, to earn his first win of the season.
“Yesterday we rolled over and I lost my brakes at the end. So to come out here today and lead the entire race was pretty cool,” said Kleiman.
With Kleiman out front, AMSOIL Snocross Series snowmobile racer Andrew Carlson quickly latched onto second place, a position he would also hold through the checkers, while fighting off the defending PRO Light champ Kyle Hart who finished in third.
“We had a less-than-ideal race yesterday. I put ‘er on its side,” said Carlson. “Got some redemption today. Real solid race for us.”
Saturday’s PRO Light race winner Casey Currie got caught up at the start, but battled back one of the day’s better races, topping Cam Reimers in a great battle for fourth.
PRO MOD UTV
Multi-time ATV national champion Tim Farr led a Can-Am charge to the top of Sunday’s PRO MOD podium.
“I knew I was fast yesterday, but we ran into some heating problems,” said Farr. “Fixed some stuff and came out today to show everyone just how fast this Can-Am is.”
Joining Farr on the podium was fellow Can-Am driver Kyle Chaney. On Saturday Chaney finished just 4/100ths of a second behind Rodney Van Eperen (Yamaha). And a late-race charge and subsequent second place finish would have him tied with Farr in the overall TORC PRO Mod UTV standings with 46 points.
“I’d set up my tires for the second half of the race,” said Chaney. “I got passed by a Yamaha (Van Eperen) there early, but I was able to get back in the second half. Good to have Can-Am 1 to 2 on the podium today.”
Third place would go to first-time TORC podium finisher Drew Schultz, scoring Polaris’ first UTV Mod podium finish of the season. Saturday’s UTV PRO Mod winner Van Eperen was dogged by mechanical gremlins (throttle) and DNF’d on Sunday after running in second place for half of the race.
PRO Stock UTV
CJ Greaves made it two PRO Stock UTV wins in a row this weekend at The Dirt Oval, running unchallenged to the checkers in Sunday’s main.
“We put a lot of testing into these Yamahas. And not just on the track, but in the woods as well,” said Greaves. “We worked hard on the setup and got a little better each time out this weekend. It’s all about momentum and how you can get these things to stick to the track.”
With Greaves well out front, the focus shifted to the second-place battle between Kenny Masch and Dillon Pointon. Masch held second for much of the contest, until Pointon snuck past him on lap ten. The two raced close up to the final lap, when Masch out-braked Pointon while coming down the back straight and into the infield left-hander. A clean block pass ensued and Masch hammered it to his second 2nd place UTV PRO Stock finish of the weekend. Pointon held on for third.
“I spent too much time watching CJ inch away from us,” said Masch. “And while I was focused on him I should have kept an eye on the guys around me.”
Next up for TORC: The Off-Road Championship presented by AMSOIL is the “Twin Cities Takedown,” June 10-11, at ERX Motor Park in Elk River, Minn. Tickets are available at www.torcseries.com.
