CJ Greaves is now one win away from hitting 200 career victories in short course. It’d be a headline story if he didn’t achieve that goal this season, especially since he came so close to pulling it off at the Dirt City Off-Road National.
Greaves swept the weekend in Pro 4 and won the Saturday event in Pro SxS. However, Jeb Bootle led the Sunday race from start to finish, holding Greaves off the entire way. Thus, he’ll be stuck at 199 wins for now.
While he’ll have to wait until Bark River for his next shot at history, Greaves still achieved another milestone. With his Pro 4 sweep, he now has 73 career wins in the category to surpass Carl Renezeder’s 72.
Dirt City was a family affair of a different variety for Greaves too. He normally races Pro 4 alongside his father Johnny but the latter was sidelined by a broken sternum at ERX, so CJ’s cousin and Pro 2 regular Kyle took over the #22 for the weekend. Ironically, Kyle fared better in the four-wheel-drive trucks than his usual category: he was fourth and second in the two Pro 2 events, while enjoying a double podium finish in Pro 4 with a third on Saturday and a second behind CJ on Sunday.
“I wanted to drive like [Johnny], but I think I drove too much like him,” Kyle quipped on Sunday. “I had to back her down a little bit and get towards the KGB style: just be patient, let it come to us, and it just came to us. People started rolling over and handing it down. Made a rookie mistake down in the hole and stubbed it, but able to come back with a second. That’s pretty, pretty cool.
“It’s a really tough track to learn Pro 4 on, but I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to do the job for them and I can’t thank them enough. I’m trying my best to to keep it up here. I’m trying to give CJ a run for his money someday.”
Interestingly, the Pro 4 podium in both races featured the same drivers as Adrian Cenni stood alongside the Greaves.
Late drama seemed to be the flavor of the weekend. In a tale of opposites, Jimmy Henderson crashed into the fence and lost second in Saturday Pro 4, while Connor Barry rolled his truck with three laps left in Sunday’s Pro Lite action but landed back on his wheels and still won.
Chris Van Den Elzen and Wyatt Miller had a dramatic battle for the Pro SPEC Race 2 victory that went down to the final four laps. Despite hitting the wall with two laps left, Van Den Elzen rallied to catch up and pass him, nearly flipping in the process. While the same mistake had cost him the lead to Miller earlier, he was able to recover and beat him to the finish.
At the end of the Saturday card, the Stock Truck and Super Stock Truck classes participated in the inaugural Stock Truck vs. Super Stock Truck Shootout, in essence a Sportsman version of Pro 2 vs. Pro 4 races. As their names suggest, Super Stock Trucks are bigger production trucks with fewer restrictions than their ST counterparts.
ST driver Brian Peot led early before the SST of pole-sitter Nick Byng took the lead and led the rest of the way.
“When I pulled that pill (to set starting position), that piece of paper, everyone else wasn’t happy. I was the only one smiling on that one. Luck of the draw, we got lucky. We needed a little luck there,” Byng remarked.
“This is awesome. This is what I needed.”
Pro
| Class | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Pro 4 | CJ Greaves | CJ Greaves |
| Pro 2 | Keegan Kincaid | Ryan Beat |
| Pro Lite | John Holtger | Connor Barry |
| Pro SPEC | Nick Visser | Chris Van Den Elzen |
| Pro Buggy | Billy Buth | Chaden Minder |
| Pro SxS | CJ Greaves | Jeb Bootle |
| Pro Stock SxS | Owen VanEperen | Owen VanEperen |
Sportsman
| Class | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Pro Am SxS | Lucas Houle | Trent Peetz |
| Pro Am Turbo SxS | Blake Enloe | Rick Schroeder |
| Super Stock Truck | Cory Holtger | Nick Visser |
| Stock Truck | Colt Wierzba | Colt Wierzba |
| Sportsman SxS | Code St. Peter | Bryce Carlson |
| 1600 Single Buggy | Tyler Roloff | Connor Schulz |
| 1600 Light Buggy | Connor Schulz | Connor Schulz |
| Mod Kart | Lincoln Mandsager | Lincoln Mandsager |
| Short Course Kart | Roman Tullberg | Roman Tullberg |
| Youth SxS | Logan Fritzinger | Logan Fritzinger |
| 570 SxS | Kody Krantz | Raymond Deininger |
| 200 SxS | Grayson Forseth | Finnly Pence |
| 170 SxS | Jersey Kleikamp | Jersey Kleikamp |
Stock Truck vs. Super Stock Truck Shootout
| Finish | Number | Driver | Class | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 833 | Nick Byng | Super Stock Truck | 10 |
| 2 | 877 | Ron Kosciesza | Super Stock Truck | 10 |
| 3 | 519 | Brian Peot | Stock Truck | 10 |
| 4 | 512 | Dustin Rogaczewski | Stock Truck | 10 |
| 5 | 517 | Colt Wierzba | Stock Truck | 10 |
| 6 | 520 | TJ Ewert | Stock Truck | 10 |
| 7 | 801 | Jeff Bloome Jr. | Super Stock Truck | 10 |
| 8 | 542 | Kyle Jenshak | Stock Truck | 10 |
| 9 | 829 | Charles Buffum | Super Stock Truck | 10 |
| 10 | 838 | Reilly Brigham | Super Stock Truck | 9 |
| 11 | 533 | Robbie Deede | Stock Truck | 9 |
| 12 | 823 | Brad Barglind | Super Stock Truck | 7 |
| 13 | 513 | Malakai Yakel | Stock Truck | 6 |
| 14 | 562 | Tyler Hoffman | Stock Truck | 4 |
| 15 | 815 | Cody Wood | Super Stock Truck | 2 |
Featured image credit: FloRacing
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