“Mad” Mike Whiddett arrived in Crandon eager to see how he’d fare in the world’s biggest short course race weekend. Of course, that required him being able to see to begin with.

Saturday’s Pro 2 race marked the drift star’s competition debut in Championship Off-Road and by extension his first time racing in the discipline. After qualifying 13th, he stayed in that position for the first half as he battled with Travis Milhausen Jr. and Patrick Denis.

However, contact eventually shredded his truck’s nose and caused the hood to pop up, almost totally obscuring his vision. Unable to see out the window, Whiddett had to rely on what tiny specks he could see as well as his spotter to get around. His team knocked the hood back down on the competition caution, remaining 13th.

Despite being the last truck running, he got back to work on the restart and gradually moved into the top ten. Whiddett spent the second half chasing down fellow guest driver Brian Deegan for ninth before falling off the pace again. As Keegan Kincaid scored the win, Whiddett settled for 13th. Deegan finished eighth in his return to Crandon.

For Kincaid, the win was both a massive boon in the Pro 2 points battle as he extended his lead over Ryan Beat and an emotional triumph. He wrecked his truck at Bark River to the point where he had to borrow Bradley Morris’ for Race 2. In the three weeks between Bark River and Crandon, he and his team worked overtime to get it back in shape.

“I think it means everything. I’m emotional up here because my dad, my crew, we crashed and they went above and beyond,” said Kincaid. “Bradley Morris allowed me to drive his truck at Bark River and still keep in the championship hunt. The generosity is unthankful. My dad dedicates his life to this and puts the time in.

“We worked 16-hour days to get here after Bark River, and I knew I wasn’t missing this because Crandon is awesome and the fans are the best in the world. All my family, my wife, my kids, my mom, it takes a team effort. We got a really good team behind us. I can’t thank my sponsors enough that have stuck by me in the hard times. We have unfinished business.”

While the Pro 2 points leader has new life, the Pro 4 one had a tough going. CJ Greaves is in good shape to clinch the Pro 4 crown, but Saturday didn’t help him one bit.

Greaves led his dad Johnny for much of the race until the competition caution, when Cole Mamer squeezed past the latter for second while Adrian Cenni ended up on his roof. The younger Greaves suffered the same fate on the restart when his truck dug into the dirt on the hairpin, rolling him twice and onto his side; to add insult to injury, he did the same at the start of the Pro SxS race.

Johnny tried to salvage the effort for the family but Jimmy Henderson passed him a lap later to win. With Henderson sitting second in points behind CJ, his title hopes are once again alive.

“We broke the diff in qualifying but knew we had a great truck,” Henderson commented. “We came out the holeshot in fifth and we were behind Kyle Chaney, he was pretty quick and I picked out a few places where I could pass him and I wanted to do it super clean. I didn’t take any chances, I let the track dry out as it was real wet. Once we got the grip and there were multiple lines on the track, we started picking people off.

“Just felt good. It was a long time coming. Here at the Big House, we had a lot of failures and stuff like that over the years so it feels great to win here at Fall Crandon.”

In Pro SPEC, Wyatt Miller dominated from start to finish to take the points lead from Chris Van Den Elzen who finished fourth.

Owen VanEperen double dipped with victories in Pro SxS and Pro Stock SxS. He capitalized on Greaves’ crash to win the latter and build his points lead over the reigning champ. In Pro SxS, VanEperen beat Jeb Bootle for both the win and to maintain his lead in the standings.

John Holtger and Chaden Minder respectively won Pro Lite and Pro Buggy to build some defenses around their thrones.

Class winners

Class	Winner
Pro 4	Jimmy Henderson
Pro 2	Keegan Kincaid
Pro Lite	John Holtger
Pro SPEC	Wyatt Miller
Pro Buggy	Chaden Minder
Pro SxS	Owen VanEperen
Pro Stock SxS	Owen VanEperen

Featured image credit: Jason Zindroski / Red Bull Content Pool