Ken Roczen probably would’ve liked for his maiden short course race to go a little cleaner than it did Friday night, but finishing seventh after everything that happened was certainly not the worst outcome.

The supercross star returned to Glen Helen Raceway, a track where he’s enjoyed success in the past on two wheels, for his Championship Off-Road debut. However, his first day started on an inauspicious note when the transponder on his Pro 2 malfunctioned, forcing him to start last for the race later that night.

“Every time you go out there, it always takes a couple of laps to really find yourself and get into a flow,” Roczen said after qualifying. “Overall, I’m more comfortable in the truck, but that doesn’t mean it’s not nerve-wracking going into racing, but I’m ready for it.”

The Pro 2 race was chaotic from the start. Points leader Keegan Kincaid was spun out early on and had to claw his way back while Roczen mostly ran just outside the top ten. Things quickly escalated on the restart at halfway when Bradley Morris spun in front of a pack, collecting multiple trucks including John Holtger and Dave Mason Jr. while Jacob Rosales’ truck caught fire soon after. Mason’s DNF, while obviously disappointing, didn’t take away from him winning Pro Buggy earlier in the evening in his return after skipping Crandon for a family emergency.

Roczen was also beaten around in the process. Still, squeezing by the initial carnage was enough to get him a seventh-place finish. Kincaid also benefited from the chaos as he survived for a sixth to keep his hold on the points lead over runner-up Ryan Beat.

Beat settled for second after battling Ricky Gutierrez. With the weekend marking COR’s first time racing on the West Coast, Gutierrez—who hails from Garden Grove—was keen on defending his territory and was more than thrilled to succeed.

“We’re back on the home turf. I got my family, I got my homies out here, we’re representing Cali,” proclaimed Gutierrez. “This track is insane. We got whoops, we got sand, we got high-banked corners, just super competitive. Ryan was on my butt the whole time.”

While Gutierrez is already a regular in the Midwest-based series, the new stop was understandably a time for some West Coasters to show up as well. This was especially the case for the support races since the Sportsman classes had already concluded their season at Crandon. The joint race between 170 and 200 SxS was the only usual Sportsman category present, albeit with just four drivers.

Travis Jones and Darren Sefton, who’ve raced in regional divisions like the now defunct Great American Shortcourse and Glen Helen’s GBC Bonfire Series, squared off in a duel between Class 1/2-1600 and Class 9. Jones won the Friday race after Sefton spun out.

From Orange, Max Gordon entered his first Championship Off-Road race in Pro SxS. His SPEED UTV proved to be fast and he kept pace with Kolton Krajicek until he bicycled his car and nearly hit the wall. Gordon fell to fifth as a result, while Krajicek scored his first career win in the class.

“This track is basically like my backyard,” Krajicek commented. “I got a track just like this at home and I used to come from the motocross world. It makes it feel so good to be able to go out hit the rhythm sections and know exactly what your car’s going to do.”

Pro 4 was highlighted by a strategy call on CJ Greaves’ part. Entering Glen Helen with the points lead over Jimmy Henderson, Greaves opted to start last and further away from the rest of the field so that any possible chaos would unfold in front of him. While the conservative approach didn’t secure him the win, it proved to be the right move as he patiently worked through the order, taking advantage of DNFs like the flipping Robert Stout.

Crandon World Cup winner RJ Anderson had a massive rollover in qualifying but got the truck repaired in time for the race. Following the restart, Anderson turned Mickey Thomas and moved him aside. Adrian Cenni tried to capitalize and took second, leading to a battle between him and Anderson until he spun.

Henderson pulled away during their duel to win with Anderson and Greaves right behind.

“We had one goal when we came out here and it was to win the championship. Today, it was unfortunately not a great show out of us, but we knew we just needed to stay out of trouble and drive around and score good points and [Jimmy] won’t have a shot at it,” Greaves explained.

“We need 57 points to lock it up and we ended up with 56 today.”

In Pro SPEC, Dylan Parsons led the first half before before contact with Nick Visser spun him off course. Visser eventually bicycled into the wall, setting up a battle with championship implications between Chris Van Den Elzen and Wyatt Miller. Miller got by Van Den Elzen to secure the win.

Pro Lite’s Friday action was a duel between Connor Barry and Brody Eggleston that ended when the latter clipped the K-rail on the final lap, sending him into a rollover.

“It wasn’t safe at all,” Barry quipped. “I was just going as fast as I could and I got into first and won.”

Owen VanEperen clinched the Pro Stock SxS title after Crandon, but came to Glen Helen anyway to add to his trophy case which he succeeded.

Class 11 was also at Crandon as one of the support races. Former NASCAR and dirt track racer Cole Whitt, who won the Crandon World Championship, continued his Beetle win streak by beating Blake Wilkey. 2023 Pro SPEC champion Chad Rayford joined them on the podium in his Class 11 debut.

Whitt joked that winning Glen Helen was the “pinnacle of my career”.

Pro

Class	Winner
Pro 4	Jimmy Henderson
Pro 2	Keegan Kincaid
Pro Lite	Connor Barry
Pro SPEC	Wyatt Miller
Pro Buggy	Dave Mason Jr.
Pro SxS	Kolton Krajicek
Pro Stock SxS	Owen VanEperen

Other

Class	Winner
Class 1/2-1600 / Class 9	Travis Jones
Class 11	Cole Whitt
170 / 200 SxS	Stetson Wyman

Featured image credit: Swapmoto Live