Championship Off-Road Dirt City Motorplex Off-Road National: Race Preview
After becoming the first major short course off-road racing series to kick off its 2020 season two weekends ago at ERX Motor Park, Championship Off-Road gets back after it this weekend at Dirt City Motorplex in Lena, Wisconsin for the first annual Dirt City Motorplex Off-Road National. After a stellar response to its previous events for regional and sportsman-level classes in the midwest, the newest facility on the series schedule prepares to host Pro trucks for the first time this Saturday and Sunday.
The ERX opener proved that although the midwest may be home for Johnny and CJ Greaves, Andrew Carlson, and Kyle Chaney in the Pro 4 class, Kyle LeDuc means business this year. After jumping ship from the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series and essentially leading to a unified national Pro 4 class in the process, LeDuc smoked the field in Minnesota with a perfect weekend on a track he’d never raced before. Don’t be surprised if the locals don’t take too kindly to that and come back swinging in Dirt City.
Keegan Kincaid and Kyle Kleiman renewed their on-track pleasantries in the Pro 2 class at ERX, splitting the two race wins after finishing first and second in last year’s championship, and will be the ones to watch yet again this weekend to see if either can gain a true advantage. In Pro Lite, on the other hand, Kyle Greaves already has that, thanks to back-to-back victories in his first event after moving up from UTV competition.
Speaking of UTVs, CJ Greaves opened his quest for three different championships with a Pro Mod SXS sweep and a win and third place in Pro Stock, but he’s got two major hurdles in his way this weekend. The first is a deep driver pool that includes defending Pro Mod champion Chaney, 2019 Pro Stock champion Rodney VanEperen, fellow ERX Pro Stock winner Robert Loire, and numerous others; the second is that most of the front-runners already raced at Dirt City this year with the SXS Sports King of the Elements Series, a championship where Greaves himself serves as race director rather than a competitor. Can that combination of talent additional track time this summer dethrone him as top dog?
In total, 16 different classes opened the season at ERX, but sweeps were hard to come by outside of the Pro classes. Outside of LeDuc in Pro 4, Kyle Greaves in Pro Lite, and CJ Greaves in Pro Mod SXS, only Danny Beauchamp (Formula 4x4) and Sam Marquardt (Mod Kart) were able to take two checkered flags in the opener. On the other hand, seven different drivers were able to accomplish the feat across regional action at Dirt City last year, and six of them went on to win their respective class championships.
Live streaming of the Dirt City Motorplex Off-Road National, the second event in the inaugural Championship Off-Road season, kicks off on Saturday and Sunday at 10AM ET/7AM PT at champoffroad.com/livestream. After the cancellation of August’s planned 45th Annual Rumble in the U.P. at Bark River International Raceway, the series will have to wait until Labor Day to get back into action, with the iconic World Championship Off-Road Races at Crandon International Raceway.
Images via Championship Off-Road