JOLIET, Illinois – The Chicagoland Slam lived up to its name Saturday night at Round 4 of TORC: The Off-Road Championship presented by AMSOIL as racers gave it their all on the Dirt Oval at Route 66 Raceway.
The marquee PRO 4WD class saw some of the roughest racing of the night, with multiple drivers catching ruts and rolling over. It was Scott Douglas and his AMSOIL PRO 4WD that ultimately emerged unscathed, taking a first win of season. Keegan Kincaid came out on top in PRO 2WD, while Kyle Hart earned the victory in Atturo Tire PRO Light.
PRO 4WD
Scott Douglas took a last-man-standing win on Saturday, ahead of CJ Greaves and Johnny Greaves, taking control of the race as early leaders Chad Hord and Johnny Greaves each crashed in the final laps. Close racing on a heavily rutted track sent one driver after another onto two wheels. “I biked it myself,” said Douglas, after emerging victorious from the dust. “It was just a treacherous track.”
Keegan Kincaid took the holeshot and early lead, then held strong until the mid-point in the race — when the excitement truly began. Kincaid was the first driver to find himself on two wheels, rolling his truck onto its side on the ninth lap and dropping to the back of the pack during the caution.
That left Hord out in front and Johnny Greaves in hot pursuit. With three laps to go and under pressure from a hard-charging Greaves, Hord caught a rut and bicycled. Greaves followed suit, but couldn’t save it and wound up on his roof.
That left Hord looking good for the win — until a catastrophe of his own on the final lap, when he found himself in the wall and Douglas inherited the lead. A frustrated CJ Greaves crossed the line in second with some harsh words for the veteran racer after a clash on track: “I’m young, I remember: some people got one coming,” Greaves said. “I checked up a bunch: he over-rotated, I checked up and stayed out of him… I don’t get that respect back.”
CJ Greaves, the defending 2015 PRO 4WD and PRO 2WD champ, hasn’t been able to top a podium in PRO 4WD yet this year, and said he’s heading back to the drawing board with his team to get his truck sorted out before Rounds 5 and 6 at the Big House Brawl in Crandon, Wisconsin, June 25 and 26. “We’re definitely going to go work on setup, get it where it needs to be, get it back to where it was last year,” he said.
Rounding out the podium to stand beside his son was Johnny Greaves, who made an astonishing recovery to regain a Top 3 finish even after rolling over earlier in the race. He now has a strong overall PRO 4WD points lead ahead of Douglas and Hord after Round 4 of 13 in the 2016 TORC Series.
PRO 4WD Results:
1. #7 Scott Douglas
2. #33 CJ Greaves
3. #22 Johnny Greaves
4. #10 Ross Hoek
5. #8 Kent Brascho
6. #9 Chad Hord
7. #69 Milan Mazanec
8. #47 Keegan Kincaid
PRO 2WD
Keegan Kincaid and CJ Greaves, who both raced two classes Saturday night, fought door-to-door to the finish in an exciting PRO 2WD contest.
After clawing through the pack and into second place mid-race, Kincaid made a dramatic pass on Greaves with seven laps to go. And in what Greaves later called the “Battle of the Flats,” the two drivers fought for position through the remaining laps — Greaves with a right-rear flat tire, and Kincaid with a left-rear flat tire.
“We were burning the tires off of these things, him and I,” said Greaves. “I loved racing clean with him and being able to go door-to-door and inside-and-out and just really throwing a good battle.”
Brad Lovell held on for third. Fifth at the mid-race caution, he slid into podium position as Nick Tyree and Rodney van Eperen faltered. “We’ve got to find a little bit more speed to get up here and battle with these guys but, boy, it feels good to be up here on the podium,” said Lovell.
Kincaid has now finished first or second in each of the four championship rounds so far in the 2016 PRO 2WD championship season, with two wins and two second place finishes, and extends his championship lead. Though he also competed in the PRO 4WD class this weekend, he has said winning the PRO 2WD championship is his top priority for the season.
PRO 2WD Results:
1. #7 Keegan Kincaid
2. #33 CJ Greaves
3. #44 Brad Lovell
4. #91 Nick Tyree
5. #45 Rodney Van Eperen
6. #25 Arie Luyendyk, Jr.
Atturo Tire PRO Light
Kyle Hart took his third Atturo Tire PRO Light win of the season on Saturday, making an early move to chase down Bobby Runyan, Jr. and Shawn Morris on Lap 2 of 16, then checking out after Runyan rolled his truck on the third lap. The win extends his overall points lead in the series to 24 points, ahead of second-place Morris.
“We put in a bunch of hours over the off-season testing… just getting me up to speed,” said Hart. “We did our homework and it’s showing.”
Shawn Morris and Kyle Kleiman battled behind him for the remaining podium spots and in the end it was Morris who claimed second. In an emotional interview after the race, he held back tears as he thanked his crew: “We proved we don’t just have to come from the rear to chase these guys down, we’re right there.”
Kleiman, a driver with a background in UTV racing who won Friday night’s Atturo Tire PRO Light round, said he felt comfortable on the technical track. “I like technical,” he said. “You’ve just got to make it work on the small stuff.”
Atturo Tire PRO Light Results:
1. #41 Kyle Hart
2. #27 Shawn Morris
3. #42 Kyle Kleiman
4. #14 Luke Johnson
5. #29 Chad Rayford
6. #21 Cam Reimers
7. #91 Ben Roper
8. #9 Bobby Runyan, Jr.
9. #55 Jake Lunderby
10. #43 Travis Dinsmore
11. #48 Cody Kleiman
12. #95 Andrew Kossak
13. #151 Andrew Carlson
All results are made available for information only pending official post-race procedures.
The TORC short-course off-road truck racing series next makes its way to the legendary Crandon International Off-Road Raceway in Crandon, Wisconsin, for the Big House Brawl, June 25-26, the third doubleheader stop on the TORC Series calendar. Rounds 5 and 6 of the 13-round series will feature championship action in PRO 4WD, PRO 2WD and Atturo Tire PRO Light, supported by competition from the Sportsman classes. All drivers will race for points both Saturday and Sunday, making for two action-packed days.