Championship Off-Road is gearing up for its third season of competition, which begins on Saturday, 4 June at Antigo Lions Roaring Raceway, as the premier level of short course off-road racing in the Midwestern United States. As with any new motorsport season, many drivers return, depart, or move up to different classes, but the series itself has also introduced various changes.
Not one of such modifications happened to the schedule, which visits the same five circuits in the same order as 2021: Antigo on 4/5 June, Crandon International Raceway on 25/26 June for the Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run, ERX Motor Park‘s Off-Road National on 15/16 July, the Dirt Cirt Motorplex Off-Road National on 30/31 July, the Island Resort and Casino Off-Road Rumble at Bark River International Raceway on 13/14 August, and the season-opening Crandon World Championship Off-Road Races on 2/3 September.
If anything, the tracks themselves are the ones undergoing change as Crandon is in its first season with track president Cliff Flannery doubling as owner. ERX’s round will be a crucial one for its future amid local debate about noise disrupting the neighbourhood, and an independent noise study is expected to be conducted during the Champs weekend.
Even before racing truly begins, the season kicks off with a new twist as Friday night will see the debut of a tournament called the Yokohama Duel of Champions driven by Vision Wheel. Sixteen Pro 2 drivers are organised into head-to-head battles of three laps each, with the winner advancing to the next round; the overall winner gets $10,000. Fans attending the race are also eligible for rewards as those who predict the overall victor will be entered into a sweepstakes for a set of Yokohama tyres and Vision Wheels, while anyone whose bracket is perfect wins $3,000. The knockout format is commonly seen in disciplines like drifting while Formula E, Nitro Rallycross, and even the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race have used it to determine starting lineups.
On the Silly Season side, Pro 2 driver Ryan Beat is in for a busy season as Ryan Beat Motorsports will field five entries. Besides the #51 for himself and the returning Pro Lite trucks of Carson Parrish and Mason Prater, the team adds Brody Eggleston (Pro Lite) and Gray Leadbetter (Pro Spec). Eggleston finished fifth in the 2021 Great American Shortcourse Pro Lite standings while Leadbetter is enjoying a burgeoning career that saw her become the youngest driver and first woman to win in COR’s Sportsman SxS class (fifteen years old at Crandon).
Like Eggleston, some drivers will cross over from GAS (the West Coast counterpart to COR) such as GAS Pro 2 champion Dave Mason Jr. and Pro Buggy champ Trey Gibbs, the latter of whom moves up to Pro Lite. Connor Barry, who won the 2021 Mod Kart title while also dabbling in Pro Lite, commits to the latter in COR. The husband/wife duo of Jason and Corry Weller will also run the full COR schedule in Pro Turbo SXS after respectively placing 1–2 in GAS SR1 UTV.
As the Pro Lite field grows, not returning is 2021 Crandon class World Champion Cole Mamer who graduates to Pro 4 full-time. He is the first driver since Kyle LeDuc, who placed runner-up to C.J. Greaves in the class last year, to make such a switch rather than the usual Pro Lite to Pro 2. Conversely, Doug Mittag moves from Pro 4 to Pro 2.
Greaves, Colin Schulz (1600 Light Buggy), Dylan Parsons (1600 Single Buggy), Kody Krantz (170 SxS), Keegan Kincaid (Pro 2), Brock Heger (Pro Lite and Pro Stock SxS), Rodney Vaneperen (Pro Turbo SxS), Diesel Shanak (Stock Truck), Michael Meister (Super Buggy), and Joe Maciosek (Super Stock Truck) all return to defend their respective class titles. Conversely, 2021 champs not on the provisional 2022 entry list include Chase Braun (570 SxS), Easton Sleaper (Mod Kart), Dylan Marquardt (Pro Am SxS), Ava Lawrence (Short Course Kart), Colin Kernz (Sportsman SxS). Sleaper moves from Mod Kart to Pro Spec, while Marquardt and Kernz respectively graduate to Pro Stock SxS and Pro Am SxS.
Races are livestreamed on FloRacing and televised on delay by CBS Sports Network.
