CORR Off Road

The weekend started innocuously enough on Saturday, when Greaves and his No. 4 Monster Energy/Forest County Potawatomi Toyota Tundra took the Pro 2 green flag from seventh on the grid. He wouldn't be there long, though, as he went for a spin on Lap 2. But the Wisconsinite immediately set about clawing his way back up the order, though a fierce battle with Evan Evans and his Chevy slowed his progress somewhat. Then former motocross king Jeremy McGrath's truck expired in fiery fashion, bringing out a red flag, with Greaves running 12th.

When racing resumed Greaves eventually clawed his way back up to eighth, which became seventh when arch-rival Carl Renezeder looped his truck. Thus, Greaves finished the Pro 2 contest where he started.

"Besides my spin, I think we had a pretty good Pro 2 race," he said. "We came from dead last and got up to second. We're getting it figured out; I just need to relax a little more in the beginning."

If Greaves found himself needing to move a proverbial mountain early in the Pro 2 race, TRD teammate and fellow Badger State native Jeff Kincaid had a continent-sized task ahead of him in Pro Lite, considering he was starting shotgun on the field after encountering mechanical woes in qualifying.

Things didn't get any easier for the driver of the No. 4 TRAXXAS/Forest County Potawatomi Toyota Tacoma when he was boxed in by a multi-truck wreck at the end of Lap 1. The five-time class champion didn't throw in the towel, though, and had worked his way up to 20th on Lap 6, and was all the way up to 13th when the competition caution came out at halfway. When the action resumed, he gained even more spots, including threading the needle through another multi-truck pile-up on the penultimate lap.

When the checkers fell, Kincaid had managed to work his way up to seventh. "

At midpoint I was 20th," he recalled, "and I kind of thought to myself, 'Twentieth? It seems like I've passed more trucks than that.' But we just went back to work, picked them off and got up to seventh."

Greaves and Rick Huseman started the Pro 4 race from fifth and seventh, respectively, but Greaves blitzed his way up to third by the end of the opening lap. Huseman, meanwhile, continued the theme of the day by dropping down the order following a spin brought on by contact with Curt LeDuc on Lap 5.

But Greaves, driving a Tundra wearing the same number and livery as its Pro 2 cousin, was clearly a man on a mission, powering past Ford driver Kyle LeDuc for the lead shortly before the competition caution. After the restart, though, LeDuc got the better of Greaves, who was punted into a spin soon after.

The worst was yet to come: A broken driveshaft left Greaves attempting to limp home fourth with only two-wheel drive, but a last lap collision with a backmarker while negotiating the jump entering Turn 1 launched Greaves into a frightening series of barrel rolls, the truck bouncing off the bare asphalt before coming to a rest on its wheels. Greaves eventually hoisted himself out of the cockpit, whereupon he was taken to the local hospital and stayed there for a few hours.

"I don't blame anybody," he said. "It's just one of those things. It is what it is."

Huseman, meanwhile brought his No. 3 Fabtech/Toyo Tires Tundra home in a hard fought second spot.

"My race went all right," he said. "I tried to get on the inside of Curt and I got into him a little bit and it spun me out, so I had to work my way back up and ended up salvaging second. So it turned out to be a good day."

Sunday found Greaves at the track, but not in the cockpits of his trucks, not for more than one green flag lap, anyway. Greaves took the green flag for the Pro 2 race from last place, but at the end of the first lap, he pulled into the pits, got out, and friend and fellow racer Dan Vanden Heuvel Sr. got in.

This way, Greaves would still receive points toward the driver's championship. Unfortunately, the driver change took longer than expected, so the truck lost 3 laps and took the checkers in 20th spot. But "The Flying Dutchman" had plenty of fun sampling all of that TRD horsepower.

"The powerband is way different," Vanden Heuvel said. "Driving that Toyota is sweet! That thing gets up and goes. It's really a pleasure to drive."

The Pro 4 race was more of the same for Greaves and Vanden Heuvel, but this time it was with a borrowed truck. Additionally, the driver change was much quicker this time around and the pair's combined efforts netted a 10th-place finish.

Greaves was just happy Vanden Heuvel was able to help out.

"He did a great job," Greaves said. "For where he had to start he did great. He kept us in there; we didn't lose any positions in the Pro 4 points; we're still fourth. I'm glad we did what we did today; I was ready to sit the whole deal out, because I wasn't feeling too good this morning."

Huseman, on the other hand, had a considerably more exciting race. He took the lead on the second lap after starting third, and proceeded to run away from the field before the competition caution. When racing resumed, though, Renezeder managed to squeeze past the Californian, only to be punted into a spin when Huseman was unable to slow for Turn 5 because his back wheels were still airborne. Despite the lack of intention on his part, Huseman received the black flag, but rallied back to finish seventh. Huseman was appealing the penalty as this was written.

Finally, Pro Lite had Kincaid starting from third, and looking very racy in the early laps. But something caused the engine to start to miss, and the drivers behind him, not knowing of his Tacoma's condition, often made contact as they passed, eventually puncturing the right rear tire. Kincaid pulled into the hot pits for a tire change but, when he tried to restart the engine, it refused, and Kincaid was out.

"It was running good for the first couple laps, then I think I broke a battery cable and it started running off the alternator," he said.

Saturday

Pro 2
7. Johnny Greaves, No. 4 Toyota

Pro 4
2. Rick Huseman, No. 3 Toyota
9. Johnny Greaves, No. 4 Toyota

Pro Lite
7. Jeff Kincaid, No. 4 Toyota

Sunday

Pro 2
20. Johnny Greaves*, No. 4 Toyota

Pro 4
7. Rick Huseman, No. 3 Toyota
10. Johnny Greaves*, No. 4 Toyota

Pro Lite
20. Jeff Kincaid, No. 4 Toyota

*with relief driver Dan Vanden Heuvel Sr.