ANTIGO, Wis. — C.J. Greaves built a new Pro 4 in the off-season and debuted it in Lena. Jimmy Henderson built a new truck in the off-season and debuted it this weekend in Antigo.
For Greaves, he fought through the first race gremlins three weeks ago. Henderson had to do the same on Saturday, but it was a flat tire that would take him out of the lead and benefit Greaves.
Henderson nailed the start and stretched past Adrian Cenni for the race lead. But a few laps later, Henderson pulled into the hot pit with a flat rear. That momentarily put Cenni into the race lead, but Greaves found an opening and slid past for the lead. He had the truck dialed in for Antigo and drove to his first win and podium.
“We had our hands full at Lena trying to get the bugs sorted out,” said Greaves. “We got them sorted out and the truck was lights out good.”
After the restart, Cenni spun, allowing Johnny Greaves to move into second. He and Kyle Chaney would battle it out for the runner-up spot. A pause by Greaves would collect Chaney, who could not refire in time, and recatch Greaves. It also opened the door for Kainan Baker to slot into third as he picked up his first Pro 4 podium.
There wasn’t much track prep prior to Saturday’s Pro 2 race, but the old-school roughness kept the contest exciting.
Ricky Gutierrez showed the way around the Antigo track for the first seven laps and had a four-second lead on Mickey Thomas. But traction seemed to elude Gutierrez, and Thomas found the right lines and powered into the race lead. Gutierrez shortly pulled off the track, leaving Thomas unchallenged for his second win of the season.
“We took so much roost on at the beginning, and that roost was just gnarly,” said Thomas. “All of our coolers got plugged up with mud, and I was just trying to keep it cool, hit my marks, and not make too many mistakes. It was a brutal track out there with lots of holes.”
Round two winner Ryan Beat had his hands full in the runner-up spot, first holding off a challenge from Keegan Kincaid and then a Johnny Holtger as he drove to his second podium of the season. Holtger would run the fastest lap of the race and finish third.
There were a pair of rollovers on the first lap of Saturday’s Pro Lite race, but Trey Gibbs was out front and dealing with clean air as the young gun drove to his second straight win in round three.
With rain and clouds adding moisture to the track, Gibbs stayed out front from start to finish and used the clean air to find the optimal traction to easily get around the tight Antigo offering. It was Gibbs’s third podium of the season, locking him into the overall points lead.
Round one winner Johnny Holtger moved into the runner-up spot on lap eight, getting past Travis Milhausen, Jr., and driving to his third straight podium to start the season. Tyler Remmereid also snuck past Milhausen late to finish third.
Nick Visser has shown great talent in a class designed to showcase driver’s ability over equipment and technology. Visser has opened up the season with three straight podiums and now has been credited with two consecutive wins.
Chris Van Den Elzen went door-to-door with Visser throughout the contest before Visser put a late separation on the challenger. Dylan Parsons would finish third.