JAY, Okla. — The fourth round of the MAO Racing SXS Championship Series kicked off the action-packed week of Visions Off-Road events held at MidAmerica Outdoors with qualifying on Tuesday.
There were also a few big surprises in store, as two points leaders struggled to qualify in their respective classes.
John Kalogerou was the top qualifier in the Expert Turbo class, despite missing round two of the side-by-side series. He set the fastest lap with one lap remaining in the session and is hoping for a little luck in Thursday’s race with his front-row start. Donovan Willis qualified second, while Grant Stephen had the third fastest time.
Meanwhile, points leader Mickey Schroeder struggled in eighth.Â
Siblings Landon and Luke Safrit topped Expert Naturally Aspirated (Expert N/A) qualifying, continuing on their family rivalry. The brothers are tied in points, with Landon taking the advantage after his better finish in round three. However, Luke soared into the lead qualifying position on Tuesday, edging out his brother by two seconds.Â
Darren Greene qualified third, not far off pace from the twins.Â
Chase Carr, who is fourth in the standings, was the top qualifier in the Pro Naturally Aspirated class.
Points leader Owen VanEperen found pace on the new track layout at Visions and took second in the qualifying second, despite suffering a mechanical problem halfway through the session. VanEperen has experienced a mixed bag of results this season, winning at rounds one and two, then dropping out of the top-10 at round three.Â
Cross Kirchmeier ended up setting the third fastest lap.
The story remained the same in Pro Turbo as Can-Am drivers Kyle Chaney and Cody Miller swapped fastest qualifying positions during the 15-minute session. Cody Miller was able to edge out Chaney for the pole.
Cody’s brother Hunter, who has been part of the battle between Cody and Chaney so far this season, would suffer from mechanical issues and end up qualifying 19th.
Cody has now won four out of six Pro Turbo races this season and is the new points leader going into the Visions event.
Cody and Chaney were roughly three seconds ahead of the stacked pack. Chaney’s results have been on a downward trend as of late, due to some mechanical issues with his Can-Am, and he’s been struggling to regain the upper hand. Chaney’s No. 91 team went back to the drawing board and got the car on the dyno tested to ensure his season turns around and starts trending upwards again.
Class young gun, fourteen-year-old Cash Lecroy, qualified third after coming off of an up-and-down round three. Although his car broke in the first race, he gained a tremendous amount of confidence in race two as he piloted his way through the pack from 18th to sixth.
MAO SXS racing from Visions Off-Road can be streamed live at AOE.tv.