McGrath Claims First Career Off-Road Truck Win in Bark River
Epic Battle as Johnny Greaves Takes Runner-Up Spot on Saturday
CJ Suffers Setback, Still in the Championship Hunt
Bark River, MI (August 17, 2010) — After successful rounds 5 and 6 in Oshkosh, the Monster Energy/ Toyota/ BFG/ MasterCraft team of Johnny Greaves, Jeremy McGrath and CJ Greaves arrived in Bark River looking to extend their respective streaks in the Traxxas TORC Series rounds 7 and 8. The racing was fierce and exciting for the huge crowd of more than 10,000 in each day of the two-day event that has been conducted by the Bark River Lions Club for 35 years. The weekend would be pivotal for all three drivers:
Jeremy McGrath would get his first off-road truck racing victory in the Saturday race and follow it up with a close second place on Sunday in the Pro 2WD class. He earned the Oakley Bomb Award for the fastest lap trying to chase down Jeff Kincaid in Sunday's race. Johnny earned a hard fought Pro 4x4 second place finish on Saturday, only to be knocked out of the race on Sunday by an overly aggressive Scott Douglas. He would however bring home the Oakley Bomb Award in both rounds of racing. CJ Greaves, in his Traxxas sponsored Super Buggy, would also suffer some bad luck with a roll-over in turn one that put him out of contention in Saturday's race and suffered a mechanical problem on Sunday. He would relinquish the points lead to Bob Klaus but only by one point and definitely still in the championship hunt.
Saturday: McGrath Shakes the Monkey Off His Back
There was nothing to prove for Jeremy McGrath in off-road truck racing leading up to rounds 7 and 8 in Bark River having had multiple podiums and a ton of close calls—but no wins to his credit. The seven time motocross champion, X-Games medalist, and soon be to inducted in to the Motocross Hall of Famer is no stranger to victory. Jeremy was finally able to add the illusive first place finish to his list of accomplishments this past weekend as he ran a brilliant Pro 2WD race on Saturday to claim his first victory.
Jeremy's Monster Energy Toyota started in the pole position on the front row with points leading Rob MacCachren along side. Behind them were a pack of hungry drivers with the likes of Ricky Johnson and Chad Hord on the second row. Getting the all important holeshot is no easy task in Bark River, but McGrath was able to plow through to take the top spot. From there, he ran a flawless race, guided by spotter and crew chief, Kurt Greaves.
"The track was very slick," said and elated McGrath following his victory. "You had to be careful not to get back into the throttle too hard or you would go around. I had an awesome truck today—thanks to Monster Energy, Toyota and the whole Greaves team—Kurt and Johnny and Brad and Goose and Kathy the whole crew. They have put in a lot of hard work and have been very patient with me and I really appreciate that. This is the weekend I've been waiting on for a long time and what better place to have it than Bark River."
The Pro 4x4 race was arguably the most exciting race of the weekend. The fans witnessed two of the best off-road racers battle from the green flag to the final lap, the final turn, and to the checkered flag. The two Monster Energy trucks of Johnny Greaves and Rick Huseman put on a show for the crowd in the final race on Saturday. Greaves and Huseman started on the front row for the two-by-two rolling start. The field of 7 powerful 4x4's stormed towards the horseshoe shaped turn one, going almost 3 wide in a cloud of dust and debris. When the dust settled, it was the BFG clad Toyotas of Huseman on point and Johnny Greaves right on his bumper. That is the way they would run leading up to the competition caution setting up an epic battle for the second half of the race.
Huseman would win the holeshot but with Johnny and Scott Douglas nose to tail going into the front stretch right behind him. Johnny and Rick eventually pulled away from the rest of the field and proceeded to do battle through each turn for the remainder of the race—sometimes going side-by-side. Each time Huseman would hold off Johnny's attacks until lap 8. Johnny grabbed an opportunity going through the table-top and made the pass for the lead, only to loose it again in the long sweeping horseshoe turn of turn one. That is the way the race would end with Johnny taking a hard fought second.
Johnny said of the race: "That was a great race! If you didn't walk away from that holding your breath… you just witnessed one of the best off-road races ever! The BFG's were amazing today. If I've got to take second, I'm glad it's to Rick because we both push it to the limit."
Johnny would earn his 5th Oakley Bomb Award during the race for the fastest lap.
CJ Greaves Super Buggy race was short lived. He started the race in the ninth position and chose the outside line heading towards the turn one holeshot. That turned out to be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One of the other competitors spun, collecting CJ in the process, knocking him on his side and out of contention for the race.
Sunday: Douglas Takes Out Johnny
In the Sunday race, everybody wondered how Jeremy McGrath would follow-up his victory on Saturday. Jeremy started on row three which would make it more difficult to win the holeshot. Jeremy made it through the mayhem cleanly though, winding up in fourth behind Kincaid, Taylor, and MacCachren. Rob Mac would swing wide off the track in Cemetery Corner advancing the number 2 Monster Energy Toyota of McGrath to third. As the field shuffled positions around, eventually Jeremy would battle with veteran Scott Taylor for the second spot. Taylor suffered a mechanical problem and had to pull out of the race leaving Jeremy to take sole possession of second behind Jeff Kincaid, who had pulled away to a sizeable lead.
Jeremy and Kincaid held their positions through the restart following the competition caution. While the rest of the field diced it up behind them, the two leaders pulled away. McGrath, not wanting to settle for second, began to real in the machine of Jeff Kincaid. He stayed right on his bumper through the entire final lap, trying every thing he could to get around the very "wide" machine of Kincaid to no avail. Jeremy settled for second but pulled his fastest lap in his pursuit of Kincaid, earning him his second Oakley Bomb Award of the season.
The Pro 4x4 race on Sunday featured some of the most aggressive driving of the season. Johnny Greaves started the race on row two beside Scott Douglas with Jenkins and Barlow occupying the front row. Saturday's winner, Rick Huseman started in the back.
Douglas, Greaves and Huseman ended up in the top three, two thirds of the way through lap one. At the AMSOIL sweeper on the back stretch, Douglas spun, nearly taking out all three of the leaders. Huseman was the beneficiary of the spin and was promoted to the lead. Johnny, who was tangled up with Douglas, held on to third behind Douglas as they were able to right their machines and get going once again. On lap 4, Greaves got a great run on Douglas down the hill heading into Cemetery Corner putting him in position to make the pass which he was ultimately able to do in the horseshoe turn at the start/finish line.
The mandatory caution bunched the machines back together. Greaves, out of tear-offs and looking right into the roost of Huseman, was in the middle of the holeshot which had all the trucks banging and sending body parts flying everywhere. Scott Douglas was clearly taking his frustrations out on the field, crashing into Johnny and pushing Huseman off the track heading into the rhythm section in front of the screaming crowd. The damage was severe for Johnny, knocking him out of the race. Douglas would not finish on the podium however and Rick Huseman would hold on to take the win.
Johnny had the fastest truck on the track as evident by earning his second Oakley Bomb award of the weekend for the fastest lap and his 6th of the year.
"It's very disappointing to be taken out of a race," said Greaves. "Banging in to each other is expected in off-road racing but we don't try to take each other out—which is clearly what Scott was trying to do."
The Super Buggy misery continued for CJ Greaves and make for a weekend that he would like to forget in his young racing career. Early in the race, CJ's Traxxas/ Monster Energy/ BFG buggy suffered a mechanical problem that caused him to have to pull out of the race. He was able to return to the race, two laps down, and out of contention but saving valuable championship points.
With only 4 rounds of racing left in the 2010 TORC season, Johnny and Jeremy will look to Chicagoland for their opportunity to put themselves in position for the championship weekend on Labor Day in Crandon. The Chicagoland races will be midweek races on August 24-25th with NASCAR's Kyle Bush joining the field for his off-road debut.
Replays of the Bark River races can be seen on JohnnyGreaves.com via TORC/ USAC's USTREAM feed or by going to TORCseries.com.
