Championship Off-Road Race Preview: Antigo

Images via Championship Off-Road

After a lengthy offseason, the third Championship Off-Road campaign finally gets underway this weekend with a return to Antigo Lions Roaring Raceway in Antigo, Wisconsin. 2022 marks the second straight year that Antigo has served as the COR season opener, after previously having been off the pro schedule for well over a decade.

The event starts on Friday night with the all-new Yokohama Duel of Champions Driven by Vision Wheel, a 16-truck bracket for the Pro 2s. Each race will see two drivers go head-to-head for three laps, with the winner advancing through each round and a total of $10,000 on the line. It’ll be the first chance to see this year’s Pro 2 lineup and determine if anyone can knock off defending series champion and Crandon World Cup winner Keegan Kincaid at the front of the field.

The Pro 4 field is headed up as always by the father-son duo of Johnny and CJ Greaves, the latter of whom was last season’s champion, and Kyle LeDuc. Johnny Greaves and LeDuc are deadlocked at seven Pro 4 championships apiece; CJ can tie them if he successfully defends his crown, but he’ll also have to deal with competitive bids from names like Andrew Carlson and Kyle Chaney, both of whom will do double duty in the division alongside their Pro Turbo SXS commitments.

CJ Greaves and defending Pro Lite champion Brock Heger will also supplement their truck commitments by returning to do battle in Pro Stock SXS, but they’ll be in different machinery this time around; while Heger returns to Yamaha, Greaves made the switch to Polaris RZR in the offseason. Heger and 2021 Turbo champion Rodney VanEperen will hope to defend Yamaha’s sweep of the Pro SXS classes, but VanEperen will have his own hands full; not only are Corry and Jason Weller coming over from the west coast, but his own son, Owen, also came on strong last year.

Last year’s Pro action at Antigo was rife with weekend sweeps. CJ Greaves, Kincaid, and Heger each went back-to-back in their Pro Truck classes, and Michael Meister took both Pro Buggy wins as well. Six drivers were also able to replicate the feat in the Sportsman divisions; Pro Am SXS driver Dylan Marquardt was one of them, but he’ll need to go up against Greaves and Heger in Pro Stock SXS to do it again this year.

Practice and qualifying starts at 11AM CT on Friday, while opening ceremonies for the Duel of Champions get underway at 6:30PM directly after a Pro 4 and Pro 2 autograph session. Sportsman racing gets underway at 10AM on Saturday and 9AM on Sunday, while the Pros will do battle starting at 4:15PM Saturday and 3:15PM Sunday.

For those who can’t attend in person, all 2022 COR races will be streamed live on FloRacing, and aired later in the year on the CBS Sports Network. Following the opener at Antigo, Championship Off-Road will return to action on June 25-26 for the historic Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run at Crandon International Raceway.