C.J. Greaves beats Beat for record Crandon World Cup

C.J. Greaves now holds the most Red Bull Crandon World Cup victories of any driver with four, but it was not a simple Sunday drive for him as he had to get around a massive defence set up by Ryan Beat. By the end, he was able to take his second Cup in a Pro 4, and he remains the only driver to win the event in both Pro 4 and Pro 2 trucks.

A staggered start meant the Pro 2 trucks, inferior to their four-wheeled counterparts, got a forty-second head start. After a do-over start following Zac Zakowski‘s flip just two corners in, Beat caught leader Cory Winner while Greaves began his climb; by the time Beat completed the pass on a wide Winner for first, Greaves had breached the top ten.

After picking off Tanner Foust and Mickey Thomas—the latter having won the Pro 2 World Championship race earlier in the day—for second, Greaves chased down Beat before his faster truck outran the Pro 2 down a straightaway. Despite Greaves initially completing the overtake, Beat returned the favour in the Forest County Potawatomi Turn One to regain the position. The two ran side-by-side through the track’s technical sections before Greaves cleared him for good with three laps remaining.

Fellow Pro 4s Andrew Carlson and RJ Anderson subsequently got by Beat to complete a podium sweep for the four-wheel-drive class. Nevertheless, Beat’s fourth topped the Pro 2 racers.

Greaves last won the Cup in a Pro 4 in 2015, while his two other victories in 2013 and 2018 came in Pro 2; he also has six more Cup wins in other classes, including the Pro Stock SxS hours prior. He had clinched the Championship Off-Road Pro 4 title on Saturday, becoming the first driver to win a COR class title and the World Cup in the same season. One of his COR Pro 4 victories in 2022 came during the Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run weekend, and he won the Brush Run itself to mark the second straight year in which one person won both that and the World Cup after Jerett Brooks in 2021.

“I think we came across the line and my spotter Devin (Haws) who’s also my crew chief comes across and says, ‘I don’t even know what to tell you anymore.’ All I could do is scream a little bit in the helmet,” said Greaves on the podium.

His cousin Kyle Greaves won the COR Pro Lite title and all three of the category’s races during the weekend. The two celebrated atop C.J.’s car following his World Cup triumph. While C.J.’s father Johnny finished fourteenth in the World Cup, he joined his son on the podium for the Pro 4 World Championship.

“It was a dream come true all weekend,” Greaves continued. “Outside of myself, my cousin sweeping the weekend and just a Greaves sweep all weekend long.”

Foust, a racing star running his second career World Cup, improved upon his début last year by placing seventh. Extreme E rival Kyle LeDuc suffered a mechanical failure that ended his race.

Other Pro World Championship winners included Kyle Chaney in Pro Turbo SxS, Cisco Bio in Class 11, Michael Meister in the Buggies, and Loren Healy in Ultra4. Healy’s victory came with a heavy atmosphere in the wake of competitor Zandy Willems‘ death after a crash in Saturday night’s Crandon Ultra4 4400 event.

Pro World Championship race winners