Crandon rejoins Championship Off-Road, Race for Kyle Cup created

In September, Crandon International Raceway broke away from Championship Off-Road to help lead a new short course series alongside American Outdoor Events. Three months later, the track is back on the COR schedule for 2024.

On Thursday, International Series of Champions revealed a revised 2024 COR calendar that re-adds Crandon’s legendary Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run and Polaris World Championships on 22/23 June and 30/31 August, respectively. The former serves as the third race of the season while the latter, previously the season finale from 2020 to 2022, is the penultimate round and held in conjunction with the non-championship Red Bull World Cup.

Crandon’s leadership had split from COR to create the tentatively named AOE Pro Series, a a new championship run that adds to AOE’s growing off-road racing portfolio. AOE’s MidAmerica Outdoors, who hosted the 2023 season finale, was also part of the breakaway series while ERX Motor Park and Bark River International Raceway decided to welcome both championships. Despite fears of the rift’s ramifications on a long unstable discipline, AOE eventually announced in November that the Pro Series would not race in 2024.

COR had already created a six-race schedule without Crandon and MAO prior to AOE pulling the plug, replacing the latter with a new event in Deadwood, South Dakota. Dirt City Motorplex also gained a second race as its Sportsman-only Mayhem at the Motorplex became an all-class season opener. Deadwood will remain the last race even with Crandon’s return.

“It has been a rough couple of months, but hopefully all for a better future,” said ISOC president Carl Schubitzke. “There is no doubt that we are stronger with Crandon as a partner, and all of our events and partners benefit from the series racing at the Big House. We felt great about our schedule before, including adding Mayhem at the Motorplex and South Dakota. Now, adding those two Crandon dates gives us better balance and strength moving forward.”

Various dates were tweaked to accommodate for Crandon’s return. ERX has moved from August to July while Bark River is now in August rather than September. The Deadwood weekend is also in September after being originally planned for early October.

The Antigo Off-Road National, the second date of the year, has also added a new Pro 2 versus Pro 4 race dubbed the Race for Kyle Cup. Scheduled for 9 June, half of its proceeds will go towards the family of late Pro 4 legend Kyle LeDuc, who passed away in November. Antigo’s course layout was designed by LeDuc in 2023.

Revised 2024 Championship Off-Road schedule