C.J. Greaves chases down Thomas for third straight FCP Community Cup

Mickey Thomas‘ truck was shedding skin like a snake, but it wasn’t enough to slither to the top step of the Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run podium.

Thomas and his Pro 2 led much of Sunday’s Pro 2 vs. Pro 4 event at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway despite losing much of his body panelling, but the Pro 4 of C.J. Greaves gradually worked his way through the order before striking on the final lap, finding a run down a straightaway and pulling away. The win earned Greaves his third Brush Run Chairman’s Cup in a row, incidentally also beating Thomas for the 2023 win.

“I didn’t see the scorecard going and I didn’t see the white (flag) and I’m like, ‘Alright, I can settle down a little bit there,’” began Greaves. “For a long time, I was marking myself with Mickey and he was running really good laps and I was still in the middle of the Pro 2s and I’m like, ‘It’s going to be there. It’s going to be a battle right to the end. I’m not going to be able to hold up at all and just go for it.’ I just tried to hit all my marks, stay clean, get through the Pro 2s the best I could, and put on a little bit of a race at the end there. I knew he was going to run me clean, so I gave him some room in the gravel pit and then he slide-jobbed me over here and we had some fun with it.”

Given the performance disparity between two- and four-wheel-drive trucks, Pro 2 trucks received a roughly 33-second head start. Thomas quickly pulled away from Ryan Beat as his class took off, then Greaves did the same for Pro 4 half a minute later. Prior to Greaves’ three-peat, Pro 2 had been dominant in the Brush Run with four of six victories prior to 2022. Despite coming up short, Thomas was the weekend’s best Pro 2 truck for the third year in a row, having finished fourth behind a trio of Pro 4s in 2022 and winning the Championship Off-Road points-paying race earlier on Sunday.

“I was trying to make it not too easy on him,” Thomas commented. “We got a great start. I was just trying to hit my marks and I was putting down some good times. I blew my hood off, I guess I just knocked it off on a jump and that wasn’t working in my favour so I lost a little bit there. Other than that, we were able to put a great race together. Got me right at the end, so it was a good show probably.”

Greaves’ father Johnny Greaves followed his son, struggling to get past the Pro 2 trucks before joining him and Thomas on the podium. He had missed the 2023 edition to injuries sustained at Antigo. C.J. and Johnny also finished 1–2 in the Pro 4 points race.

“That’s the first race I felt like real complete and doing everything right and like my old self again,” said the older Greaves. “I hung with C.J. and I kept his pace there till we got in the Pro 2s and he was just better off getting through them. It was a great race. They did, they did a perfect job at timing it, came down to the last lap right there. What more could you ask for?”

Pro 4 drivers Cole Mamer and Robert Stout both retired on the opening lap. Mamer almost caught Greaves for the holeshot before his battery broke while Stout was spun out. Stout, a former Stadium Super Trucks driver and Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series UTV champion, was making his Pro 4 début; his shift actuator failed during the points-paying event but he managed to bring the truck home in fifth. Kyle Greaves, who won the first Pro 2 vs. Pro 4 race of the season at the Kyle LeDuc Memorial Cup in Antigo, finished fifth earlier in the day but did not start the Brush Run due to brake problems.

Rain forced the Saturday points-paying races to be cancelled. The payout for Sunday was doubled, though they remained single events.

Despite a wonky transmission, Kyle Chaney scored the maiden Championship Off-Road win for the Can-Am Maverick R in Pro SxS, adding short course to the new side-by-side’s already impressive portfolio. Dave Mason Jr. snapped Lorenzo Bonacci‘s three-race win streak in Pro Buggy for his first victory in the class.

Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run results

Class winners

Pro

Sportsman