This Labor Day weekend, TORC: The Off-Road Championship Series presented by AMSOIL returns to Crandon International Raceway for its annual World Championship Off-Road Races.
TORC will once again take part in the biggest weekend in the world of short-course racing, renewing its role in the event that has run for 48 years. The event dubbed “Keys to the Big House” will offer drivers one last chance to improve their championship points position before The Kenda Final Rounds at ERX decide the overall winners.
TORC’s five PRO classes of high-horsepower trucks and UTVs are ready to put on a show and add another chapter to a storied 2017 season. Johnny and CJ Greaves remain in a deadlock atop the premier PRO 4 class points standings, with Crandon native Keegan Kincaid well within striking distance. Luke Johnson controls a field of PRO 2 trucks growing rapidly with young talent, and Kyle Kleiman is looking to pad his strong lead in PRO Light. The UTV fields will make their third-ever trip to Crandon with Kyle Chaney hanging on to his PRO Mod lead over Rodney Van Eperen, and CJ Greaves looking to remain undefeated in PRO Stock.
Over the past 48 years, Crandon has earned the nickname “The Big House,” and the Labor Day weekend races have become the premier event in the world of short course, referred to by many as “the Super Bowl of off-road racing.” The 1.75-mile track features a unique side-by-side landrush start that sends the whole field together into the treacherous Turn One sideways at speeds near one-hundred miles-per-hour.
World Championship Weekend is the total package of racing fun, with special events making the experience a full vacation of fun for the entire family. The weekend kicks off with pit crew competitions and the historic and wildly entertaining parade through “downtown” Crandon with race vehicles lining both sides of the street. Sportsman racing will light up the track on Friday night in a special “Forest County Potawatomi Night of Thunder.” Friday- and Saturday-night concerts highlight nights of celebration and revelry, 2000 campsites will be filled and the town of 1,920 people will swell with over 50,000 race fans.
An influx of drivers is expected to join or rejoin the TORC Series fields for the year’s biggest event including Chad Hord, from Upper Michigan, who will return to mix things up in PRO 4. The “AZ Kid” Daely Pentico has turned in his PRO Stock UTV and Super Buggy for a PRO 2, and is aiming to make his PRO truck debut. Crandon has been known to bring out local racing legends and stars from far away, and there are sure to be a few surprises in this year’s lineup as well.
