Jimmy Henderson capped an action-packed weekend at Crandon International Raceway in Crandon, Wisconsin by winning the prestigious Red Bull Crandon World Cup Sunday, adding another major victory to a weekend that already saw him dominate the PRO4 World Championship race. Henderson’s Red Bull Cup victory came after he went wire-to-wire in Saturday’s PRO4 World Championship, giving him a memorable double at The Big House. His two victories provided the exclamation point to one of the biggest weekends of the AMSOIL Championship Off-Road season, as more than 60,000 fans gathered at Crandon for the Polaris World Championships. The Red Bull Cup pits the premier PRO4 and PRO2 competitors against one another in a unique head-to-head showdown and has become one of the most coveted victories on the short-course off-road calendar.
Saturday brought the biggest racing day of the weekend, with World Championships on the line and the Pro divisions competing for critical championship points. Henderson was nearly untouchable in PRO4. The Georgia driver grabbed the holeshot and immediately opened a gap on the field, leading every lap for his fifth victory of the season. The win increased his championship lead over CJ Greaves to nine points with the final two rounds remaining at Glen Helen. The fight for second went down to the final laps. Mickey Thomas was fast throughout the race, but a problem with his left-front wheel allowed Greaves to close in. The two made contact with two laps remaining, and although Greaves was briefly slowed, he recovered to finish second.
Ricky Gutierrez delivered one of the other major performances of the day in PRO2. Gutierrez took control early and quickly separated himself from the field for his first victory since Round 6 at ERX, keeping his championship hopes alive. Cory Winner appeared headed for second before an incident in the final turn with two laps remaining sent him spinning and caused water to begin pouring from the rear coolers. Ryan Beat moved into second and held on for his sixth podium in the last seven rounds. Johnny Holtger finished third, extending his podium streak to six consecutive races and moving to within 20 points of Beat in the championship standings.
Connor Barry also had a championship weekend to remember. After Joey Maciosek led early and Michael Funk took his turn at the front, Barry moved into the lead on Lap 8 and drove to his second victory in three rounds. The win also secured Barry the PRO LITE World Championship. Maciosek finished second, with Matt Wood third. Nick Visser responded to a difficult round at Bark River with a dominant performance in PRO SPEC. Visser led from start to finish for his fourth victory of the season and extended his championship lead to 13 points. Tony Keepers continued his championship battle with Cole Bernloehr by winning the PRO Buggy World Championship. Keepers took control on Lap 3 and pulled away from the field for his third victory of the season. Dave Mason Jr., making his season debut, finished second, while Bernloehr recovered to finish third.The result trimmed Bernloehr’s championship advantage to 15 points heading into the final rounds Glen Helen at the end of September.