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- Mar 10, 2005
The Traxxas Offroad Championship 2012 Series opens this weekend at the dirt track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Presented by AMSOIL, this is short course off-road truck racing in a stadium setting! The epic battle at Charlotte last year between Ricky Johnson and Johnny Greaves was the series' most talked about race of the year. The two are set to square off again this weekend...INDIANAPOLIS (April 17, 2012) – With the opener of the 2012 Traxxas TORC Series, presented by AMSOIL, championship at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway just a few short days away, the two principal combatants in the premier PRO 4 class – defending series champion Ricky Johnson (Ram Truck/Mopar/Red Bull) and 2010 champion Johnny Greaves (Monster Energy/Toyota/Maxxis) – get set to relive short course off-road racing’s most memorable battle of 2011. Before we get RJ and Greaves’ take on their upcoming rematch at Charlotte, here’s a look at the final two laps of last year’s ferocious duel between the two:
TORC’s top racers would go at it again and again throughout the 2011 season, coming together equally as viscous in Bark River (Mich.) when, on the last turn of the last lap, contact between Johnson and Greaves sent Greaves – who was leading a the time – into a concrete barrier, ending his afternoon and handing the win and a huge points shift to Johnson. As expected all season the Johnson/Greaves battle of 2011 would come down to the series’ final weekend of action at Cycle Ranch MX just outside San Antonio, Texas. There it was Johnson with two decisive victories, erasing Greaves’ four-point lead heading into the weekend, and earning Johnson his first-ever TORC PRO 4 championship. So here’s RJ and Greaves on the upcoming TORC season, a look back at last year and their thoughts on what’s going down in Charlotte this weekend.
TORC Series: Guys, recap the 2011 season. Your thought heading into the year, what went down during the season and the end result in the PRO 4 championship chase.
Ricky Johnson: We had a lot of questions going into last year. There can be lot of mechanical failures in the PRO 4 class. Were we going to be able to handle that as a team? I really felt we were going to have a lot more DNFs than we did. But with the Menzies team, Bryce, my son Luke and the rest of the crew I had surrounded myself with the best of everything. So 2011 was just a matter of keeping everything together, which in the end we did.Johnny Greaves: We started out a little slow, then picked up the momentum and took the points lead over. This is definitely a team effort and we sport years and years of putting together the proper people to make this work. We knew it’d come down to a duel in the end – and the best man won that day. RJ’s a great driver and has put together the right people behind him as well. He did what he had to do in order to win. I hope things shape up the same way this year and hopefully we can put that TORC PRO 4 overall championship back in place here this summer.
TORC Series: Talk a bit about the other guy, your rivalry and how racing against each other impacts your driving.
Ricky Johnson: I’ve looked up to Johnny for years. So for me to be a worthy competitor of his this past year was huge. I race every lap like it’s the last lap of my life. I want to win, but at the same time I don’t want to crash anybody. We’re two guys that are going for the same thing – and something’s got to give. It’s like an MMA fight. And I didn’t want him to win and I’m sure he didn’t want me to win.
Johnny Greaves: You know, you can go out and win races all day long, but that’s not nearly as fun as the toe-to-toe battles with RJ. We had one questionable run-in, Bark River, but I don’t hold it against him as I might have done the same thing if I was in his position. They make the race tracks do what they do and that’s one of the big reasons racing was so close with RJ and I.TORC Series: And finally, after what went down at Charlotte last year you’ve got to be pumped with the season opening back at the Dirt Track. Will the race this weekend really set the tone for what’s going down in 2012?
Ricky Johnson: For us the Charlotte race will be no different than any other race. You’ve got the Jenkins Brothers, Scott Douglas, Adrian Cenni – a lot of other players I have to focus on, not just Johnny. But yeah, this is the first race of what’s going to be a season-long fight … a fight right down to the end.
Johnny Greaves: What fans saw at Charlotte last year between RJ and I was brought on by just plain hard racing. And I don’t see things being any different when TORC opens up this weekend in Charlotte.
What: Traxxas TORC Series, presented by AMSOIL – short course off-road truck racing – the world’s premier Baja-style off-road racing in a stadium setting!
Who: Off-road racers from Baja to the Wisconsin northwoods, the TORC Series showcases champion drivers like Ricky Johnson, Johnny Greaves and son CJ Greaves, Scott Douglas, Mike & Mark Jenkins and Bryce Menzies.
Where: The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway
When: Friday and Saturday, April 20 & 21
Time: Gates open at 3 p.m., qualifying begins at 4 p.m., main event opening ceremonies begin at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $20 for adults, $10 for kids 12 and under. Note: NASCAR card holders get in for TEN BUCKS!!!
Special: Super Buggies race for the first time at the Dirt Track at CMS this year; Traxxas R/C Demonstration by professional R/C vehicle drivers; Friday and Saturday feature a Public Pit Party with music by Tim Hall and Buffalo Country!
For more information, please visit: www.torcseries.com
About TORC: The Traxxas TORC Series, presented by AMSOIL, is the fastest, most punishing short course racing series on the planet! TORC events are packed with flag-to-flag fender banging as drivers push the limits over whoops and jump-filled natural terrain race tracks. Off-road racing fans come from far and wide to experience the most challenging form of high-octane competition. And once they taste TORC for the first time they’re hooked for life!