Johnny Greaves (racer)
Encyclopedia
Off-road racing
Off-road racing is a format of racing where various classes of specially modified vehicles compete in races through off-road environments.-North America:...
racetruck driver from Abrams, Wisconsin
Abrams, Wisconsin
Abrams is a town in Oconto County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,757 at the 2000 Census. The census-designated place of Abrams is located in the town. Abrams in named after W. J...
. He has competed in numerous major off-road series, including Championship Off-Road Racing (CORR) and World Series of Off-Road Racing
World Series of Off-Road Racing
The World Series of Off-Road Racing was an American off-road racing series. The series began in 2007 and it ended after the 2008 season.-Classes:WSORR sanctioned classes from Trophy Trucks down to grassroots racers...
(WSORR). He was the 2010 Traxxas TORC Series
Traxxas TORC Series
The Traxxas TORC Series is an American national short course off-road racing series that races primarily in the Midwestern United States. It was sanctioned and officiated by the United States Auto Club in 2009 and was managed by Rick Johnson; USAC took over total management starting in 2010...
champion in their Pro 4x4 division.
Buggies
Greaves began racing in motocrossMotocross
Motocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. It evolved from trials, and was called scrambles, and later motocross, combining the French moto with cross-country...
at age 12. He switched to racing four wheel vehicles at age 23. He raced in buggies in SCORE International
SCORE International
SCORE International is an off-road sanctioning body in the sport of desert racing and is famous for its flagship event, the Baja 1000 as well as the Baja 500 and San Felipe 250. SCORE races are held in United States and Mexico...
and SODA
SODA (series)
The Short-course Off-road Drivers Association was an off-road racing sanctioning body in the United States.-History:...
. He won multiple buggy-class championships, including SODA's "double" titles in Class 1-1600 and Class 9 in 1992. He also raced a few light production trucks that season in Class 7s.
Light production trucks in SODA
He went full-time in Class 7s in 1993, and won the final two events. He started a relationship with Toyota trucks that remains today. He returned to the class in 1994, and won the championship. He received national television exposure, as SODA events were broadcast on ESPNESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
and ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
. SODA's regular season was held primarily on tracks in Wisconsin. SODA sanctioned a separate Winter Heat series in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and Greaves won the Winter Heat class 7S championships in 1995 and 1996. We won 70 percent the races that he entered in 1994 to 1996. SODA's regular season in summer of 1997 was the final season for the sanctioning body before CORR took over sanctioning the off-road vehicles in the winter of 1998. Greaves joined with rival Jeff Kincaid to form a two truck Toyota team in 1997. Greaves/Kincaid Motorsports won 19 out of 20 races between the 1997 SODA Series and 1998 CORR Winter Series. Greaves captured the class championship, and Kincaid took second.
CORR Pro-Lite
CORR named the class Pro-Lite, and Greaves' domination continued. In 1998, Greaves captured the checkered flag in 10 of 16 races in 1998. Greaves won 11 events in 1999, and captured his third Pro-Lite championship.Pro-2
Greaves moved up to the full-size trucks in 2000. He joined the Pro-2 class of two wheel drive trucks in a Toyota TundraToyota Tundra
The Toyota Tundra is a full-size pickup truck introduced by Toyota in the year 2000. It was widely considered to be the first full-size import-brand truck built with an American look and feel and a refined V8 engine. The Tundra was eventually nominated for the North American Truck of the Year...
. He won the final event at Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
. He was the highest Pro-2 finisher at the Borg-Warner Cup race at the Crandon International Off-Road Raceway
Crandon International Off-Road Raceway
The Crandon International Off-Road Raceway is an off-road racing racetrack that has hosts the "World Championship Off-Road Races".-Location:The track is located west of Crandon, Wisconsin on U.S. Route 8.-Track layout:...
.
Pro-4
He moved up the four wheel drive Pro-4 class in 2001. The series is the premiere division in the short course off-road series. He had three victories in his rookie season. He finished third in the points standings. He became the first driver to win a race in all three divisions in CORR. Greaves won three races and the series championship in 2002. Greaves finished fourth in the 2003 championship. He won four events that year, including the Potawatomi Governor’s Cup which was sponsored by his long-time sponsor Forest County Potawatomi Bingo. Greaves won four races in 2004, including the $100,000 Borg-Warner Cup at Crandon. He finished fifth in the 2004 championship points. Greaves started slow in the 2005, but finished the season by winning seven consecutive races. He won CORR's Precision Gear 2005 Driver of the Year award. Greaves had a big crash at Crandon in September 2006, but he recovered rapidly. He earned eight victories in 2006, won the season championship, and was named driver of the year. He set the record for the most consecutive wins in CORR history when he won seven races. Greaves entered his first Baja 1000Baja 1000
SCORE Baja 1000 is an off-road race that takes place on Mexico's Baja California Peninsula in November. The Baja 1000 is part of the SCORE Championship Desert Racing Series that include the Baja 500, San Felipe 250 and the new San Felipe Challenge of Champions in place of the Primm 300 which had...
in November 2006.
In 2007 he competed in both the Pro-4 division in CORR and the 4x4 division in WSORR (World Series of Off-Road Racing
World Series of Off-Road Racing
The World Series of Off-Road Racing was an American off-road racing series. The series began in 2007 and it ended after the 2008 season.-Classes:WSORR sanctioned classes from Trophy Trucks down to grassroots racers...
). He won his second BorgWarner Shootout (now part of the WSORR championship), the world championship event at Crandon. Greaves won the WSORR championship after winning six events. He finished sixth in CORR after winning the first and third rounds.
After CORR and WSORR both ended after the 2008 season, he continued off-road racing in the Traxxas TORC Series
Traxxas TORC Series
The Traxxas TORC Series is an American national short course off-road racing series that races primarily in the Midwestern United States. It was sanctioned and officiated by the United States Auto Club in 2009 and was managed by Rick Johnson; USAC took over total management starting in 2010...
starting in 2009. He won the 2010 Pro 4x4 championship.