
Expanded Championship Off Road series debuts this weekend at Wheatland
One of the longest off seasons in motorsports comes to an end this weekend as racers of all ages finally hit the dirt for the 2025 AMSOIL Championship Off-Road short-course season. Pro and Sportsman category teams have endured a long nine-month layoff after concluding their season last Labor Day weekend at the Polaris World Championships in Crandon, Wis.
The condensed Champ Off-Road schedule is the result of being Midwest-centric since its inception in 2020. Looking to expand its national footprint and season length, this year kicks off tomorrow in a return to the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., at The Show-Me Off-Road Shoot-Out. After years of discussion, the Pro categories will return to the west in September with Champ’s first appearance at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, Calif.
Drivers are anticipating an exciting return at one of the country’s most well-known and highly regarded multi-sport facilities. Wheatland held its first short course race in 2007, but off-road trucks, buggies and UTVs will return to the facility for the first time since summer 2020. The long dormant off-road track — which many racers regard as the best off-road, short-course track ever built — sits adjacent to the constantly used Lucas Oil Speedway dirt track. With nine turns, an over/under jump and a massive 20-foot tall, 120-foot-long tabletop jump, the Wheatland circuit is sure to test both veteran and first-time racers.
For some Pro and almost all Sportsman teams, the all-day haul from the northern Midwest is a trip outside the historical norm. But with the anticipation of a new season coupled with the Wheatland driving challenge looks to have resulted in a strong racer turnout. Currently there are 92 Pro entries expected in Missouri, along the 146 Sportsman – good for a weekend total of 238 entries spread over 20 classes.
Much of the attention will focus on the unlimited Pro2 and Pro4 categories. For the fourth consecutive season and the ninth time in ten years, CJ Greaves (pictured, top) extending his all-time record with another Pro4 championship to his incomparable resume in 2024. Jimmy Henderson, Adrian Cenni, Cole Mamer, and CJ’s father Johnny Greaves each picking up race wins along the way, with each of those drivers returning in 2025. Highly talented 2024 Pro2 champions Mickey Thomas (pictured below) will also be added to the Pro4 mix, while RJ Anderson, Adrian Cenni and Robert Stout set for limited schedules.

With Thomas moving to the Pro4 class, the door is open for Ryan Beat and Kyle Greaves, both multi-time Pro Lite champions that finished 2nd and 3rd in last season’s standings, to battle for the top positions. Category stand-outs Cory Winner and Ronnie Anderson are also scheduled for a limited 2025 schedule.
The AMSOIL Champ Off-Road Pro Buggy, Pro Spec and Pro Lite fields are highly stacked, as is the factory UTV battles for supremacy in Pro Stock SxS and Pro SxS.
Fans can catch all of this weekend’s action from Lucas Oil Speedway via live streams on FloRacing with broadcast encore on FOX Sports:
Sportsman Racing:
Saturday: 8:00am CT on FloRacing (U.S. and international)
Sunday: 8:45am CT on FloRacing (U.S. and International)
Pro Racing
Saturday: 1:30pm CT on FloRacing (U.S. and International)
Sunday: 2:30pm CT on FloRacing (U.S. and International)
Broadcast Encore (Full Race Replays)
9:00am CT: FOX Sports 2 (U.S.)
9:00am CT: FOX Sports Racing (Canada)
For more series information go to www.champoffroad.com
Marty Fiolka
A lifelong enthusiast of off road motorsports, Marty Fiolka raced his first Baja 1000 in 1992 and still enjoys getting behind the wheel via his annual BFG Team Rennsport NORRA Mexican 1000 effort. A graduate of University California at Long Beach, he founded The Rennsport Group in 1995 to execute motorsports public relations programs for Nissan, Infinity, Exxon, Mitsubishi, SCORE International and later became the editorial and marketing director for Dirtsports Magazine. Marty is a current contributor to RACER Magazine and RACER.com as well as operating the promotional agency for Crandon International Raceway and annual Red Bull Crandon World Cup. Fiolka was a 2014 Inductee to the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame (ORMHOF) and was instrumental in founding the Wide Open Baja adventure business and Ensenada's Horsepower Ranch. He also served as the associate producer of the original Dust to Glory documentary film and author of two books; 1000 Miles to Glory: The Baja 1000 Story and The Big Blue M: The History of McMillin Racing.
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