Recently Crowned/Record Setting AMSOIL Off-Road Championship Champ CJ Greaves

Just outside of Green Bay, Wisc., in the heart of the championship short course off-road truck and buggy cottage industry, sits Greaves Motorsports – home of this year’s AMSOIL Championship Off-Road premier PRO 4 class winter, Colton “CJ” Greaves.

Behind the wheel of the distinct sound of the blazing No. 33 Toyota, CJ stepped up and, after a bit of a slow start, captured his record-setting 8th PRO 4 title with a thrilling come from behind effort at the 1,600 acre MidAmerica Outdoors motorsports park in Jay, Oklahoma – the (abbreviated) final round of the 2023 AMSOIL Championship Off-Road series.

Earlier in the day Greaves had sewn up the PRO Stock SXS (side by side) title, dominating that class with a runaway overall victory for his second AMSOIL Off-Road title, while also finishing as the runner-up in his first year of racing the PRO Turbo SXS class. Three classes with two wins and a runner-up finish – that’s Ironman-worthy praise for the longtime (13 years) Monster Energy-backed short course off-road great.

We caught up with CJ to get his take on this summer’s racing in the upper Midwest, his record-setting effort in the PRO 4 class and an SXS championship to boot.

Hey, right out of the starting gate, congrats from everyone at Monster Energy on your third consecutive – and 8th overall - AMSOIL Championship Off-Road premier PRO 4 class title. How’s that feeling this week?

2023 was a very up and down year. So to walk away with the most wins, for the third consecutive year, and to be the only PRO 4 driver to win eight championships is pretty unreal! 

One of your main rivals in the PRO 4 class, Jimmy Henderson, got the better of you early in the season by sweeping the Crandon (Wisc.) Brush Run. After that you went on a tear, leading Henderson by 40 points heading into last weekend’s final round in Oklahoma. Were there some growing pains for you, the team, and the new truck early in the season? Or was the competition, including Henderson, just that much better this year?

Jimmy and I had some awesome battles early on. I think our biggest unknown was making the switch to Toyo tires this year. With trying to learn the new tires, what tire best fits our trucks, and getting our set up on our trucks to work with the tires – that set us a little bit behind out of the gate. 

You won an impressive seven PRO 4 races this year. Does any of them stick out as to being more critical – towards your championship – than the rest? In other words, was there a race or two that stuck out as the turning point of the season for you?

Seven wins on the season was awesome. I think Saturday at the fall Crandon World Championships, leading flag to flag, and having fast lap was definitely one that stuck out as a statement win. The second one would probably be the fall finale in Oklahoma, coming from the back and getting around my good buddy Kyle on the last lap was a lot of fun. 

Yeah, that last race in Oklahoma was a wild one. Talk about what went down, from the early flat tire to battling back towards the front and the break you caught at the very end to wrap up the PRO 4 championship.

The finale in Oklahoma was a wild one for sure. The track was something none of us have been on, and not only that, but the track has never seen trucks like ours either. I had a little hiccup in practice and didn’t get to turn any laps with my PRO 4. So going into the race I knew I had to be patient early on feel out my truck and the track and then work forward from there. My truck was absolutely on rails and it was just a matter of me doing my work and getting the truck to the front in one piece. Ended up being an epic race.

No doubt. So you’ve got one of the coolest relationships in all of motorsports with your dad. How does that work off the track, in terms of advice he gives you. And when you guys are on the track, are you as competitive with him as the other racers – possibly even more competitive?

It’s pretty unreal being able to race not only for a family owned team, but your own family owned team. Then on top of that getting to race against your dad almost your whole career is pretty unreal. On and off the track we work very well together – as does our team in a whole. We do the best we can to help each other, regardless of the circumstances. We have always just agreed to race each other as hard as anyone else, and respectfully as we can, and it always just seem to work out. 

You ever, somewhat knowingly, sent your dad into the weeds?

My dad and I, fortunately, have stayed out of each other for a good majority of the races. I think we’ve only ever got together one time, and it was on accident on both of our behalf.

In addition to the PRO 4 title, you also won the inaugural AMSOIL Championship Off-Road Pro Stock SXS class in your Polaris side-by-side. Talk a bit about how it is bouncing from the driver’s seat of a 900 horsepower PRO 4 truck and into the cockpit of a, more or less, out-of-the-crate consumer SXS.

It’s pretty awesome to have the opportunity with the backing of factory Polaris. So not only do we get to go race a 900 hp truck, we then get your strap in a naturally aspirated 100 hp car, and also get to race a Turbo 200 hp car. My Polaris RS one has been on absolute rails all year, winning every race that we finished at 100-percent power. It’s been a ton of fun learning and developing with Polaris and I’m excited to continue to see where it goes.

That’s excellent. Let us ask you this… Which is more difficult to race, the PRO 4 truck or the SXS?

That’s a popular question. It’s actually hard to say which one is more difficult to drive, because they all have their kinks and curves. They all drive so different, and you have to have such a different driving style in them. All each one is kind of unique to its class, and all produced different difficulties and driving styles that must be adapted with the class. 

Interesting. The only thing that got in the way of a three-for-three championship summer was Kyle Chaney in the PRO Turbo SXS class, to which you finished 2nd overall – a mere 11 points back of Chaney, making for one of the closest championship chases of the season. Was three AMSOIL Off-Road Championship titles just too tall of an order for Team Greaves? Or is that one you’ve got checked for next summer that’ll garner special attention.

The PRO Turbo class is still new to us, but being able to go into the final race with a fighting chance against an SXS legend, like Kyle Chaney, was an honor. With everything we learned this year, we’re definitely coming back stronger next year. That’s definitely another title we’re gonna put under the Greaves team name. 

So your dad got a new truck this season. When’s yours on order and, when the parts come in, how much will you be involved with that, from a ‘spinning wrenches’ standpoint?

So we are in the works of building my new truck currently, as my current truck has been sold to Kyle Chaney. We will have my new truck ready to debut at the first race of the year (2024 AMSOIL Championship Off-Road schedule TBA). My involvement in the truck build is a lot more minimal than my UTV. While my PRO 4 is getting built, we are also always continuing development and builds on the UTVs, which is more my department. I have a lot of input in the design and build of my new truck, just not as much hands-on as I am with most builds. Just not enough hands to build them all! (laughter) 

Right on, CJ. Been fun catching your highlights this summer. Congrats again from everyone at Monster Energy.

To close it out it’s been an awesome ride and honored to be able to rep the Monster Energy name and brand for a continued 13+ years. Glad we were able to put a couple more titles under the brand. Excited to continue the growth and the future together as we try to keep chipping away at the stats.