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25 Days Start to Finish – Greaves Monster Energy Pro 2
“Bandit” Debuts
Suamico, Wisconsin (April 23, 2008) Johnny Greaves and his
crew wasted no time and completed what many said could not be
done. But in fact, they have succeeded and will be a threat in
the heavily populated CORR Pro 2 field come this weekend at
the 2008 CORR Season Opener. The first race weekend of the
year is set to explode on the dirt track at the LA Fairplex-Pomona
Fairgrounds in the metropolitan Los Angeles area. However,
that’s a damn long way from the quiet town of Suamico,
(pronounced -Swah-Miko) Wisconsin. A week before Easter Sunday
the telephone rang in the Greaves Motorsports shop as Monster
Joe pitched 6-time CORR Champion, Johnny Greaves, a plot that
would soon thicken. Monster Energy was asking Greaves if he
could support the brand by racing both CORR Pro 4 and CORR Pro
2. “It was like a dream come true. Our racing team partner
called us up and asked us if we wanted to race more…I smiled
and said yes,” said a smiling Johnny Greaves.
Greaves was soon on the phone and found himself an existing
Pro 2 that was for sale by Coyne Motorsports in El Centro,
California, near the Mexico border.
“I did the deal with Travis Coyne on his Pro 2 and then I had
to figure out how to get it out here to Wisconsin over the
Easter holiday. I called my friends at DIRTnewz and told em’ I
had a plan. Big Dirty picked up the truck and trailer in
Temecula and he was off to another 2300-mile adventure to
Wisconsin.
‘But before Dirty could even get here, we (the crew) went to
have lunch on the Friday before Easter and had a few drinks
calling it quits early until Monday when Dirty would arrive
with the Coyne Pro 2. But a few Monster and Vodkas later we
decided to go ahead and just build a brand new Greaves Pro 2.
However, that meant we had less than 30 days to get it done
knowing that we had to be in California for the first race on
April 26 and we had to travel and test all before we got to
the track.”
DIRTnewz arrived late Monday night and Tuesday we discovered
that the Greaves Motorsports crew had already been working 18
hour days since Easter Sunday. In fact, the Saturday before
Johnny and his sidekick, Factory, headed to Ross Hoek’s shop
in Holland, Michigan where they picked up a brand new Ross
Hoek Pro 2 Kit with the square tube frame rails and selected
components that come standard with Ross’ kit.
Johnny said it best, “Ross makes a great kit and it saved us a
lot of time in setting up the initial part of the truck. You
have to remember that these are spec chassis and they all have
to be the same and Ross’ kit is excellent. And then we put our
own Greaves love into the truck and well here we are in
California all tested and she’s ready to rock and roll with
the best of CORR.”
The shop was nonstop for some 25 days as the crew of five
never stopped other than to catch some shuteye and grab a bite
to eat once a day. In fact, on day four they were eating
frozen cheese pizza for dinner that was undercooked and they
just smiled. All five guys, Johnny, Curt, Brad, Kelly and
Factory put in some long hours engineering, fabricating and
TIG welding this incredible Monster Energy Pro 2 together in a
record 25 straight days.
After blazing a trail from their Wisconsin shop they ran into
a problem with a flock of turkeys, one that flew through the
windshield of the Monster Energy / Potawatomi Casino Peterbilt
Semi-Tractor trailer and sidelined them for a few hours until
the replacement windshield arrived on a Saturday late
afternoon…Kansas time.
Arriving to the test track on the 25th day, Johnny Greaves
took the new #4 Pro 2 through the paces and within two hours
he was railing the race track like he was on fire.
Johnny commented, “Dirty, they said we couldn’t do it and low
and behold we’re here in California and the truck is really
good.”
Greaves smiled and laughed softly telling the crew to wrap up
the testing session and head for the house.
Johnny and crew will debut the new # 4 Pro 2 “Monster Energy
Bandit” at the Los Angeles Fairplex on Saturday, April 26,
2008.
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