Story By: GRAY LEADBETTER RACING – DENVER, NC – Defending Championship Off-Road Pro Spec champion Gray Leadbetter will return to her Ryan Beat Motorsports-prepared #28 Bilstein/Pennzoil/Toyo Tires Chevrolet Colorado at Crandon International Raceway, as the takes on the Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run on Saturday and Sunday.
Leadbetter remains in possession of the points leader’s red number plate coming into the third and fourth races of the 2023 campaign, and she’ll look to extend the advantage at the same track where she locked up last year’s title.
“It’s going to be a blast to get back to short course this weekend at Crandon,” said Leadbetter. “Ryan Beat and the whole R/BM team have worked their butts off to build the best truck on the Pro Spec grid, and I was thrilled to kick off the year at Antigo right where we were last year: fighting for the win. I feel on top of my game after all the driving I’ve been doing this month, and I think we have a good shot at our first win of the year at the Brush Run!”
The opening round at Antigo Lions Roaring Raceway saw Leadbetter back in the quick and consistent form that won her last year’s class championship. After qualifying fastest for Saturday’s kickoff race, she clawed her way through the field from sixth place on the grid after the invert to finish second, within a second on track of the winner. Sunday saw her recover from an early spin to finish second once again, this time after a brilliant restart after the competition caution that saw her fighting for the lead. The end result of the weekend was a five-point advantage over her closest competition coming into “The Big House.”
But between those two race weekends, Leadbetter headed to Jay, Oklahoma’s MidAmerica Outdoors to take part in the first round of the 2023-24 Nitrocross season in the SXS class. Competitive pace all weekend long yielded back-to-back fourth-place finishes in Saturday’s finals, with a brief stint in the lead in the first feature. It’s all added up to one of the busiest months of the 18-year-old’s young career, which started with preseason testing with R/BM and will eventually see her race six features across two different series and race classes.
Last year’s Crandon Brush Run saw Leadbetter take finishes of fourth and second, but she scored her fourth and final win of the 2022 campaign as part of the series’ most recent visit for last September’s World Championship. That win and a third place finish in the finale were integral to her championship win, which came by a razor-thin three-point margin.
Leadbetter’s first track time comes on Friday, with Pro Spec practice at 12:00PM and qualifying at 3:55. Her races are scheduled for 4:15PM on Saturday and 4:45PM on Sunday.