Todd Rose | Daily Press Bark River's Kyle Kleiman takes off in his Pro 2 truck as it spits flames Saturday afternoon at the Bark River International Raceway.

BARK RIVER — A near cloudless Saturday and Sunday welcomed race fans back to the Bark River International Raceway for the first time in two years after the cancellation of last year’s event put a year-long hold on the 45th Annual Island Resort and Casino Off-Road Rumble in the U.P.

The year of anticipation for racing’s return in Bark River, though, was worth the wait as both days — and a total of 17 divisions from the AMSOIL Championship Off-Road tour — provided a full plate of dust slinging, high flying, white knuckle racing entertainment.

For the Champ Off-Road drivers and teams, the event was the penultimate round of the 2021 racing campaign.

One driver who provided plenty of that excitement was Pro 2 racer and Bark River native Kyle Kleiman.

Kleiman, the defending Pro 2 division champion, was — like many — excited for the return to the Bark River International Raceway.

“It’s my hometown track, so (it’s great) to be back here at Bark River,” Kleiman said. “Hats off to everybody — all the volunteers that put on this event. It takes a lot of people, and it’s really the whole community that makes this happen. So, huge thanks to the Lions Club, everybody that’s involved, the whole community.

“Being a hometown crowd, and everything like that, I love racing here. I love the track. They do a really good job with the facilities. It was a bummer not being able to race here last year, but I think it just made this year that much better with that anticipation to get back out here.”

Kleiman’s weekend ended with a bit of a roller coaster race on Sunday. Off the start, he found himself in sixth but quickly moved to third as several trucks tangled in turn one in front of him.

Then he experienced some trouble, dropping to the tail of the field before the race’s competition caution.

From 12th, he was able to work his way around several drivers — some who experienced issues of their own — to finish unofficially in seventh position.

Jerrett Brooks won the Sunday race ahead of Cory Winner and Ricky Gutierrez.

Kleiman had a similar challenge Saturday. After starting on the front row, he slipped wide in the first turn and fell to sixth. Again, he battled to the end, finishing in fourth.

“We did a lot of changes from the last race to this race, so I had to really get a feel for the truck. We didn’t really get a lot of time in the truck,” Kleiman said. “After the little mishap in the beginning, I started to feel the truck out, and it started to come in toward the end with the more laps I got. We ended up laying down the third fastest lap.”

Keegan Kincaid, Mickey Thomas and Brooks were the top three Saturday in Pro 2.

Another driver excited about the return of Bark River to the 2021 AMSOIL Championship Off-Road schedule was Green Bay’s CJ Greaves who swept the Pro 4 contests — ahead of Doug Mittag and Andrew Carlson Sunday and Jimmy Henderson and Ben Passa Saturday — over the weekend.

Both days featured similar scenarios with CJ battling father Johnny Greaves for the lead in the early going. Each battle, however, was derailed by mechanical issues (tie rod Saturday, power steering Sunday) on Johhny’s Pro 4 truck.

“First off, I’m just glad to be back here in Bark River. I love coming to this track,” said C.J. Greaves. “This is one of my favorite tracks on the circuit, and missing it last year really was a bummer. So, knowing that we were coming back this year, we were all super excited.

“To top it off, to be able to come out here in Pro 4 and sweep the weekend and make it the best points weekend we needed to have was amazing. So, that’s all that we could ask for.”

The chance to race a legend like Johnny Greaves — who hit 100 career wins at the last round at Dirt City in Lena, Wis. — is probably a singular opportunity for any off-road racer. For C.J., the added layer of that legend being his father is doubly special.

“We’ve been racing each other I think for five or six years racing against each other in the class,” he said. “It’s just something you can’t ever replace, and you probably can’t ever explain it either. … He owns the team. This is all his, and I get to be a part of it, and then we get to go out there and battle with each other.”

As can be expected with the fast, yet technical, course that is the Bark River International Raceway, several drivers found themselves in trouble with many going for wild tumbles.

One driver whose weekend didn’t quite go as he had wished was Escanaba’s Braden Beachamp, who competes in the Super Stock division.

After experiencing issues in Saturday’s race, Beauchamp went for a series of barrel rolls before being struck by another driver in, ironically, his favorite spot of the track — the run from Cemetery Corner to the jump.

Beauchamp, though shaken up in the crash was uninjured. Or, as he put it, “just sore.”

“I was coming through the back section. Right after Cemetary Corner there is a set of two doubles (a pair of jumps), and you try and cut the last jump to drive up the hill to cut the corners a bit,” Beauchamp said. “When I went to turn the truck, the rear end kind of unloaded itself, and I got a little bit loose.

“It just pointed me too far, and I might have turned in a little too early. I landed, drove up on the inside dirt wall, and that got me on two wheels and then I rolled three or four times.”

Despite the issues both days, Beauchamp was still happy to be racing in front of a hometown crowd and — like Kleiman and C.J. Greaves — was thrilled to have the event back on the schedule.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s by far my favorite track now. I just love the high-speed technical sections. We had a year off, and I think that made the racing even more exciting. People were excited to be back here. I was excited to be back here.

“There’s a different feeling about being at your home track and being able to race for the fans you know.”

With a big project of repairing the truck before the next round at Crandon International Raceway, Beauchamp is ready for the task ahead.

“We got three weeks,” he said. “We tear down and rebuild and be back up front, hopefully.”

When posted, full event results for all 17 divisions will be available at www.champoffroad.com. They will also be published in the Daily Press when they are available.

The AMSOIL Championship Off-Road Series closes its 2021 season Labor Day weekend at the Crandon International Raceway in Crandon, Wis.