Professional off-road racer Gray Leadbetter earned a slice of redemption in Sunday’s Championship Off-Road Pro Lite action from Bark River International Raceway. After two hardware-worthy performances at Dirt City Motorplex last month fell short due to unlucky breaks, the driver of the #28 On Track School/Yokohama/Pepper Palace/Ryan Beat Motorsports Chevrolet finally got her first Pro Lite podium with a second place finish in the first race of the weekend.

“I’m kind of speechless,” Leadbetter said from the podium. “We had the opportunity in Dirt City, and obviously things just didn’t go our way, so I’m just happy to be here. It feels so good to be up here and back on the box with everyone. I kind of like racing in the morning! Can we do this more often?”

Saturday’s scheduled race was postponed until Sunday morning due to weather, but Leadbetter was undeterred. She settled into fourth in the first half of the race and turned the wick up a notch after the re-rack, pushing hard while also defending her spot from multiple challengers. Contact between the leaders and a subsequent penalty advanced her to third, then second, and she avoided mistakes as the drivers fighting for third made contact of their own in the closing minutes.

The afternoon was set to be more of the same as Leadbetter once again ran in podium position for most of the race, but unfortunately she’d pull off from third with under two laps to go. Nonetheless, thanks to her podium in the morning, Leadbetter is back to fifth in the championship. She sits just four points out of fourth place coming into Labor Day weekend at Crandon International Raceway.

“It felt so good to get a podium under our belt after the battles of Dirt City,” Leadbetter added. “Although the bad luck still came our way in the second race of the weekend, we once again know we have the pace, even at the bigger tracks. We’re looking forward to Crandon. It’s always a fun time there and I’m so excited to see what we can do in the Cup race!”

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Tickets to this year’s Crandon World Championships on August 28-30 are available now. Click here to purchase tickets to watch Gray race!

Gray Leadbetter’s Championship Off-Road program is supported by On Track School, Yokohama, Pepper Palace, Sparco, Vision Wheel, and Ryan Beat Motorsports. For more information on Gray, follow her on social media @grayleadbetter or visit GrayLeadbetter.com for her full schedule.