Autoweek - January 23_ 2017 magazine-pdf.org

SIMPLY SUPER
STADIUM SUPER TRUCKS’ ROBBY GORDON
BRACES FOR MORE HIGH FLYING IN 2017
BY ALANIS KING
SINCE STADIUM
Super Trucks began
in 2013, plenty of things have
strayed from series founder
Robby Gordon’s expectations.
Most recently, Gordon
didn’t know what to expect
when SST raced after the
Verizon IndyCar Series’ main
event at the 2016 Grand Prix
of Long Beach.
“I was a little scared,”
Gordon said. “(I was) thinking,
‘Oh my gosh, the crowd
is going to leave. Nobody is
going to watch.’ But Sunday,
we filled the grandstands
after IndyCar.”
Throughout the series’ four
years, changing expectations
have been a staple. Gordon’s
original vision for SST—hauling
dirt piles into stadium
venues for closed-course offroad
racing—flipped after he
discovered that metal ramps,
asphalt and race tracks were
the way to go instead.
SST now shares most of
its events with other racing series
rather than holding its
own shows. The series drew
30,000 spectators for its first
championship event at the
University of Phoenix football
stadium in Glendale,
Arizona, in 2013. Running as a
companion series has led to
consistently larger audiences.
“I think what I envisioned
Stadium Super Trucks to be
has changed for the better,”
Gordon said. “The positive
side is that we race in front
of over a million people a year
at our 10 events. Our average
is over 100,000 an event,
which is pretty good.”
Gordon said the series has
between 10 and 12 multiplerace
events in 2017, competing
in the U.S., Australia and even
“I think what I
envisioned Stadium
Super Trucks to be
has changed for
the better”
-Robby Gordon
China. But no matter where
the series is, Gordon knows
what to expect from those
in attendance.
“The people, they stand
on their feet,” Gordon said.
“They’ve got their cameras
and phones above their heads,
and it is 30 minutes of actionpacked
racing.”
In returning to the series’
roots, Gordon said he’d like
to bring that racing back to
a few stadium venues in the
coming years. But since his
series gets to “go and play
at major events,” he’s pretty
happy with how things are.
“I have no problem following
IndyCar these days,” he
said. “I’m confident with the
crowd, that they’re going to
stay there and stand on their
feet and yell and scream.
That’s a good thing.”
The series began and
ended its 2016 season alongside
Australia’s V8 Supercars,
and it also held support races
for the Verizon IndyCar Series
at several stops in its 21-race
season. Sheldon Creed, just 19,
won 12 races, including the
season finale. Creed won the
series title, his second in a
row, despite making fewer
starts than three of the top-five
finishers in the points chase.
Matthew Brabham (shown
in the lead below) and series
founder Gordon each won
three races in 2016, and the
remaining wins went to parttime
drivers E.J. Viso, Keegan
Kincaid and Burt Jenner. c
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