COSTA MESA, California (Sept. 19, 2014) – On a night when 11 Stadium Super Truck (SST) drivers returned to the series’ roots in Southern California, it was the massive jumps and high speeds the race track produced that stole the show at the OC Fair and Event Center Friday night.
Robby Gordon took advantage of the rough driving and tight racing the twisting track produced and captured victory in the first of two races to be held at the Sand Sports Super Show. The second race of the triple-header weekend for the SPEED Energy Formula Off-Road Presented by TRAXXAS series is tonight at the OC Fair and Event Center. Gates open at 5 p.m. with racing starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at the gate for $25 for adults and children 12 and under and military tickets $15. Race No. 3 of the weekend will be held 90 miles south on Sunday afternoon on Naval Air Station North Island (San Diego) as part of the Coronado Speed Festival.
After a series of qualifying and heat races, Friday’s race – which featured the entire field on DOT approved Toyo A/T tires – saw B.J. Baldwin start on pole for the 24-lap final race. Baldwin held the lead for much of the first half of the race before contact from Venezuela’s E.J. Viso caused both drivers to give up critical positions to Gordon. The smooth-driving Gordon inherited the lead and was never seriously challenged for the remainder of the event and ran mistake free in victory. TRAXXAS-driver Keegan Kincaid fought through tight racing from second through fourth positions and came home second. Viso, driving the LIVE/Momo SST recovered for third with Burt Jenner in the Gladiator entry coming home fourth.
Arizona’s Scotty Steele was fifth followed by Aaron Bambach in the Discount Tires TRAXXAS truck. Charles Dorrance from Texas in the Rigid Industries truck, Baldwin in the King Shocks truck, X Games winner Apdaly Lopes in his RPM Off-Road entry and Nick Vanis in the Iconwraps truck rounded out the field. Bill Hynes in the LIVE SST truck was involved in a single-truck accident in the final heat race and did not start the final.
“Our guys built a great race course that can be seen from every seat in the house, which puts on a great show for the fans,” Gordon said. “This is what Stadium Super Trucks is all about – high speeds, big jumps and tight racing.”
Las Vegas’ Baldwin, took everything in stride after being the recipient of Viso’s bumper that took him out of the lead. “It is what it is,” the calm driver said. “If that’s the way people want to race, that’s how we’ll race. We had a good run going and know we were fast in the King Shocks truck and we’ll go after them again Saturday.”
The race track the SST staff built features sweeping high-speed turns, a difficult sand pit section on the front stretch in front of the grandstands and a massive jump that takes trucks over another section of the race track with trucks passing underneath. The track was built adjacent to the Sand Sports Super Show which bills itself as the “world’s biggest sand sports expo.”
TORONTO, Ontario, Canada (July 19, 2014) – After winning last season at Toronto, Sheldon Creed of Alpine, Calif. picked up where he left off in the SPEED Energy Formula Off-Road Presented by TRAXXAS series by winning again on the picturesque downtown street circuit in Canada.
