2013 Stadium Super Trucks season

Robby Gordon, the 2013 Stadium Super Trucks champion

The 2013 Stadium Super Trucks season was the inaugural season of Stadium Super Trucks competition. The series marked the revival of off-road racing in stadiums, originally created by Mickey Thompson, and reintroduced by former NASCAR driver Robby Gordon.^[1] The series is one of four classes available, along with Bigfoot Monster Trucks, Super Trophy Karts and Super Buggys.^[2]

The champion was awarded the Mickey Thompson Championship Trophy.^[3] Gordon won the championship by seven points.^[4]

Season summary

Robby Gordon organized an exhibition race at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway in September 2012 for the series to test their equipment.^[5] Numerous TORC and LOORS off-road drivers were invited to participate.^[5]

The opening race of the season, at University of Phoenix Stadium, initially was led by Justin Matney, until Lalo Laguna passed him on lap 2. However, after hitting the water barrier, Laguna lost the lead to Rob MacCachren, who dominated the rest of the race.^[6] Next, the series traveled to Long Beach for the Grand Prix of Long Beach, with ramps added to the track.^[7] Justin Lofton won the race.^[8] Afterwards, SST remained in southern California at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, on the first ever asphalt track laid in the stadium.^[9]

Jerrett Brooks winning at Crandon

At the Edward Jones Dome, MacCachren triumphed; the next race was scheduled to occur at Soldier Field,^[10] but was eventually canceled.^[11] The Honda Indy Toronto road course was a late addition to the series schedule as a doubleheader.^[12] Justin Lofton and Sheldon Creed won the Saturday and Sunday races, respectively.^[13] The next stop was Crandon, with MacCachren claiming his fourth win of the season in the first race on Friday night.^[14] In the second race on Sunday afternoon, the trucks raced the track in the opposite direction for the second half of the 12-lap event.^[14] Creed and Jerrett Brooks battled for the win, with the latter winning.^[15] The next three rounds were held at Sand Sports Super Show, and in the first round, Lofton claimed the pole position with a lap time of 58.222, though the grid was inverted, giving Traxxas owner Mike Jenkins first to start the race. Robby Gordon dueled with Lofton, but Lofton eventually struck a water barrier, as Gordon won. Lofton subsequently suffered from mechanical issues, and finished fifth. In the next round, Gordon took the pole with a time of 58.372, though the field was again inverted, and Jenkins led to begin. However, Jenkins entered turn 2 too quickly, and rolled over, giving Apdaly Lopez the lead, though Lofton passed him. As in the previous race, Lofton and Gordon battled for the victory, but a miscue by Gordon allowed Lofton to get the win. Lofton and Gordon continued to dominate the track, and started first and second, respectively, in the third race. With the invert, Lopez led, and at the lap six restart, Gordon suffered damage to his truck, and rolled over. Gordon was able to make a late charge, but Creed eventually won.^[16] The season finale was held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, held concurrently with the SEMA auto show.^[17] In the race, P. J. Jones claimed his first win of the season, while Gordon won the championship by just seven points.^[4]

Schedule and results

Source:^[18]

Standings

Source:^[19]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Round 10 at Crandon.