Stadium Super Trucks Makes its Way Back to St. Pete
So the IndyCar season FINALLY started! And it started with a bang… the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (GPSP) had drama from the weather which canceled practice on Friday to wing pieces all over the track on race day Sunday. Whenever I go to this race, my thoughts always return to my memories of Dan Wheldon. For those of you who follow me on Facebook, my profile picture will always be Dan Wheldon signing my shirt at Texas Motor Speedway.
The GPSP is raced on the streets of St. Petersburg and on part of the runway of the downtown local Albert Whitted Airport which means different surface materials, bumpy pavement, and concrete barrier walls making for some tight turns. As with many street courses, there are very few places from which to watch the racing. Fans end up watching most of it from a few of the television screens placed around the course. For my money the best place is the pit out grandstand, top row, end so you can watch the front stretch and into turn one. Since I am a Juan Pablo Montoya fan, I am very happy with the race result. For more details on the racing action please check out the news section of plugged2racing.com. Now it’s time for my commentary and interview! Hold on!
I am not surprised to see IndyCar following in the footsteps of other racing series. When entering into the track, a nice volunteer handed me a little pamphlet containing a track map and schedule of events. I immediately opened to find no mention of the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) autograph session. It’s a wonderful event, attended by 99% of the drivers who sat in the sun ready to greet fans.
Prior to each race weekend I attend, I find myself going to each of the individual support series (USF2000, ProMazda, IndyLights, Stadium Super Trucks) and with copy and paste techniques, I create my own full weekend schedule. What better way for the big boy race marketing groups to show support to the other series but include them in the program, schedule, and free pamphlets.
Now for the good stuff. At the 2014 Detroit Grand Prix race, I was getting ready to leave the track since the IndyCar schedule indicated all track activities were done for the day. When I noticed track workers were moving ramps onto the track. RAMPS?!! Are they really going to test the Indy aero-package? Then I heard a growly engine which turned out to be the Stadium Super Trucks.
With most of the crowd already headed to the shuttle buses, I was joined on pit road by many of the Indy crew members watching the trucks get airborne on the front stretch. It was incredible. I knew Robby Gordon raced the Baja Desert Race in a massive truck, but ramps on an Indy street course was something new….I stayed to watch. I saw the trucks twice in 2014, and put it on my “must see” list for the 2015 GPSP weekend.
I had met Robby Gordon several times with NASCAR and spoke with him again on Friday and Saturday after the first of two weekend races. While being very busy, Robby was nice enough to let me interview him and answer a few questions. I also took the advice of a good friend, and chatted with Burt Jenner, who won the Sunday race. Hope you enjoy!
First a little background, with the attention trucks have received, what started as “Robby Gordon Stadium Super Trucks” has found a remote controlled car manufacture sponsor and now is the “Speed Energy Formula Off-Road presented by Traxxas Stadium Super Trucks” which I am going to shorten to SST. The SST series makes Charlotte,NC home and the drivers fly into the track for the weekend to race. This truck series is included in the category of “Offroad racing” along with SUPER Buggy and Monster Truck racing and sanctioned by USAC (United States Auto Club). It was also great to get caught up with former IndyCar driver Davey Hamilton, who raced the trucks last year.
I first caught up with Burt Jenner, who has raced motocross in the desert,
go-karts, completed Skip Barber Formula cars, and for years grew a success business as a simulator “junkie”. How did he get involved with the trucks? In 2013, he was # 331 in line for an audition for the “Octane Academy” program and thought with such a high number he had no chance. Well, he must have been impressive because he received a 2nd call and he won the 2013 Ford Octane Academy in the #33 Lamborghini. This led to his being spotted by his current full-time sponsor Gladiator Tires.
As a newbie to the SST series, it appears all the trucks are similar and has an old-IROC feel to it, is this true? Burt mentioned that yes, each truck starts the same. Each driver is assigned to a truck for the season and each truck starts out newly built. How safe do you feel in this truck? Burt continues, “Robby goes over and above the minimum specs to ensure the truck is strong.” While the SST race is the most punishing racing Burt has ever done to his body, Burt does credit Robby for a strong built truck.
Robby Gordon added, “We have a pretty much blanket system on the cars, we’ve been doing it for a while and we are only getting better. With Regards to fans in general, IndyCar definitely puts fans in the grandstands, but we take them out of the grandstands and put them at the fence.”
With fans watching at the fence especially the faces of the kids have you considered a longer (duration) truck race? From Robby, “Yea, we barely get warmed up it seems. It comes down to the promoter; it helps us ask for longer sessions. If we were to get longer sessions, but we’ve never made the cars (trucks) run longer than 30 minutes. To talk about the kids, to be honest, in 30 minutes we’ve lost them. So maybe we are better off with 30 minutes before and after IndyCar and keep the same short races. You keep the people entertained and also gives us time to get the trucks put back together, and get them back out again. We could probably run 3 more laps without needing a tank of fuel. It’s fun, we are having a good time, and it’s definitely a young demographic.”
With your entire completion racing, is the SST series the most punishing on your body? Watch Robby answer this himself here.
SST is fast and furious and if you ever get the chance, I encourage you to watch in person or go to the website below and watch the YouTube action.
Now onto the topic of safety. A couple of years ago, I had the honor to be invited to Lime Rock Park very early one morning as the CJ Wilson Mazda Continental Tire Series team, led by Marc Miller, provided a safety demonstration for the track workers and emergency responders who would be positioned around the track. Marc held an excellent “extraction” demonstration even putting the track workers in the car providing for them an idea of how to help a driver especially if he was unconscious. I was greatly impressed watching this attention to learning driver extraction safety.
While most of the races at GPSP were either open cockpit or familiar type cars (Porsches, Lambo, Honda, etc.) maybe the track workers and EMS teams knew enough about the cars to help a driver in need. Does the door open? Do I bring the driver through the window? What type of harness is used? But what do the track safety workers know about the trucks?
To the knowledge of everyone I chatted with associated with SST, the track workers and EMS crew had not visited the truck paddock. On first glance of the truck, it appears the door would open, however the driver crawls in/out through the window. I wondered how much critical time would be lost by EMS trying to open the door. I am very proud to say I have shared my concern with those individuals, I feel they will change this and I am hopeful in the near future, an “extraction” demonstration will be performed at a future race.
Please give the series a follow:
Stadium SUPER Trucks @SSuperTrucks | @RobbyGordon | @BurtJenner
