Robby Gordon, who has competed in off-road events as well as Sprint Cup races this year, plans to create an off-road racing series that will compete in stadiums beginning in 2013.
The series—Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks Series—will feature at least 10 events, according to a news release.
Gordon, a former off-road champion, put his Sprint Cup team on hold in March because of a lack of funding. Hoping to fund his racing program through sales of his Speed Energy drink, Gordon has not attempted to qualify for a Cup race since California but does plan to compete on the road course at Sonoma in late June.
Since then, he has continued to compete in off-road events and work on creating the stadium series, which he announced Tuesday night in the L.A. Coliseum. He plans to have at least two events in Los Angeles and San Diego with the remainder of the schedule announced later this year. The events will be two-day shows and will be modeled after the former Mickey Thompson Off-Road Race Series.
“Stadium racing helped Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears and myself launch our careers,” said Gordon, a former IndyCar driver who has three NASCAR Sprint Cup wins. “Bringing off-road racing back to the stadium like Mickey Thompson did has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and I am proud to say that we have finally accomplished it.
“SST offers attractive racing venues, remarkable track designs, substantial purses, and opportunity for network TV a lot like NASCAR because you can visualize the whole track.”
The top three finishers each weekend will earn a piece of the $60,000 purse and the overall series champion will be awarded $500,000.
The trucks will have 600 horsepower V-8 engines with 20 inches of wheel travel while racing on DOT-approved tires that can be purchased for passenger vehicles.
