LAS VEGAS, Nevada– Sheldon Creed drove his TRAXXAS truck to victory over Robby Gordon in the season finale of the SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks Presented by TRAXXAS race Thursday night, as the standing room only crowd cheered in excitement.
Transformed overnight the Thursday event adjacent to the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip, featured two unique divisions of off-road racing. The Arctic Cat Wildcat Stadium Side x Sides, and the main attraction Stadium SUPER Trucks.
The Las Vegas victory was the 18-year-old Creed’s ninth of the season. After breaking an axle in the heat race the Alpine, Calif. off-road prodigy would blast out to the early lead from his second starting position and would never look back. By strategically taking the joker lap later in race segment Creed would be able to put sizable lead on the hard charging Arctic Cat/ Toyo Tires driver of Robby Gordon whom ran out of laps as he tried to catch the ultra quick Creed and settled for second position in the 12-lap main event.
Scotty Steele from Peoria, Arizona would overcome his hood blown up in his line of vision for majority of the race to navigate the LIVE/Think Loud Recordings/ Think Loud Advisors truck around the twisty and fast paced circuit to well earned third place finish.
NASCAR Europe standout Anthony Gandon, from Bayonne, France making his first SST start drove a smooth and clean race to finish with a respectable fourth place finish in the Red Style!/ Carrosserie Ayensa truck. Rounding out the top five was famed Gold Coast, Australia Stuntman turned SST driver Matt Mingay, driving for Team LIVE/Think Loud Recordings/United Fiber and Data.
Gandon and Mingay whom both traveled thousands of miles to participate in the SST Las Vegas event both displayed huge smiles after the checkered flag flew.
“I have driven many forms of racecars, and been to many events around the globe, but these SST trucks and the event Robby Gordon and staff put on is like nothing I have ever experienced before, the chaos on track and pure entertainment for the fans is one of a kind,” stated the young Frenchmen.
The most intense battle on the track however took place between Austin, Texas driver Charles Dorrance in the Sportsman’s Finest truck and Nazareth, Penn., driver Bill Hynes in the LIVE/Think Loud Recordings/Think Loud Advisors SST. The two drivers battled hard lap after lap the entire 12-circuits, even colliding with one another and coming to a halt prior to the cross over jump on one instance. The two drivers who have battled hard with each other all year did not make the Las Vegas event an exception. Dorrance went on to finish ahead of Hynes in the sixth position, while Hynes claimed seventh.
Making his return to an SST truck since X Games Austin in 2014, Manhattan Beach, Calif. competitor Greg Adler in the Toyo Tires/ 4 Wheel Parts truck would incur some damage after sliding into the cross over under and would ultimately finish the race in eighth spot with a beaten and battered truck body.
Crandon, Wisc. driver Keegan Kincaid would encounter a broken axle after the competition caution and would not finish. His TRAXXAS truck would go on to be credited in the ninth position. Los Angeles, Calif. driver Burt Jenner in his Gladiator Tires truck would also encounter a broken axle and would be credited with the tenth.
Creed with his SST victory would go on to clinch the 2015 SST Championship ahead of Robby Gordon by merely single digits. All year long Creed and Gordon battled back and forth on the track and in the point’s standings swapping positions multiple times. Creed’s great runs in Australia the last two weeks, where Gordon got mixed up in trouble set Creed up for the opportunity to come out ahead in Las Vegas. Creed would go on to capture his first SST Championship and the first Championship for Team TRAXXAS.
Gordon would finish the points standing in the second position, while Creed’s teammate Keegan Kincaid would finish in the third position, followed by Gladiator Tire pilot Burt Jenner in the fourth position.
Joining the SST trucks as a support category for the second time in 2015 was the ultra popular Arctic Cat Wildcat Stadium Side x Sides. Just like their big brother the SST’s the Wildcats are identically prepared, and put the drivers up against one another with pure driving talent. SST drivers took the reigns of the Wildcat’s this night and just like in the SST race Sheldon Creed and Robby Gordon broke out to the early lead and would go on to finish that way three wheeling and sliding thru the corners truely displaying the power and capability of the Wildcat suspension.
The SST race from the Las Vegas Village in Las Vegas will be shown on CBSSN November 18 at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT with a re-air on November 22.
As the 2015 North American SST season has come to an end, the season will continue with a non points race at the Coates Hire Sydney 500 December 4-6 in Sydney, NSW, Australia. SST will once again begin its 2016 season at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, Australia March 3-6 followed by a full slate of races globally, a complete schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.
SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks Presented by Traxxas
Las Vegas Village Finish Las Vegas, Nevada
1. Sheldon Creed No. 74; Alpine, Calif.; TRAXXAS
2. Robby Gordon No. 7; Orange, Calif.; SPEED Energy/Toyo Tires/TRAXXAS
3. Scotty Steele No. 48; Peoria, Ariz.; LIVE/Think Loud
Recordings/United Fiber & Data
4. Anthony Gandon No. 777; Bayonne, France; Red Style!/Carrosserie Ayensa
5. Matt Mingay No. 2; Gold Coast, Queensland, Aus. LIVE/ Think Loud Recordings/
United Fiber & Data
6. Charles Dorrance No. 3; Austin, Texas; Sportsman’s Finest
7. Bill Hynes No. 57; Nazareth, Penn.; LIVE/
Think Loud Recordings/United Fiber & Data
8. Greg Adler No. 10; Manhattan Beach, California; Toyo Tires/ 4 Wheel Parts
9. Keegan Kincaid Crandon, Wisc.; TRAXXAS
10. Burt Jenner No. 50; Los Angeles, Calif. Gladiator Tires