Video - Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks Preview for the Coliseum
After a successful opening round in Arizona and demonstration at the Long Beach Gran Prix last weekend, the Stadium Super Truck series heads to the location where Robby Gordon first made the announcement for the series – the LA Coliseum.
The event heads to the Coliseum, a location where many Mickey Thompson off-road races occurred over the years. Gordon envisioned his series being held at the same high-profile locations Thompson built his series upon decades earlier. The Coliseum is the largest stadium in Southern California and is in the hot-bed of much of the off-road industry – it’s an ideal venue to hold this type of race in the area.
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The biggest change for the Coliseum race compared to the opening round in Arizona is a lack of dirt. The team went to work Wednesday night laying down a serious amount of asphalt – so much so that there’s more track than dirt at the Coliseum racetrack. Gordon told us this is the first time the Coliseum has ever had asphalt laid down, and he said there’s a clear method behind the concept.
“The biggest thing is fans – we’re after trying to attract a new audience,” Gordon said. “A lot of people know about off-road racing, but then again a lot of people don’t know about off-road racing, and what I wanted to do is to have a girl come here in her sundress and watch a good night of entertainment without getting a bunch of dirt on her. So that was my biggest concern is how do we put on a good, clean event without turning it into a dust storm.”
The course may not have a great deal of dirt, but there are plenty of pitfalls and challenges for racers on this course. Justin Lofton, winner of the exhibition round two, went out for a few practice laps on the newly created course today and talked about what it’s going to take for a solid finish on Saturday.
“I think it’s all about keeping things low, and from what I saw there, we’ll see what the rules are going to be with suspension and not letting that rear end drop out like it is because that’s ultimately what’s keeping me from getting up that triple,” Lofton said after his first few laps around the course. “It’s all about trying to figure out the longest area of the track and taking the most time off that. At least in Stock Car Racing that’s what we do, like when we’re going to Pocono, where there’s two different corners, you figure out which one is longer and make that your fastest corner. If you make that one your fastest corner the other one you can figure out how to get through and lose the minimum amount of time.”
We’ll be looking forward to some great racing on Saturday. The gates open at 11 a.m., with racing starting in the evening at 7 p.m. Be sure to check back for coverage of this weekend’s Stadium Super Trucks race at the Los Angeles Coliseum. For more information on the series, visit http://www.stadiumsupertrucks.com/.
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