Los Angeles, Calif. – Making its return to the birthplace of stadium off-road racing SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks invaded the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for a full night of racing action with three distinct divisions testing their skills on the uniquely prepared high flying dirt and asphalt course. Robby Gordon, Larry Swim, and Jerry Whelchel were able to conquer the multiple challenges to record wins in Round No. 3 of SST Competition.
Robby Gordon, of Orange, Calif., driving the #7 SPEED Energy / MAPEI / Toyo Tires truck held off points leader Rob MacCachren to capture his first win in Stadium SUPER Trucks history.

The 20-Lap SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks final began from a staggered start and saw first place starter Gordon jump out to the early lead. Entering turn 1, third place starter Ricky Johnson of El Cajon, Calif., opted to test the cross-over option for a chance to take the over the lead. Not going as planned Johnson’s evening quickly came to an abrupt end as a flat tire resulted in getting him off course in the middle of the peristyle. Trouble also found Jeff Ward on the opening lap as he became stuck in the sand step-up resulting in losing multiple laps to the leader.

Long Beach, Calif. – In a dominating performance, Justin Lofton overcame a practice mishap on Saturday by another driver to be the class of the field on Sunday on the way to winning his first ever SST race in the SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks Grand Prix of Long Beach.

As near perfect weather conditions blanketed Long Beach, Calif., the highly anticipated Round #2 of SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks took to the temporary constructed asphalt street course of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The starting line-up for the 10-lap SST Final would be determined by a complete invert of qualifying times in practice from Sunday morning. At the conclusion of the 20-minute practice session, Justin Lofton navigated through the 11 turns and over the four jumps of the 1.968 mi course the quickest of the 12 competitors with a blistering lap of 1:47:775. Nearly, two seconds faster than second place, Jeff Ward with a 1:49:615.

Charlotte, N.C. – Robby Gordon OFF-ROAD officials are honored to announce that the 2013 SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks Champion will be the recipient of the Inaugural Mickey Thompson Championship Trophy, named in honor of the late championship racer, innovator, and promoter, Mickey Thompson.

Born December 7, 1928, in San Fernando, Calif., Thompson was an integral player in the West Coast drag-racing scene of the 1950’s. His most notable achievement during this time was the creation of the first slingshot dragster in 1954.

However, it was during Mickey’s time managing the Lion Drag Strip near Long Beach, Calif., he created some of the most innovative improvements in racing safety. The development of the ‘Christmas Tree’ starting lights that are implemented throughout drag racing today, took the human starter out of the equation. During the same period, it was Mickey’s idea to fill barrels with water to help absorb a car’s energy during a crash; the same safety technique is now used in Stadium SUPER Trucks competition years later.

Parker, Ariz. – For the second year in a row, Robby Gordon dominated the Parker 425. This was the first appearance of the No.77 SPEED Energy / Toyo Tires Trophy Truck since the 2012 San Felipe 250.

The SPEED Energy / Toyo Tires Trophy Truck was quick from the start of qualifying on Thursday to the conclusion of the 425-mile lap race on Saturday. Gordon qualified second behind pole winner Rob MacCachren, which resulted in him starting the race one minute behind MacCachren. With an impressive start, Gordon caught and passed MacCachren within 20 minutes. Gordon talked to his crew about transmission heating issues after pushing the truck hard for the first 18 miles. MacCachren stayed within 10 seconds of Gordon for a few miles until Gordon eventually ran away from him. Gordon would then battle with Jason Voss, the fourth place starter, for the lead; Voss would stay within a few minutes of Gordon on corrected time until the second lap. At that point, Gordon’s crew made an incredible pit stop at mid-way. The SPEED Energy crew changed two tires and filled the No.77 SPEED Energy / Toyo Tires Trophy Truck with fuel in just 57 seconds. When the two drivers reached Lap 3, Gordon had pulled ahead of Voss by nearly 6 minutes and 32 seconds physically but only 4 minutes and 32 seconds on corrected time. Gordon would maintain that lead for the final lap, carefully passing slower vehicles on the course. He was the first Trophy Truck to cross the finish line, resulting in a memorable and flawless race for Gordon and navigator Charlie Holbrook.

While most professional race car drivers concentrate solely on their race programs, Jim Beaver has been hard at work the last two years building an all-encompassing brand consisting of mainstream media work, social media, brand ambassadorship, as well as an elite level racing program.  By merging his background in racing, radio, the auto industry, and business and marketing, he has taken the action motorsports world by storm.

Jim Beaver has built The Down & Dirty Radio Show Fueled By Speed Energy into the largest action motorsports radio show in the world. His voice reached over 200,000 unique listeners in 2012.  Covering off-road, rally, drifting, supercross, and snocross, Beaver has created a weekly show dedicated to the motorsports and athletes relevant to today’s generation of fans.

SANTIAGO, CHILE – Toyo Tires racers captured six stage wins and a total of 13 podiums during the running of the 2013 Dakar which completed its final stage this past weekend.  Running from Lima, Peru to Santiago, Chile, the roughly 5,000-mile 14-stage rally wound its way south along the Pacific Coast, while sweeping inland through parts of Argentina.  Competitors were challenged with extreme off-highway conditions which included huge sand dunes, rock strewn desert roads, deep river crossings and treks through high mountains.

In addition to Team Toyo’s Robby Gordon, two past Dakar champions Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al-Attiyah also took on the Dakar using Toyo Open Country M/T-R tires.  Immediately, Sainz captured Stage 1 with his American-built #303 Team Qatar Red Bull buggy.  Al-Attiyah then responded by winning Stages 3, 4 and 6 with his #300 Team Qatar Red Bull buggy.

Santiago, Chile – On the final day of the 2013 Dakar Rally, Robby Gordon and Kellon Walch set the pace to start Stage 14. However, the SPEED Energy / Toyo Tires / MAPEI HUMMER finished the 114KM stage in 6th place; it was the American duo’s first finish outside the top 5 since Stage 4.

The Rally consisted of ups and downs for Gordon as a driver and Walch as a navigator. No matter the outcome of the stage, the two continued to battle capturing 8 podiums and 2 stage wins in the world’s toughest off-road race. After the roll over on Day 4, Gordon knew that continuing with the Rally would help overall in developing the HUMMER to make it stronger to come back in 2014 to capture the ultimate goal in an overall win.

Copiapo, Chile – Today’s stage went extremely well for the SPEED Energy / Toyo Tires / MAPEI HUMMER until the last checkpoint where Robby Gordon and navigator Kellon Walch would find themselves stuck, losing precious minutes from their lead.

Gordon led the charge to start Stage 12 heading back into the country of Chile. The Rally started at 6 AM local time to cross over the Andes making it an exceptionally long liaison to the start of the 319KM Special. The competitors would race into the dunes of the Atacama desert, a place that Gordon has won multiple stages in the past.

Fiambalá, Argentina – The organization has again decided to cancel the remaining kilometers of Stage 11 due to flash flooding in the area. As a result, Robby Gordon was declared the winner since he was the leader at Checkpoint 1, where the organization decided to red flag the race.

“We won the stage, so today was a good special for us. It could have been a great special for us. I am sure we could have beat most of the cars by 30 minutes or more. It is a shame they had to cancel it because of weather since we would have climbed the standings today. The flooding was not too bad when we got to it; it was only about a foot or two high. Not a big deal, I mean I thought this was the Dakar, the toughest race in the world…it seems like they have lost sight of that this year,” commented a slightly disappointed Gordon even though he won the stage because he knew there was still more time to be gained on his competition.

La Rioja, Argentina – Stage 10 in this year’s Dakar Rally was a much shorter stage than yesterday but featured much of the same narrow WRC-style course. Given this, Robby Gordon and navigator Kellon Walch knew that it would not be suitable for the SPEED Energy / Toyo Tires / MAPEI HUMMER.

Starting fourth today allowed Gordon to keep pace with the 4wd cars in order to stay within reach. Gordon put on a spectacular show with his vehicle, pushing corners through river crossings and jumping cattle crossings, ultimately giving the locals a reason  to cheer. Gordon finished fifth, 6 minutes and 51 seconds behind the stage winner.