After taking a year off because of safety reasons, Stadium Super Trucks are back for Superloop Adelaide 500 in 2020
Stadium Super Trucks will return from a one-year hiatus to again turn heads and send excitement levels through the roof at this year’s Superloop Adelaide 500.
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Stadium Super Trucks will make a return to the Superloop Adelaide 500 this year to kick off its world championship series in 2020.
It is the first of eight Supercars events the high-flying race vehicles will be supporting this season, after they were prevented from being included in 2019 because of safety reasons.
The category worked with Motorsport Australia, formerly the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), to address the concerns, however series founder Robby Gordon does not predict fans will notice the difference on track.
“We had a couple of wheel issues,” he said, the most prominent being when a wheel came off of one truck during a race in Perth, which bounced up to hit a pedestrian bridge, that led to the category to be banned.
“We’re not the only ones who had issues.
“We’ve done everything we can to solve that problem and make sure we don’t have an issue.
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“It’s not only Australia, it’s anywhere; if we’ve got a safety issue, we’re going to address it.
“We were probably a little too rough in the beginning.
“I think we’re going to provide similar racing, if not more exciting racing.
“I don’t think the fans are going to miss a beat.
“The racing will be equal, if not better.
“I think the trucks are more reliable.
Gordon said he worked with officials on the race cars to get back on Australian racetracks because Supercars was a quality form of motorsport to be a part of, and Australian fans had quickly embraced the category that he created in 2013.
Adelaide 500 statistics show Stadium Super Trucks have been the favourite support category to the Supercars at previous events.
This weekend’s round is the first of three Team Australia versus Team USA events to be held in Australia this year.
The other five rounds to be held will determine an Australian series champion.
Off-road racers Toby Price and Greg Gartner, touring car drivers Paul Weel, Shae Davies, and Paul Morris, and Toyota 86 racer Luke Vanna will represent Australia.
Gordon said Stadium Super Trucks, in which the 600 horsepower ute-style vehicles fly over jumps placed along the racetrack, differed from other types of motorsport because of the reverse aero that occurs when the trucks fly through the air.
In traditional car racing, the first vehicle in clean air has the speed advantage, but in SST, the racer several cars back may be the fastest.
“Our trucks make lift, so the guy with the truck first has a disadvantage – the drafting speed is incredible,” he said.
“The car in the dirty air has more grip than the clean air.
“What it does is it makes excellent racing.
“The fourth/fifth (truck) goes faster.”
Gordon said Matt Brabham, grandson of Formula One champion Jack Brabham, who has been racing in the category for several years, would be the driver to beat.
“He’s won the (SST) championship the past two years,” he said.
“There’s no reason he’s not sitting in an Indy car or Supercar.”