Long Beach Stadium Truck Races

ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MAHER

The Covid 19 pandemic was not kind to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Originally scheduled for April 2020, it had to be cancelled when the Coronavirus pandemic hit America just weeks before the race was to be run. The lingering effects of the pandemic also prevented the race from being run in April of 2021. The solution was to place the race at the end of the 2021 Indy Car schedule, the last weekend of September (24-26) where it would be the season finale and the championship decider.

With the return to the streets of Long Beach of the Indy Car series also came the return of Robby Gordon's Stadium Super Truck Series, which have been part of the Long Beach Grand Prix weekend since 2013. The popular trucks would run on all three days of Grand Prix weekend, with a practice and qualifying session on Friday and races both Saturday and Sunday.

In the qualifying session, Gordon himself was the fastest qualifier, breaking a streak by Matt Brabham, son of racer Geoff Brabham and grandson of Grand Prix legend Jack Brabham, who had won the last five straight pole positions in the series. The drawback to qualifying fast for this series is that they invert the field for the starting grid and thus Robby would start last on the grid for Saturday's race, just behind second fastest qualifier Jarrett Brooks and Brabham.

Saturday's race featured 13 trucks, which included Gordon's 13-year-old son Max and rookies Mads Siljehaug from Norway and 20-year-old Zoey Edenholm, the race's only lady driver.

Slow qualifiers Bill Hynes and Bo LeMastus started on the front row and when the green flag fell Hynes shot out into the lead followed by the identically painted Team Crosly trucks of LeMastus, motocross champion Jeff Ward and Siljehaug. Hynes pulled out a lead while behind him LeMastus was dropping back as his teammates Ward and Siljehaug went by to take second and third places, with Jarrett Brooks moving into fourth.

The SST series features competition caution periods to pack up the field and, in this race, the yellow flag was thrown on lap five of the ten lap race. This allowed the field to close up on Hynes. When the race resumed, Hynes stayed out front but the gap between him and his pursuers was quickly closing and now Siljehaug had passed Ward and was challenging Hynes for the lead. That ended when Mads came off one of the jumps crooked and landed hard, slamming the wall and putting him out.

Hynes was still leading, but now Brooks was in second and gaining on Hynes, while behind him Robert Stout and Brabham, who had charged through the pack, were right behind. With two laps remaining in the race the top three caught and passed Hynes. Hynes continued to drop back and at the checkered flag Brooks took the win while Brabham and Stout came off the final jump side-by-side, with Brabham taking second with Robby Gordon fourth and Max Gordon fifth. Ward finished sixth and Hynes ended up seventh.

Sunday's race would be the finale of the weekend, running right after the Grand Prix itself (which was won by SoCal driver Colton Herta, while Spain's Alex Palou won the championship). The field for this one would be inverted from the finish of Saturday's race, meaning the top finishers in Saturday's race would be starting from the rear of the field again.

Due to the crash suffered by Siljehaug in Saturday's Race 1, he would start from pole for Race 2 (Jacob Abel, who broke his truck on Saturday, would not start Race 2), while Saturday's winner Brooks would start from the rear of the pack for this one.

Siljehaug took the early lead over Crosley teammates Brandon Parrish and LeMastus, and they held the lead for the first two laps. Meanwhile, Edenholm ended up in the tire wall when her truck suffered the bizarre failure of having her brake line wrap around her suspension. She was done for the day.

As the field began lap three, Siljhaug suddenly slowed with mechanical issues and teammate Parrish took over the lead. On lap four Ward hit the back end of LeMastus' truck going into turn one and Ward ended up spinning out, eliminating him from contention.

Meanwhile, Gordon was blasting through the pack and was now in second place behind Parrish and then passed him just as the yellow flag came out for the first of two scheduled competition cautions.

When the race resumed, Robby got the jump on the field and pulled out a lead while Brabham and Robert Stout got by Parrish and proceeded to stage a great battle between them over second place.

The second competition caution came out on lap seven of the ten lap race, but Gordon pulled away again as Brabham and Stout continued their fight for second place. On the ninth lap the two made contact entering turn one and Stout slammed the wall and ended up on his side. Behind him LeMastus and Hynes spun trying to avoid the overturned truck. This brought out a real yellow flag, but with only one lap left in the race, and an overturned truck on the racetrack, the race was flagged with Gordon the winner over Brooks, Brabham, Christian Sourapas and Max Gordon. This was Robby's fourth Long Beach win, breaking a tie with Brabham for the most wins on the Long Beach course. However, with a win and a second-place finish in the two races, Brooks was the overall winner of the weekend.

The Long Beach Grand Prix will return to its usual April date in 2022. For more information and complete results see www. stadiumsupertrucks.com.