New partner will allow Robby Gordon to further grow Stadium Super Truck series - MotorSportsTalk

Just like its trucks do on race courses, Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Truck series is growing by leaps and bounds.

The former NASCAR and IndyCar driver has become quite the entrepreneur with his truck series, now in its second season.

To allow the ever increasingly popular series to grow and expand even further to additional markets that are clamoring to be on the SST schedule, Gordon has taken on a partial investor that is no stranger to motorsports.

Cleveland-based Elevation Group, which is a heavyweight in the sports (including NASCAR) and entertainment worlds – specializing in sponsorship marketing, communications and event production – has acquired a stake in SST.

Officially known as the Speed Energy Formula Off-Road presented by Traxxas, trucks are raced in timed events in stadiums and city street courses featuring multiple jumps by competing vehicles and drivers. It’s been a support circuit for both the Verizon IndyCar Series and the X Games in Austin, Texas.

“I have been intrigued with Stadium Super Trucks since my son flipped out over them at a race earlier this year,” Elevation president Denny Young said in a media release. “When my business partner and I saw an ESPN poll in July that showed 78 percent of X Games viewers rated Stadium Super Trucks their favorite moment, we knew this was a business we wanted to be in.”

Gordon has known Young for more than 20 years, dating back to when Young previously worked at IMG and promoted several IndyCar events.

“I know first-hand that Denny, (Elevation managing partner) Steve Lindecke and their team understand how to stage and promote major market, nationally televised sports events,” Gordon said. “Additionally, they are experts in sponsorship marketing — both in terms of selling and delivering exceptional value to sponsors.

“That’s exactly what my series needs at this stage and that’s why I have taken them on as my partners.”

Gordon, along with teammate and IndyCar veteran EJ Viso, won the most recent SST event this past weekend in Coronado, California. Other large venues SST has competed at this season include associations with the Long Beach Grand Prix and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The 15-race SST season, which is televised on NBCSN, concludes in November in Las Vegas. The 2015 schedule is expected to be announced next month.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”