10 on grid for SST Season 12 opener in Long Beach – The Checkered Flag

It was a long eight months, but the Stadium Super Trucks are finally back for 2024. For the third year in a row, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will open the season as the California street circuit continues its run as the only track left from the inaugural season in 2013.

Matt Brabham enters as the defending winner after sweeping both events in 2023. After spending that year primarily competing in Indy NXT and Trans-Am alongside SST, Brabham is now an IMSA driver.

Myles Cheek hopes to avenge his heartbreak when Brabham passed him for the lead and win in Race #2 with two laps remaining. Settling for second, he still earned his maiden career podium after finishing seventh in the first race as he was getting used to the truck; the weekend was his first in SST since 2017.

Before they focus on the NORRA Mexican 1000 the week after, Robby and Max Gordon will tackle Long Beach. Robby is tied with Brabham for the most wins at Long Beach with five, and the father/son duo swept the 2022 weekend that included a 1–2 finish in Race #1.

Bill Hynes, the longest active driver besides the elder Gordon, returns for his tenth full-time campaign. After finishing tenth in the first Long Beach race in 2023, he was taken out of the second after getting turned by Robert Stout; Stout, a series regular since 2021, is not entered as he prepares for the upcoming Championship Off-Road season.

Like the Gordons, Trey Hernquist will run his third career SST weekend before heading out to Mexico for NORRA. He finished eighth and seventh as a series newcomer at the 2023 Long Beach weekend, then repeated the sevenths in both Nashville events.

Ben Maier makes his Long Beach début and will try to bounce back after getting spun in his latest start in Nashville. Outside of SST, he spent 2023 and the start of 2024 competing in Nitrocross’ SxS class and Trans-Am Series, recording a best finish of eighth in the latter’s TA2 season opener at Sebring. After not having enough sponsorship to run last year’s Long Beach event, he now has backing from HeroMFG.co and Power Plus.

Zoey Edenholm returns for a fifth season, finishing eleventh and seventh at her last Long Beach action in 2022. Her truck will be sponsored by donors to her GoFundMe fundraiser to fund the trip, which produced USD$7,155 (€6,701.52) from fifty-three donations.

RJ Stidham is the lone driver in the field without prior SST experience, arriving in Long Beach as the twice reigning Southern Nevada Off Road Enthusiasts (SNORE) Class 6100 champion. He will represent Two Gunz Racing, whose owner David Bernstein ran both rounds in 2023 with a best finish of ninth in Long Beach Race #2.

Stout, Ryan Beat, Bruce Binnquist, Joshua Thomas, and champion Gavin Harlien are not entered after Racing the 2023 edition.

Practice and qualifying will take place at on Friday, 19 April at 12:15 PM Pacific Time. Race #1 begins Sunday at 4 PM while Race #2 is on Sunday at 3:30 PM following the NTT IndyCar Series race.

Entry list