No UTV's in SSTS

[Kilgore23]

I spoke with Robby over the weekend and found out there will be no UTV racing in the Stadium Super Truck Series. Robby said the manufacturers and him couldn't reach a deal to get UTV's involved in the series, so they're replacing UTV's with 1600 buggies. Robby did say that he likes UTV's and really wanted them to be part of the show, and thought they would be a great addition.

Bummer news, but hopefully something can be figured out another time.

 

[XPirate]

THAT SUCKS!!!!!! I was totally hyped for this series...was planning on trying a round or two till I blew my motor up Couldn't really get and rule confirmation either, but I guess that might stem from the fact that the "manufactures" didn't want to play ball.... Oh well, Still will be bad ass to see some trucks flyin out of the coliseum!!!!!

 

[racing rzr dad]

1600's??? Really!!! No disrespect to those guys, I know they are a handful to drive, but not really exciting to watch as a spectator. Bummer, I thought this would bring UTV racing to the masses, and show people how exciting this form of racing really is.

 

[JoeyD23]

Unfortunatley I saw this coming.. I spoke with RG at the start of the Baja 1000 and he was pretty clear that it didn't look like UTV's would make it. Felt bad seeing all these guys saying they were building cars for it, but the writing was on the wall. At this point I will be SHOCKED if the series goes at all. Hoping it does but there sure isn't anyone talking about the purchase of their new SST or that they are going SST racing. That is what spawns me to think that this thing could be destined to fail.... I hope not, love RG and would love to see this thing go!

 

[dnf736]

Whats funny is I heard SuperLite was trying to get in the show at SST, Robby said they were full.

I hear SuperLite is available these days, maybe he should revisit the issue.....

Actually I agree, I doubt this thing ever gets off the ground, unfortunately.

 

[Rusty5150]

UTV Body on a Superlite!!! No one in the stands will know the difference.

 

[450grl]

I can't imagine buggies will do very good in a stadium course....tight tracks need power to make those turns...buggies don't have a good turning radius, nor do they have the power. And I'm going to assume this means no quads now, either, since the OEM's didn't buy in.....

 

[VBosch02]

I'm disappointed not to see utv's in the mix at the sst events myself. It would have been an awesome way to bring utv racing to the people. But I don't agree that buggies wont make for a good race as they did fine back in the MT days. I hope that sst takes off as my wife and I are expecting our first boy this week and I would love to take him to some stadium races in the next few years. I know there is always loors that's not lost on me.

Thought I'd add a video of some buggies racing in the old MT series. Fast forward to 3:02 for the racing.

[ame="http://youtu.be/m5FDrqD6JbI"]302 Found[/ame]

 

[NIKAL]

SST is going to happen! They just finished building truck number 22. I think the plan is to have 30 trucks built and ready by the first race of the year in Phoenix. If Robby & SST did not think they had enough drivers to fill the seats, I dont think they would be building as many trucks as they are. Plus they have a huge TV contract with NBC. Not one other off-road racing series has the TV contract that SST does.

Regarding who is racing SST. I do know 3 drivers have been announced and I know of 3 more, which I am not at liberty to say as I know they are going to be releasing these drivers names in PR. So far Robby is driving one, NASCAR truck series & Class 1 off-road racer Justin Lofton is driving one and Indy cars Arie Luyendyk Jr has announced his plans to race. A few former Mickey Thompson racers are supposedly signed up and some current short course drivers are also on the list. I will say one former Chopper builder who dabbles in off-road racing is said to be signed up too! But this is all I will say right now about who might be signed up. Heard Travis Pastrana was very close to running the series, but with him signing a full time NationWide NASCAR deal with Roush it squashed any chance of that. Who knows maybe Travis can make a single race appearance?

Now loosing the UTV's is a bummer as I thought as so did RG apparently that the UTV's were the perfect replacement for the Ultalites that used to race Mickey Thompson. I get that SST was looking to get UTV manufactures involved and am surprised they did not jump aboard. Maybe they could have ran this part of the series without manufacture support, but I do know having their support was part of the original plan.

Bringing the Super Buggy's in to replace them is a perfect replacement as buggy's are already racing in other series and they have already raced in Stadium events so we all know it works, and they put on IMO as good if not better of a show.

Just go back and find some you-tube footage of the Mickey Thompson super buggy's and you will see they did great in this type of venue.

 

[Commander nick]

First of all this Sucks! Secondly this is going to ruin the everyday joe element of racing. With such a large contract from NBC I would think that Robby's marketing team would want to be able to connect with the viewer and associate the "That Could Be Me!" element. Oh well... i was just excited to see UTV's get some recognition but i guess not....

 

[az_amsoil]

Bummer...

Very good source has 14 committed SST drivers...so far

 

[Flyingbryan]

Wish the SxS's could have made it but I have to say I will be surprised if the series make it more then one year.

It seems everyone I know want to watch Supercross and CBS can not justify live airing of the race.

I really think SxS's would have helped the series but I hope it makes it off the ground even without them, time will tell.

 

[NIKAL]

I am surprised so many think the series will not make it or feel without SXS the series wont make it. Robby is using a formula that was successful for many years. The real stars of the show are the Super Trucks. The rest are really fillers, this is how it has always been. You need at least 2 classes of vehicles so you have no down time. Both trucks & buggy's were the staple of the Mickey Thompson series. Mickey also added the Superlite (motorcycle engine buggy's) which in today's world ara SXS. Maybe by 2014 they will be able to incorporate them back into the line up. Mickey Thompson was on TV, just delayed a few days from the event. Robby's series will have a few live shows, but most will be on NBC's Sports channel (Formally Versus) a day or two later.

Regarding Supercross, they have been on CBS & Speed TV and they have had live broadcasts. Last I checked Supercross has been very successful for Speed TV which is owned by FOX and is listed as one of their Sports channels.

Here is the 2013 Supercross TV schedule. 12 races are broadcast live this year. The rest are tape delayed.
http://supercross.com/schedules/tv-listings/

 

[Kilgore23]

There do seem to be many skeptics out there for one reason or another, but this series has worked in the past and it seems like good timing to bring it back. The UTV market and racers are the ones that lost out on this deal. Whether it works out or not, the show will go on with or without the UTV’s racing. I say UTV’s lost out because it would have been a great place for the manufactures to showcase their products, and another platform for UTV racers to get recognition. I doubt the UTV’s would sell that many more seats in the stands, but I’m sure they would put on a great show and enhance the whole spectator experience. The buggies will fill the gap but I’m surprised they didn’t go with 450 Trophy Karts, either way it was a spot for UTV’s and the manufacturers couldn’t pull it off. Although I’m not sure if it was Robby’s greed or the manufacturers being cheap that kept the deal from happening. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>