Robby Gordon will have some very familiar company racing against him in Saturday’s Stadium Super Trucks events at Road America. On Tuesday, his 12-year-old son Max Gordon announced he will make his SST début on the Elkhart Lake road course, driving the #77 SPEED Energy/SPEED RC Cars/Menards truck.
Max joins SST after developing his driving skills through off-road racing. He and Robby have worked together as driver and co-driver in UTV races, with the 2017 Best in the Desert series seeing an eight-year-old Max race in the Parker 250‘s Pro Unlimited class. Later in the year, he became the youngest driver to participate in and complete the Baja 1000 at just nine years of age.
In March, the Gordons won the Mint 400‘s UTV Pro NA class, though they were disqualified after Robby took over when Max was feeling sick, a violation of race rules. Nevertheless, Robby told UTV Action, “An 11 year old smoked grown men with a bone stock car with a welded on cage and Speed SXS long travel.”
It probably comes with little surprise that Max would also have seat experience in his father’s series, occasionally testing a Stadium Super Truck at headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. On Sunday, the Gordons and drivers Bill Hynes, John Holtger, and Zoey Edenholm conducted a late-night test session. All five have committed to the Road America race, with Max and Edenholm preparing for their maiden SST starts.
“Max Gordon car control is ridiculous,” tweeted PlanetRobby that evening. “And he’s only 12”.
Robby and Max are not the first father-son duo to have run SST races. Craig and Cole Potts raced in 2013 and 2018–2019, respectively, while Davey Hamilton Sr. and Jr. competed in 2013–2016 and 2017–2018. Unlike the Potts and Hamiltons, the Gordons will be the first to directly race against each other.
Two races will take place on Saturday, 8 August. It is the series’ first action since the season-opening Adelaide 500 six months ago.