Trey Hernquist might be known for his yellow Baja Bug that he races in deserts, but will trade them in for a significantly different machine and surface in April when he drives a Stadium Super Truck on the streets of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. He will drive the #50 with sponsorship from Gravel Kings and Continental Tire.
Hernquist wrote on social media, “I’m super excited to share that I will be driving the @continental_tire / @gravel_kings @stadiumsupertrucks kicking off at the Long Beach Grand Prix, April 15th-16th! Such an incredible opportunity for me and everyone involved so THANK YOU! Stoked to see a bunch of friends and family out there so let’s go have some fun in a truck around the streets of @gplongbeach!”
Hernquist races in Class 5, a category present in various desert series like SCORE International for Volkswagen Beetles modified for off-road competition nicknamed “Baja Bugs”. He won SCORE’s Class 5 championship in 2020 with a victory at the Baja 500, and has mainly focused on the premier Baja 1000 since; his latest 1000 excursion in November ended with a transmission failure after ninety miles. His SCORE début came in the SCORE Lites class in 2018.
In March, he finished twenty-fifth overall in the Mint 400‘s Limited Race to win the Class 5 Unlimited division despite late contact leaving him without power steering.
His father Bill Hernquist is also a driver, and the two have raced together in Best In The Desert, among other series.
Gravel Kings, an off-road racing and lifestyle brand, signed Hernquist as an endorsed driver on Friday. Continental Tire has sponsored multiple drivers since joining SST in 2019, with the flagship black/yellow truck being split between Matt Brabham, Jerett Brooks, Fielding Shredder, and Cory Winner in 2022; Max Gordon and Robert Stout also had the tyre supplier’s branding on their trucks that year. While much of Continental’s SST drivers come from short course off-road racing and NASCAR, Gordon also has desert experience and was in the Mint 400 Limited Race with Hernquist.
The 2023 Stadium Super Trucks season begins at Long Beach on 14–16 April. Joshua Thomas also plans to make his SST début at the California street circuit.
