Max Gordon leads another Gordon 1–2 in SST Long Beach Race 1

In 2022, Max Gordon started the Stadium Super Trucks season by winning Race #1 of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach while his father Robby Gordon finished right behind him to complete the family 1–2.

Two years later, Max Gordon started the 2024 SST season by winning Race #1 of Long Beach while Robby finished right behind him to complete the family 1–2.

The younger Gordon only needed three laps to take the lead after starting eighth, and never lost the position the rest of the way. Behind him, his dad had a dramatic battle with Matt Brabham that went down to the final lap, the two running side by side for much of the lap before he cleared Brabham for second.

While Brabham had every opportunity to get physical whenever the older Gordon ran besides him (even quipping that he is “just saving it for tomorrow”), the three-time champion opted to race clean. The two were the fastest qualifiers on Friday, with Gordon holding the edge.

“I knew Robby was going to do everything he could to kind of rough me up and give Max a little bit of a break,” Brabham explained. “Obviously Robby wants to win, but he also probably wants his son to win over me. We had a good race out there. I just felt like I couldn’t quite get close enough in the last couple of corners. I was a bit stronger in the first half of the track. Maybe I can rough him up a little bit tomorrow. There’s obviously the overall and we’re all pretty close on points for that so we’ll see.”

Robby, who described Brabham as racing him “really, really clean,” explained he “got a good tow on him on the last lap down the front straightaway. I got to the right of him and I’m like, ‘If I could get through here, we can stay side by side. Next three corners are right hand turns, I’m going to get one of these’ The key thing to it is keeping it clean. Matt never shut the door on me, gave me enough room to just stick my nose in each one of those corners to be able to edge him out.”

With Robby and Brabham duking it out, Max was cruised to a convincing win by over 2.7 seconds and set the race’s fastest lap in the process. It is his third career win after the aforementioned 2022 Long Beach victory and Mid-Ohio later that year. He also becomes the fourth multi-time race winner at Long Beach after Robby, Brabham, and Sheldon Creed.

“I know Matty and my dad were battling out back there. I got a pocket, went through early, I had clean air up front,” said Max.

Myles Cheek ran second behind Max Gordon through the second competition caution on lap six, but quickly faced pressure from behind by Brabham that caused him to run wide entering the first corner on the restart. Trey Hernquist, who led the first two laps of the race, battled with Cheek for fourth but the latter kept him at bay. The two had also duelled after the first yellow for second before the Brabham/Robby Gordon duo passed Hernquist.

Race #2 will take place on Sunday at 3:30 PM Pacific Time after the NTT IndyCar Series.

Race results