Max Gordon, SPEED UTV headline NORRA 500

Robby Gordon‘s SPEED UTV brand has been making waves in the off-road community since its introduction before beginning competition in 2023. This past weekend, the manufacturer enjoyed its strongest race so far as his son Max Gordon was the fastest UTV overall in the NORRA 500.

Five SPEED UTVs took part, all of which completed the race. Max’s SPEED UTT, a racing variant of the El Diablo, won the Evolution Production Turbo UTV class with jet ski world champion Kole Cramer as his co-driver; the two’s total time of 9:16:11 was nearly twenty-five minutes faster than the Polaris of Javier Gonzalez. Robby was third in class, followed by John Spar (seventh in the SPEED UTV Bandit) and Brad Halco (eleventh in a SPEED UTT). The fifth SPEED, an El Jefe model, won the Evolution Four-Seat class with Chris Knippelberg.

SPEED UTV, which has occupied much of Gordon’s time, partnered with NORRA to provide a support programme for participating drivers at the 500. The company also offered USD$10 thousand (€9,463.55) for the winners of the Evolution Production Turbo UTV and Evolution 2000 classes, the latter claimed by Thomas Purcell.

The younger Gordon’s victory marks the first major triumph for SPEED UTV since débuting competitively. Both Gordons retired from King of the Hammers in February before tackling the Mint 400 a month later, where Max finished eighth in class. Robby’s increasing focus on the company forced his Stadium Super Trucks to drop a trip to Toronto in 2022, while their 2023 calendar was only two rounds long though returns to Australia have been considered. In August, Gordon set up a new engine division for SPEED UTV after moving to a North Carolina facility formerly owned by NASCAR team Gillett Evernham Motorsports

Dave Mason Jr. won the overall among all forty-nine finishers for the second year in a row. Defending NORRA 500 UTV champion P.J. Jones, a friend of Gordon’s, retired after three stages.

Formula Drift champion Chris Forsberg won in the Evolution Class 7100 category, driving a modified Nissan Frontier with NISMO Off Road parts. Skateboarding star Letícia Bufoni served as his navigator in her first desert race, having made her motorsport début in what is now Nitrocross’ side-by-side category in 2022.

Bruce Anderson and John Bonanni were the only drivers to sweep the 2023 NORRA events, respectively winning the Evolution Trophy Lite and Vintage Open Truck Rear Leafs at the Mexican 1000 in early May.

Class winners

Group 1

Group 2