Myles Cheek making SST return at Long Beach

The last time Myles Cheek raced in the Stadium Super Trucks, he was an eighteen-year-old hotshot in West Coast short course racing. Now twenty-four years of age, he will make his return to the series at the season-opening Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on 14–16 April. He spent Thursday testing at SST headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, to prepare for the start.

Cheek’s first SST weekend came at Long Beach in 2017, where he finished seventh and eighth in two races. He ran as high as third in Race #1 before crashing into the tyre barrier after entering the corner too deep, though he recovered to finish the event.

While Long Beach is the only track to see Cheek in a stadium truck, he first got involved with the series during the inaugural season in 2013 when he raced in the Super Trophy Karts support category. He won the first-ever race during the SST début night at what is now State Farm Stadium in Phoenix; 2022 SST champion Gavin Harlien and two-time SST race winner Jeff Hoffman also competed against Cheek that day.

His father Chuck owns CMI Precision Machining and won the 2009 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Pro Buggy championship. The younger Cheek followed suit when he claimed the 2011 Junior 2 Kart title at the age of thirteen before moving up to Mod Karts, scoring two more crowns in 2012 and 2013.

He eventually switched to UTVs and became a factory driver for Polaris. In 2020, he won the Production 1000 UTV title in dominant fashion as he never finished lower than second in all eight races and won six times. LOORRS folded at the end of the year, making him the final class champion. The year before, Cheek finished third in the points battle to current SST regular Robert Stout and Brock Heger, the latter having made SST starts in 2013 while also racing against Cheek in Super Trophy Karts.

Bruce Binnquist and David Bernstein tested alongside Cheek on Thursday ahead of Long Beach. Unlike Cheek, the two will be making their series débuts.

Follow @TCFoffroad: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram