Stadium Super Trucks Robby Gordon leads exhibition at Crandon 2012

Short course off-road racing is a form of

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

involving the racing of modified vehicles on a

dirt road A dirt road or track is a type of unpaved road not paved with asphalt, concrete, brick, or stone; made from the native material of the land surface through which it passes, known to highway engineers as subgrade material. Terminology Simi ...

closed course of a short length (tens of kilometers / miles or less). It is distinct from long course desert racing such as the

Baja 1000 The Baja 1000 is an annual Mexican off-road motorsport race held on the Baja California Peninsula, with a course of up to about 850 or more miles. It is one of the most prestigious off-road races in the world, having attracted competitors from ...

, which consists of racing at least hundreds of kilometers / miles over a quasi linear (non-closed) course from one point to another.

History

Short course off-road racing became popular during the 1970s, when Mickey Thompson founded the SCORE series.Morr, Tom, 2007 .
The Joy of Jeep
'. St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International. . p.132. He shortened long course desert racing, condensing it to a short course for easier spectator viewing and to allow competitors much easier access to the pits for mechanical problems. Thompson developed the idea into a separate series as MTEG and concentrated on stadiums / arenas. At around the same time, outdoor road course racing developed in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

from two laps around a 50-mile course in the woods near

Crandon, Wisconsin Crandon is a city in Forest County, Wisconsin, United States; it is in the northeastern part of the state, about north of Green Bay. The population was 1,713 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Forest County and is the only inco ...

to its purpose-built track. SODA became the sanctioning body in this region; much of SODA's success was tied to the increasing support of manufacturers and it became the predominant short course series after Thompson's death. SODA fell out of favor with the creation of Championship Off Road Racing (CORR) in 1997 by announcer Marty Reid, though CORR folded in 2008 due to bankruptcy. Differences in rules and regulations resulted in a schism between the West Coast and

, though series like CORR hoped to bridge the gap by racing in the other region. Both sides grew leagues of their own with the West Coast-based Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series and Midwestern TORC: The Off-Road Championship both debuting in 2009, the latter replacing the World Series of Off-Road Racing which had also gone defunct the previous year. LOORRS and TORC thrived with financial support from Lucas Oil and strong drivers, respectively, for over a decade. However, financial troubles and the loss of title sponsor Amsoil caused TORC to shut down after 2017, while the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

led to LOORRS being folded in 2020. Thompson's concept of stadium racing was revived by former MTEG racer

Robby Gordon Robert Wesley Gordon (born January 2, 1969) is an American semi-retired auto racing driver. He has raced in NASCAR, Championship Auto Racing Teams, CART, the IndyCar Series, the Trans-Am Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA, Inter ...

and his

Stadium Super Trucks The Stadium Super Trucks (SST), formerly known as Speed Energy Formula Off-Road, also known as the Boost Mobile Super Trucks in Australia, is an American short course off-road racing series created by off-road racer and former IndyCar and NASCAR d ...

in 2013. However, after the 2013 season, the series began racing predominantly on

street circuit A street circuit is a motorsport race track, racing circuit composed of temporarily closed-off public roads of a city, town or village, used in motor racing, motor races. Airport Runway, runways and Taxiway, taxiways are also sometimes part of ...

s, though it has occasionally returned to off-road courses and stadiums such as the

Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009 due to sponsorship reasons) is a quad-oval Oval track racing#Intermediate, intermediate speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It has hosted various major races since it ...

dirt track and Lake Elsinore Diamond. In 2020, the Midwest's

Championship Off-Road Championship Off-Road, officially known as AMSOIL Championship Off-Road (as Amsoil holds the naming rights) and abbreviated to COR, is an American short course off-road racing series. Founded in 2020 and sanctioned by the International Series of ...

began its inaugural season. A Western series, Great American Shortcourse, was founded a year later by LOORRS executive Lee Perfect and King of the Hammers organizer Dave Cole.

Concept

There are two forms of short course off-road racing. One type involves the race vehicles on an outdoor dirt road course. The short course off-road racing world championships are held at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway. Another type is stadium racing, where the vehicles race a much shorter course inside an arena. The Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group previously used the concept followed by the Stadium Super Trucks.

References

{{Off-road racing Auto racing by type Off-road racing