For the second straight year in a row, Sheldon Creed would hoist the trophy in Honda Indy Toronto victory lane as he claimed victory in the Saturday SPEED Energy Formula Off-Road presented by TRAXXAS event. It marks Creed’s first victory of the 2014 season.
The race would be run in the wet conditions, under a slight drizzle, resulting in trucks sliding through the corners at points. Both Creed and Scott Steele mastered the art, grabbing the early advantage ahead of the field. While Steele grabbed the early lead due to a good starting spot, Creed had to work his way up through after drawing the last starting spot.
“I just went down in the first corner and watched everybody slide out on the concrete,” he commented. “I think there was three or four slide out and then got up through there.”
The pair would swap the lead back and forth while slipping through the turns and jumping the metal ramps along the frontstretch.
“The asphalt wasn’t too bad, but as soon as we hit the concrete, it was slippery,” he commented. “It was pretty slippery so you definitely had to be careful.”
Creed was able to clear Steele after a couple of laps, before holding on the rest of the way to victory, lengthening the gap between himself and Creed at each turn.
In talking about his approach to the ramps, Creed commented, “I just keep it wide open and try to just kick the brake and get back on the gas, trying to settle it down. Just try to keep it wide open as much as I can over the jump.”
With a pair of wins in Toronto under his belt, no doubt the teenager heads into the second event on Sunday with a lot of confidence.
“Definately gives me a little confidence going into tomorrow, but just want to go out there and have a solid day,” he said.
Robby Gordon was able to claim the second finishing spot after Steele slipped up through the turn, bouncing his truck off of the outside of the turn five corner. Gordon commented post-race that this is the second time they’ve ran a street course in the rain, doing it the first time earlier this year at St. Petersburg.
“I think St. Pete was slick till we came here,” Gordon commented. “I predict a big crash down in turn three at the end of the straightway with the IndyCars because it’s straight slick down there. I don’t know what it is, but I almost parked my truck straight in the wall down there. I don’t know what’s going on, whether there’s that much rubber on the track, but it’s very, very slick. And if they do run it, you’re going to see a couple cars in the fence down there. It’s the slickest that I’ve ever experienced, and I don’t know why.”
Steele would recover, finishing third to complete the podium.
“It was a good race,” he commented. “It was really, really slick at first, but I got it going there. I just lost it down there and got into the wall.”
Aaron Bambach held on for a fourth place finish, followed by Apdaly Lopez, who made heavy contact with the turn one tire barrier during practice on Friday afternoon.
Paul Tracy would finish sixth following a pair of spins, while Bill Hynes rounded out the field in his first career Stadium Super Truck start despite spinning around a couple of times.
The SPEED Energy Formula Off-Road presented by TRAXXAS will host a second event for the weekend on Sunday July 20th.
“I hope it’s dry tomorrow,” Gordon commented. “I’ll run the race track either way, but it’s really slippery with these conditions, whether it’s our tires or the concrete. It’s really slick and really slow, so it was basically a whoever didn’t hit the wall finishing well.”
