Robby The True Racer

kat2220

kat2220

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Gordon Will Run Dakar Rally Again
On New Year’s Eve, while most of NASCAR’s elite prepare to celebrate the arrival of 2006 in comfort, and for the two weeks following rest, take a cruise, hunt or play golf, one NASCAR driver will take on a racing challenge perhaps as physically and mentally challenging as the entire 36-race NASCAR season rolled together.

The Dakar Rally, easily the world’s most grueling and logistically challenging auto race, will start on Dec. 31 in Lison, Portugal and head approximately 6,500 miles south through Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar and into Morocco. From there, the race turns rugged as the field of more than 500 vehicles makes the incredible journey through Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea and Senegal. Robby Gordon will spend his New Year’s Eve behind the wheel of a race car for the first of 16 days of competition in the Dakar with hopes of being the first to pull into Dakar, Senegal on Jan. 15.

Gordon, a six-time SCORE Off-Road Champion and a two-time winner of the famed Baja 1000 in addition to countless other off-road races in North America, will drive a specially prepared Hummer H3 on Toyo Tires with sponsorship from Jim Beam in his quest to become the first American to win the famed Dakar Rally in its 28-year history. Last year, driving for the German Volkswagen team, Gordon became the first American to ever win a stage in the race, eventually winning two of the 16 stages en route to an 12th-place overall finish.

Kat knows that there are others with motor oil running through their veins, but Robby is right up there when it comes to "race anything, anywhere".
Go Get 'Em Robby!
 
If Robby was just able to control his emotions and learn to save his equipment when it counts he would be one of the best racers in the world.
 
Robby already is one of the best racers in the world.

Right now RGordon is doing some fine tuning to become one of the best in the NEXTEL NASCAR Series.
 
not surprissing. But running an H3? I can see the GM relationship, but that's one of the last vehicles i'd race in an endurance race...hope he has a good strong roll cage in it
 
Anybody got a pic of that racecar? I sure would like to see what a Dakar racing hummer looks like. Go Robby go..
Don't be so surprised, after all he and I are both Americans. We have to stick together in some measurement.
C'mon somebody send me somewhere to look at his car.
Betsy
 
Good Luck Robby! He ran the race last year in a VW, won the 1st stage and came in 12th out of a crap load of cars. Be sweet to see him pull off a win. I got a good felling he will be able to pull off a win in the Cup car next year.
 
Betsy said:
Anybody got a pic of that racecar? I sure would like to see what a Dakar racing hummer looks like. Go Robby go..
Don't be so surprised, after all he and I are both Americans. We have to stick together in some measurement.
C'mon somebody send me somewhere to look at his car.
Click to expand...

Here you go Betsy.

http://www.robbygordon.com/artman/publish/article_505.shtml
 
I can't wait for the daily updates, it was a lot of fun last year keeping up with it. I wish i had OLN. Nice to see my boy getting some respect around here for once. Remember, Robby could have finished better, but stopped to help his teammate who had a chance of being on the platform at the end of whole race last year.

And the comment about controlling his emotions? I mean, I can understand saving his equipment (if you can really call a wrecked car or a car with a Menard engine "equipment"), but who doesn't want their drivers to show their emotions? I think we've had this debate before.

I'd rather someone throw a helmet at a car or a punch in the face (or to choke someone out for kneeing them in the nuts in Mexico) than hear about my driver being a mouthy little prick to the local authorities. I don't watch NASCAR for the wrecks, but I don't watch it to see well mannered drivers on the track either.
 
Thanks CanadianGP That is one goodlooking hummer. All I can say is i gotta get me one of those!
Oh, I do have OLN when should I look at it?
Betsy
 
It certainly was a lot of fun following Robby and the Dakar last year. I wish him much success this year........and thanks Kat for posting some of the most interesting topics.
 
I watched 'Dust to Glory' over Christmas. (GREAT flick about the Baja 1000!) Robby earned a bunch of respect points in my book after watching that!

6500 miles...that's nuts! :beerbang:
 
Sounds like he's used some of the Trophy Truck technoligy to build this truck.

I hope he does very well. :)
 
Well he started 35th and finished 14th on the first stage.

Gordon has completed the first stage in an elapsed time of 1:00:59. Calos Sainz has won the first Special with time of 56:20. The H3 Hummer in it's first ever race finished the special in 14th position, 4 minutes and 39 seconds behind Carlos Sainz
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h3stage1.jpg


Todays Update;

TEAM DAKAR USA
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Special 2 Results: Portimão > Málaga


TEAM DAKAR USA > News > Stage Report
Posted by on Jan 1, 2006, 10:38
The car special was again made for WRC specialists: hilly tracks, slippery curves where pure driving skills were requested to grab victory. And the master on such a course was of course ‘El Matador’, Carlos Sainz (VW – n°307) who clinched his second success in a row. This time it took the Spaniard 1h34’28” to cover the 115km, beating Luc Alphand (MIT – n°302) by only 25”. A good performance from the Frenchman who finished runner-up of last year’s event. Third position went to Nasser Al Attiyah (BMW – n°308), another WRC specialist (winner of the Pan- Asian championship) who seemed to have forgotten his disappointing 13th spot yesterday. The following three spots were for the Mitsubishi drivers with Masuoka (MIT – n°306) fourth at 1’01”, Roma (MIT – n°304) fifth at 1’02” and Peterhansel (MIT – n°300) sixth at 2’25”. The title holder who again was forced to stop because of a puncture. Local hero, Carlos Sousa this time had to settle for an 8th position, over 3’ off the winning pace.

Gordon's time of 01:38:18 left him 3'50" off the best time of the day and gave him a 13th position in the special. Overall Gordon retained his 14th place classification and is 8'29" off the best mark set by Sainz.
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And.......from RacingOne

Robby Gordon Dakar Update: Day 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RacingOne Report

Posted Saturday, December 31, 2005


The first leg of the event began in Portugal.




The two week event will cover more than 5000 miles.





Robby Gordon Diecast Car 1:64 2002 Pepe Le Pew

Your Price: $4.95

In what can only be considered a remarkable start to the world’s longest and most difficult motorsports event, Robby Gordon and his new “Dakar” Hummer H3 defied the odds of position, weather and terrain to move from 35th to 14th in the opening round of the famed Dakar Rally.

Starting in Lisbon, Portugal the first leg of the grueling event was broken into three distinct stages with the fast, important, timed Special Stage of the 51.5 miles set in the middle of two liaison stages that were run on the major highway between Lisbon and the resort town of Portimao on the southern coast of Portugal. Gordon wowed the Lisbon starting line crowd with an unconventional move on the raised starting platform, where the drivers are introduced to the public. This allows an even 2 minute spacing between the racers in Gordon’s competition group. After taking the applause from the appreciative Portuguese fans, Gordon backed down the starting ramp and came over the top with his wheels in the air!

With the rolling green Portuguese country-side severely soaked from several days of rain, four-wheel drive German and Japanese marques were expected to have a huge advantage over Gordon’s heavier new all-American Hummer H3 which was forced to start in a poor 35th position behind some of the world’s greatest rally and North African desert specialists. Few European Dakar fans gave the popular American much chance of gaining on the established stars in this first day, as the competition was piloting the powerful VW and Mitsubishi teams using four-wheel drive. But, as always, Gordon stunned the consensus with a brilliant start and then settled into a calm and steady drive that saw his time of 1 hour and 59 seconds end up only 4 minutes and 39 seconds behind the stage's top finishing Carlos Sainz, the retired WRC champion from Spain. Sainz, who was driving for VW, was almost beaten by the popular Portuguese driver, Carlos Souza, in a Nissan who finished just 1 minute and 30 seconds behind the Spaniard.

By the time Gordon reached the most difficult sections of the special stage the mostly single lane dirt roads had been so badly chewed that the Hummer was often running in deep to sloppy mud. Gordon credited most of the day’s success to his absolutely stock, production, Toyo tires which enabled him to overcome the poor conditions. “Today’s run was good”, said a calm and focused Gordon at the race’s impound area near the finish line. By the rules, hardly any time was given by the race officials for repairs before the cars were locked up for the night, so Gordon’s crew used the remaining minutes to wipe off the mud and clean the windshield in preparation for tomorrow’s expected, even-wetter second stage, which will end in Malaga, Spain, where all the cars will be loaded on ferries and shipped across the Mediterranean Sea to Nador on the northern coast of Africa. “The Hummer ran perfectly so we can run tomorrow morning’s second stage with no time subtracted to work on the car before we really get moving. If all goes well I think we’ll be in the top 10 by the time we reach the end of the third stage in Morocco and that’s just where I want to be for the long hauls across the desert.”

Gordon’s “Dakar” Hummer H3 was specially designed and built by Gordon and his team of ace mechanics in his Anaheim, CA race shop with the specific intention of winning the Dakar. “We’ve received tremendous support from Hummer, Jim Beam and Toyo tires to make this happen and I believe we’re going to surprise a lot of our European fans with this car's performance. Most Dakar competitors and race fans have never seen anything like this Hummer”, said Gordon, “as they tend to concentrate on smaller, high-revving engines, which I don’t believe have as good of a chance of success in North Africa’s huge sand dunes as my V8-engined Hummer.”
 
Nice pic of the truck in eagle's post. If the H3's on the lot looked like Robby's, I'd buy two! :)

Thanks for the updates!
Go Robby! Keep the sand out of your pants!

:cheers:
 
is it me, the picture angle, or is there a ton of camber in that right front?
 
my guess would be they just hit a bump right before the pic was taken...those trucks have a crazy amount of flexibility in their suspension. I don't see camber being a useful tweak over 6500 miles...
 
true. But this is Robby Gordon. You never know what he might try for who knows what reason.
 
On his birthday Robby Gordon gave American off-road racing fans a present. Gordon, driving his purpose build Hummer H3 has broken into the top 10 in the Dakar. His fifth place finish in the third stage has launched him into the eighth position in the overall classification. While it is still early in the 15 stage event, today's results indicates that Gordon's Hummer will in fact be competitive in Africa.
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currently 5th in stage, 8th overall
 
ROBBY GORDON SCORES 5th OVERALL IN THIRD DAY OF DAKAR RALLY MOVES INTO TOP TEN





After two days of running on very tight, rain soaked roads in Portugal and Spain Robby Gordon and his “Dakar” H3 Hummer crossed over into North Africa and finally had a chance to show their true capabilities in terrain and weather that was almost perfect for the All-American combination. After completing the second stage in Spain, Gordon and teammate/navigator Darren Skilton spent the night with hundreds of other competitors on a ferry from Malaga, Spain, to Nador, Morocco for the start of this morning’s third stage of the 38th running of the famed Dakar Rally.

“This is where the competition really begins’, said Gordon at the start, “This North African terrain is some of the roughest in the world, a lot like Baja in some ways…a place where Hummers and American engineering can show their true mettle.”

Several grueling hours later Gordon was able to relax and savor the moment he’d been expecting since starting the Hummer program some 90 days earlier. Gordon had finished a stunning fifth overall, moving him into the Top 10, passing some of the top desert racing specialists in the world. “We were really looking forward to this stage, as we knew this would be our first chance to let our Hummer stretch its legs in the desert terrain for which it was designed,” said Gordon, looking relaxed and fresh at the end of the 314 kilometer leg of the race, which ended in the small city of Er Rachidia in Morocco. Today’s Nador-Er Rachidia stage was again divided into three smaller stages to provide a real world combination of road travel and flat out racing. The beginning and ending Liaison Stages, which move the competitors into and out of the more populous areas of the country, still allow the hundreds of thousands of fans who line the roads to see and cheer their favorites as they pass on the roads. The middle “Special Stage,” however, is the important timed run that counts for the overall score, and most importantly, the next morning’s starting slot, which is based upon the combination of times from the previous day’s runs. So today’s fantastic 5th overall finish for Gordon (with a time of 2 hours 52 minutes and 28 seconds) will definitely boost Gordon’s chances of winning his first stage of the Dakar tomorrow. Gordon, now officially eighth overall now has a real chance to duel with the race leaders. “This is exactly where I expected to be after three days and I’m really pleased with the Hummer’s performance.”

Gordon started 14th in Nador, a difficult and frustrating position he’d held due to the almost impossible passing conditions on the narrow and slippery European roads of the first two stages. In spite of the miserable circumstances on these first two days Gordon still had the tenacity and skill to improve his initial 35th starting position in Lisbon to 14th on the first day and then hold that spot through the second day’s competition which favored the multi-car, factory-backed, VW, Nissan and Mitsubishi racing specials, which have been developed over several seasons of competition specifically to win this all-important race.

By contrast, Gordon’s very polished but single-car effort for Hummer still looks quite small by comparison. Even more surprising is the minimal time Gordon had to design the car so he and his team could fabricate it; just 90 days. GM’s Hummer division, Jim Beam and Toyo Tires offered a combination of support that has certainly been squeezed for time but efficiently executed, making Gordon’s Hummer team a fan favorite who cheer for Gordon’s underdog position against the might of the giant European and Japanese factory efforts.

Gordon wryly admitted, after arriving in Er Rachidia, that he’d made an error at the start, which probably cost them the overall win for the stage. “We made a great run off the line, passing both Jean Louis Schlesser (the eventual winner) and Stephane Peterhansel’s Mitsubishi, but then I looked off to the left and saw one of the BMW X3s fast disappearing in the dust. Knowing how well this team had been doing I instinctively elected to follow and soon realized he was lost. Darren (Skilton), my navigator, had been tracking our line in the heavy dust and soon pointed out that we were seriously off-course; we had to double back and I suspect we lost at least two minutes.” Gordon eventually re-passed both Schlesser and Peterhansel, but his elapsed time for the stage still put the Hummer team in fifth overall 1 minute and 30 seconds behind the leaders. “This is an incredibly large and confusing area of the earth; it’s very easy to trust your racing instinct instead of the route book and your navigator…I won’t make that mistake again,” said Gordon. “The positive point of the lesson was that we were able to catch and repass both Schlesser and Peterhansel; that proved the Hummer’s capabilities for us and gives us tremendous confidence for tomorrow’s start. "


The previous two day’s top finishers, Spanish WRC Champion, Carlos Sainz (VW Toureg) and Portuguese rally champion, Carlos Souza (Nissan Navarra) dropped back on today’s more difficult terrain. Sainz finished 12th with a time of 2 Hours 57 minutes, while Souza ended up 14th with 3 Hours and 31 seconds.

Gordon’s 2 Hours 52 Minutes places him 8th on the starting line for tomorrow’s fourth stage.
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Whizzer said:
Robby already is one of the best racers in the world.

Right now RGordon is doing some fine tuning to become one of the best in the NEXTEL NASCAR Series.
Click to expand...

Re: your second sentence above, Whiz:


The Tony-wannabe has some basic car control, no doubt. I even kind of like him, don't misunderstand.

But if you think he will ever, in a million, billion, bazillion years even win a losing contest in the Nextel cup series I would seriously suspect you are still dipping into the New years eve celebration a little too heavily. Off road, rally, etc, yeah maybe..but he's a non factor in Nextel Cup, always has been, always will be.


(Unless, of course, that was some of your legendary and hard to spot sarcasm...in which case, yep, he's gonna go far, no doubt about it. ;) )
 
97forever said:
Re: your second sentence above, Whiz:


The Tony-wannabe has some basic car control, no doubt. I even kind of like him, don't misunderstand.

But if you think he will ever, in a million, billion, bazillion years even win a losing contest in the Nextel cup series I would seriously suspect you are still dipping into the New years eve celebration a little too heavily. Off road, rally, etc, yeah maybe..but he's a non factor in Nextel Cup, always has been, always will be.


(Unless, of course, that was some of your legendary and hard to spot sarcasm...in which case, yep, he's gonna go far, no doubt about it. ;) )
Click to expand...

I've found an idiot! ^
 
Todays Update, not a good day for Robby;

ROBBY GORDON HUMMER TEAM DOWN BUT NOT OUT





Stage four of the Dakar Rally from Er Rachidia to Quarzazate, in the North African desert kingdom of Morocco, should have been Robby Gordon’s day to move his “Dakar” Hummer H3 from eighth overall into the top five, but unexpected transmission problems have drastically slowed the American team, dropping them some 3 hours and 51 minutes to the race’s new overall leader, the Spaniard, Carlos Sainz.



Gordon had placed a brilliant fifth overall on the previous day’s Third Stage, a difficult dust filled run, from the North African port of Nador deep into the Moroccan desert to the finishing point at the town of Er Rachidia. Gordon’s run had raised his position in the overall scoring from 14th to eighth overall. That very advantageous starting position for this morning’s stage from Er Rachidia to Quarzazate had given Gordon and navigator Darren Skilton great confidence that they’d soon be challenging the race leaders for the overall position, even though they were eight minutes down on total time. “Yesterday we had the chance to run head to head with Jean-Louis Schlesser (the eventual winner of Stage 3) in his specially built V8 powered desert racer,” said Gordon, “and our Hummer H3 performed flawlessly.” The Frenchman, a long-time competitor in the Saharan classic finished some 12 minutes ahead of Gordon on total accumulated time but Gordon was unfazed by the seeming deficit. “We proved yesterday that we had the combination of power and handling to beat Schlesser, so today we simply have to make up the time,” said Gordon before the start.



Once this morning’s race had begun, on the timed “Special” middle stage of the Er Rachidia-Quarzaate trail, Gordon’s Hummer quickly began to demolish Schlesser’s time advantage for the race. “He had a solid 12 minutes on us at the start and we were seven cars back with two minutes spacing between us, so he had disappeared by the time we took to the course. Our Hummer was doing really well and we’d gained almost everything we’d lost when we began to realize that we had a serious transmission problem. A drive flange finally failed, which killed any chance of us taking the overall win.”



Fortunately Gordon was able to signal another competitor, who relayed the information of the problem to Gordon’s crew, which was awaiting his arrival in Quarzazate. Gordon and Skilton managed to keep the transmission working sufficiently to limp along at a frustratingly slow pace, but their tenacity paid off in that the two were able to cross the finish line, even though it took them 7 hours and 44 minutes to get there. The official finish for the stage will keep Gordon in the race, provided he and his crew can get the Hummer back to Quarzazate and cross the finish line of the Liasion stage in time to make the cut-off time to be an official finisher, and be qualified to start tomorrow’s Fifth Stage from Quarzazate to Tan Tan on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco. “There’s little chance now for an overall win,” said Gordon when questioned about his chances, “but if we can repair the transmission in time to start tomorrow, we can, and certainly will continue. This race has just begun and there will be several more chances to win one of the remaining Special Stages.
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Robby had transmission troble in stage four and it took him over 7 hours to finish the stage. He is now more than three hours behind the leader in the overall standings.
 
Much better day for Robby today;

Stage 5: Update


TEAM DAKAR USA > News > Stage Report
Posted by on Jan 4, 2006, 10:04
Gordon began the day in the same position that he completed yesterday's stage - 119th. He completed the 217 mile special in 4'09" and was the 48th car to cross the finish line meaning he had passed 71 cars on the day. The overall performace with adjusted time was good enough for a 19th place finish on the day which will move the Hummer up in the starting order for tomorrow's stage. Gordon improved his overall classificaton from 69th to 45th.
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American Racer Robby Gordon’s “never give up” philosophy pays off in stage 5 run from Quarzatate to Tan Tan Morocco.

After three brilliant days on the Dakar Rally, Robby Gordon and navigator Darren Skilton had moved their specially built “Dakar Hummer H3” from a 35th starting position in Lisbon Portugal to fifth in Er Richidia, Morroco. On day four, from Er Richidia to Quarzazate, Gordon had the Hummer in contention for the overall win when a small bolt in the transmission failed, almost putting the Hummer completely out of the race. Only Gordon’s skill as a mechanic saved the moment as he had to repeatedly climb under the car and disassemble one of the transmission’s halfshafts to reattach the failing component. He did this six times in the desert finally completing the timed stage just two minutes from being disqualified for being past the allowed time. Then he had to limp over a hundred miles back to the liaison finish line to officially complete the fourth day of competition. Gordon arrived at 10:30 in the evening. This is when Gordon’s ace six-man crew went into action. The transmission was replaced with a new one, but the failing part had to be “re-engineered” so it wouldn’t fail again. The solution was simply to weld the suspect bolt into position so it couldn’t move. After an all-night thrash the Hummer was ready to run just as dawn was breaking over the Atlas Mountains in the far distance.


Gordon’s last finishing place from the night before relegated the team to 120th on the morning’s starting grid. “Through no fault of our own we went from the lead to so far back we could barely see the lead cars when they left the starting line. This was a real set back as this was the stage (from Quarzazate to Tan Tan) that Robby and I really felt we could win,” said Skilton after the finish.

Nevertheless Gordon moved from 120th up to 45th. “There was incredible dust on this leg, as we were far enough into the race where the cars are now combined with the trucks in overall finishing order, so that determines the start order for the next day,” said Skliton “If we’d started in front we could have made excellent time but we had to drive smart, taking no chances. We know this race has just begun. There are thousands of miles yet to cover across the roughest part of Africa. Robby passed some 70 cars before we began smelling oil. Not knowing the cause we had to stop and try to solve the problem but we could only determine the reservoir was low, so we topped up and cruised in to Tan Tan. The Hummer seems to be running fine, but we won’t know the source of the leak for sure until the crew gets on it.”

To make things even more interesting, officials have determined day six will be a “marathon leg” so the morning’s start time will come before dawn. The crew, having had to drive straight through from Quarzazate; leaving just as the car was finished, has had little sleep and is now working on the car to get it ready for the early morning start.

The good news? Gordon’s good finish today has moved the Hummer team back up the starting order, into contention for a top-10 overall finish. We’ll know more by tomorrow evening.
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Talk about tough! 2 minutes is a bit close! He's got some serious luck.
 
Stage 6 Results: Tan Tan > Zouérat


TEAM DAKAR USA > News > Stage Report
Posted by on Jan 5, 2006, 11:44
An 11th place finish in the sixth stage of the 15 stage Dakar Rally has once again vaulted Team Dakar USA up in the overall classification. Gordon, who was as high as eight in the overall standings after stage three, dropped to 69th after suffering a transmission problem in stage four. Since then the duo of Gordon and Skilton have logged two stong stages and are working their way back to the top-10. Beginning the day, Gordon was in the 45th position. After today the No. 335 Hummer H3 is now four hours and 28 minutes back of the lead car of Giniel De Villiers.
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