Robby Gordon Attacks Africa at Dakar Rally
Gordon Celebrates Birthday in Morocco

1-2-2006

Benj Tadjite , Morocco – The third stage of the rally was set on the edge of the African continent in Morocco where the terrain offered a mixture of twisting roads and technical off road sections similar to racing in Baja. Teams navigated through several perilous water crossings before finishing in Benj Tadjite, Morocco.

Stage three consisted of traversing 188.4 miles/314 kilometers in the Moroccan desert terrain amidst heavy dust from race vehicles. Celebrating his birthday racing in the dust of the Dakar Rally’s top teams was American, Robby Gordon. Dust is no stranger to the Baja racing champion. In 1996, Robby Gordon captured the SCORE Trophy Truck Championship in his Ford F-150 as he raced through the dust and onto the podium claiming top honors as the truck champ.

37 year-old Robby Gordon is an icon in the off road racing world and was named one of the top five most influential industry persons by The Off Road Retailer magazine in 2005. Of course, he’s well-known in the United States, but as he demonstrated in Stage 2, he’s becoming popular in Portugal as well. Gordon woed the crowd with a short jump at the beginning of Stage 2.

Finishing in 14 th position after two stages the rally participants were ferried to the African continent where Gordon was ready to embark on a mission to attack Africa.

Gordon began stage three in fourteeth position and by the end of the day’s racing, he and his co-driver, Darren Skilton, moved up six positions into 8th spot only 4 minutes and 11 seconds of the overall lead. Gordon and Skilton are only seconds behind fellow American and Baja racing champion – Mark Miller racing the Volkswagen Touareg for Volkswagen Motorsports. Gordon’s Hummer H3 fitted with Toyo Tires has made nay-sayers turn their heads in utter amazement as the non-typical American machine has debuted in the African desert.

The Hummer H3 is more at home in Africa than on the Portual mountain roads.

Robby commented, “It was a good day. We clocked a good time and I am very satisfied with this result. I lost myself in the early stage following Chicherit. At this time, Schlesser overtook us, (but) we quickly managed to find the good way. Otherwise, it was a fast stage in spite of the holes and rocks. Actually, it looked a bit like a Baja, quite technically demanding."

The talk among several teams was to watch several top drivers in stage three including Schlesser and Robby Gordon, as well as the Volkswagen teams.

Interesting, to say the least, is that Gordon finished right behind Kleinschmidt, who, if you recall from last year’s rally, Gordon had to stop and provide mechanical assistance to in last year’s rally. The Volkswagen Motorsports pilot finished only 34 seconds in front of the NASCAR Nextel Cup – team owner in stage three making for some interesting discussions among the dirt nation.

Undoubtedly, Team Dakar USA led by Robby Gordon is making some heads turn in this year’s Dakar Rally.

At home in the United States, specifically Southern California, the Internet BBS Forums are hyped up with Robby Gordon discussions bantering back and forth on whether the “Win or Wad” attitude often associated with Gordon will have any effect on his race efforts.

In November 2005, at the 2005 SEMA Show, Gordon announced that he had changed tire sponsors after two decades of racing on BFGoodrich tires. Gordon partnered with Toyo Tires to race this season’s Baja 1000 where he finished in 14 th position in class with a finishing time of 20 hours, 17 minutes and 1 second. Gordon suffered a setback halfway through the race when he experienced shock problems on his #83 Chevy Red Bull Trophy Truck.

Robby Gordon Motorsports, Anaheim, California built the custom Hummer H3 that Gordon and Skilton are racing at the rally. Working with the nation’s top off road racing engineering professionals and fabricators, they have produced a vehicle that they believe will beat the African desert. Read more about Robby Gordon's Stage 3 effort here.

Leading overall is Mitsubishi Ralliart driver – Joan “Nani” Roma who set the sixth fastest time in the first African stage of this year’s rally. Roma was only 4 seconds behind Robby Gordon.

Roma commented, “I am very surprised and happy to be leading. I just tried to reach the finish without any mistakes. I had no real problems and I will continue with this strategy tomorrow - just drive and make no mistakes. It is dangerous to push in the dust. At one point there were 10 or 15 bikes together."

Volkswagen’s Peterhansel began the day in 10 th position in the overall standings and moved into sixth explaining, “Today’s stage was difficult with the number of bikes and cars running closely together. I kept my distance to avoid the dust and to avoid having any problems in some big holes in the rocky tracks.”

Mitsubishi’s Alphand and co-driver Gilles Picard began the first African stage behind the early leader Carlos Sainz, but slipped to ninth in the results after losing time in rivals' dust.

"We let Carlos, Nasser and Hiroshi pass us today and then we were in dust," said Alphand. "If you want to finish the stage safely you need to leave a gap behind the car in front in the dust. It was just like a long train of cars and bikes today. There was no chance to get into a rhythm."

"We opted for a safe strategy over the first few days in Morocco, but it is very pleasing to be, not only in touch with our rivals, but actually leading the rally with the first two places," said Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart Team Director Dominique Serieys. "'Nani' has really benefited from his recent experience and again proved that we have four drivers who can win the Dakar this year."

"I told our drivers that Volkswagen teams are the main rivals, but we should also watch out for Jean-Louis Schlesser and Robbie Gordon and 'Schless' proved the point and was the fastest today. We will maintain our strategy and see what develops. But it was a good day for us."

QUOTES Source: Dakar Rally

OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER Stage 3

Robby Gordon Quick Facts: SOURCE / Robby Gordon Motorsports

Check these American team websites for the latest updates posted by team members.

9 Chris Blais – blaisracing.com
23 Andy Grider - griderracing.com
42 Jonah Street - rallypanam.com
98 Mike Krynock - rallypanam.com
99 Charlie Rauseo - rallypanam.com
180 Kevin Heath - KevinsMidLifeCrisis.com
242 Scott Whitney / Duane McDowell - HogWildRacing.com
309 Mark Miller - Mark Miller – USADakar.com
335 Robby Gordon / Darren Skilton - robbygordon.com
354 Ronn Bailey / Herve Cotel - vanguardracing.com