Dakar Stage Victory for Robby Gordon
05.01.2010
By the narrowest of margins, Robby Gordon has won stage four of the 2010 Dakar, racing on his TOYO TIRES Open Country MT-Rs. Gordon’s time of one hour, forty minutes and twenty one seconds was just one second ahead of the BMW of Peterhansel.
His first stage victory of the 2010 race brings to three the number of Dakar stages the US racer has now won outright. As predicted before the race commenced, the privately entered Team HUMMER have humbled the mighty factory backed teams with their giant killing performance.
BJ Baldwin, in the second HUMMER also finished eighth overall despite starting in a lowly 65th position after yesterdays disastrous stage when a transmission failure left him having to be towed in to the bivouac.
To achieve these fantastic results, the HUMMERs had to overcome the twin issues of a restrictor which effectively robs the car of the power to compete on equal terms and the increased weight necessary for the cars fuel load. In yesterday’s stage, these issues caused the HUMMER to get bogged down with insufficient power to pull itself out of the dunes losing valuable race time. It took a determined and focused effort by Gordon assisted by navigator Andy Grider to drive around these issues and race for today’s win.
Stage four, from Fiambala in Argentina to Copiapo in Chile was shortened by 40 kms because of the horrendous attrition of stage three where not just Baldwin's car suffered. Dozens of cars limped home to the bivouac late into the night either heavily damaged or having to be towed by their assistance vehicles. Given that stage four would take the race into the Atacama desert, the driest place on earth where no life can exist, the organisers wisely decided to reschedule a later start and shortened the race distance.
We await news on the third HUMMER sponsored by Chile which also had to be towed to the bivouac. It is unclear at this moment whether the car will be able to continue.
Tomorrow, stage five comprises a marathon 483 kms where elevations of nearly 3.000 meters will again have drivers and cars gasping for air across the Atacama desert. The altitude, heat and arid atmosphere combined with the length of the stage make this a real car killer. Team HUMMER will be pushing hard despite the conditions and no one would rule out further stage victories.
Team HUMMER comprises:
• Monster Energy/TOYO TIRES HUMMER (Race No. 302)
Driver: Robby Gordon
Navigator: Andy Grider
• Vanguard HUMMER (Race No. 351)
Driver: BJ Baldwin
Navigator: Kellon Walsh
• Chile HUMMER (Race No. 326)
Driver: Carlo De Gavardo
Navigator: Juan Pablo Rodriguez
All three HUMMERs race on TOYO TIRES 35 x 12.50 R 17 Open Country MT-R
Follow the race with TOYO TIRES at http://toyotires.com/blog
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