Robby Gordon responds to Peterhansel calling him a cheater

SPEED Energy Racing Transcript:

Robby Gordon talks about entering the 2013 Dakar Rally after one of his competitors makes a comment about him and his HUMMER

PETERHANSEL COMMENTING ON ROBBY GORDON ENTERING THE 2013 DAKAR RALLY:

“This is a cheater born, we are here to compete, not for show race, and this is not the circus, even if it pleased the audience.”
“We must fight on equal terms, Robby Gordon must comply with the rules. If this is the case, it is welcome. Otherwise. Not!”

PETERHANSEL IS NOT ONLY CALLING YOU A CHEATER BUT CALLING YOU A SHOWMAN RATHER THAN A RACER, HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THAT?

RG: I take that personal, the fact he is calling me a cheater or my team a cheater. We explained our system last year to A.S.O. at initial technical inspection and we did not change anything from that day of initial tech on our car until the day they saw our car, saying it wasn't legal. With all that said what Peterhansel needs to understand is this is the entertainment business and it is not just about racecars. If it was just about racecars we would all be driving diesel powered Mini’s and they would sound like a bunch of sewing machines.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT HIM TALKING ABOUT FIGHTING ON EQUAL TERMS?

RG: We are really excited to go to the Dakar, last year A.S.O. can say we were disqualified, but to be honest with you at the end of the day we finished 5th and it wasn’t worth fighting with them. So we'll accept whatever we have to accept, but in regards to Peterhansel and playing fair and square, we played by the rules A.S.O. told us we could play by last year and they came and inspected our cars for 2013 and we are ready for the challenge. Last year if you take out the stages I had to tow Al-Attiyah around we would have been easily ahead of Peterhansel at that point. This year our car is even better fine tuned, we’ve had more time to work on it. Even with the inflation disconnected last year, I want to remind Peterhansel that we beat him 10-15 minutes a day when we wanted to go. So he's going to have to tighten his seat belts and we are ready for the battle. There is STILL nothing Monster, about his Mini!