Santiago, Chile (January 12, 2010) – Competitors from Team HUMMER completed the tenth of fourteen stages in the Dakar Rally today. Drivers travelled a total of 586 km from La Serena to Santiago, and completed a 238 km timed special composed mostly of fast, winding track. After leaving the Atacama Desert, they were exposed to the dense vegetation and hilly terrain of Chile as they travelled to Santiago. The stage was further complicated by the winding tracks, which could cost valuable time. Completing Stage 10 without any major mistakes is essential to successfully completing the Dakar Rally.

Today would be an almost perfect day for Robby Gordon in his Monster Energy / Toyo Tires HUMMER despite finishing ninth, 9 minutes and 36 seconds to the stage winner Carlos Sainz. None of the problems the team had faced during the previous three stags would affect him today. The terrain was not as difficult as the dunes but was similar to World Rally Championship style racing with tight roads and technical execution. The Monster Energy / Toyo Tires HUMMER would run good for Gordon but just come up short on time. Robby Gordon falls back to tenth place overall, but is looking forward to gaining more ground as teams fight to survive the final stages of the 2010 Dakar Rally.

Robby Gordon was upbeat after his performance during Stage 10. “The team did a good job preparing the Monster Energy / Toyo Tires HUMMER for today’s stage, We had no mechanicals, failures or issues. We just got beat by our 2-wheel drive system on the tight, slippery roads. Toyo Tires has done a good job keeping up with the competition, and the HUMMER has been running good. Monster has given the team plenty of energy to finish this thing, and we have four more days of racing left.”

The driver of the Vanguard HUMMER would also have a much better performance than the day before. Starting in the rear of the field for today’s stage, the Vanguard HUMMER would finish in the 23rd position, moving up to 21st in the overall standings.