Dakar Series - Silk Road

A new race was announced in the Dakar Series earlier this month. Cars and Trucks only, on the historic Silk Road, through Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, from Sept. 5 - 13.

This may be just bad reporting but one site claims that Team Dakar USA has entered:

Silk Road - Dakar Series rally presented in Berlin
The off-road Silk Road - Dakar Series rally will be officially presented in Berlin at the end of May. It should be recalled that the rally, which is to run across Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan from 5 to 13 September, was earlier presented to the sports world and the media in Moscow and Paris.
Volkswagen team confirmed their intention to send the three crews to the Silk Road rally. Man, Tatra, Ginaf, Mercedes, KAMAZ-master also confirmed their participation in the truck category. German BMW X-raid team, US team of Robby Gordon on prototype of Hummer, Spanish Epsilon, French Philip Gasha's racing club also applied. Russian champion Ruslan Misikov, famous pilots Konstantin Zhiltsov, Sergey Savenko and Bulat Yanborisov were the first to receive the certificate of participation. Applications are accepted from 16 April to 30 July.

It is expected that about 100 cars and 50 trucks will participate in the rally. Silk Road rally is fully consistent with the classic African Dakar by its diversity. Silk Road rally is a half of Dakar's January marathon by its distance (4 500 km, of which 3 200 km will be special areas). French Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) company - the owner of Dakar and a number of prestigious cycle races (including the Tour de France), as well as other major sports events, is a co-organizer of the off-road rally.

Hoping to learn more, and possibly get confirmation (or not) from Robby.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by TOG on April 29, 2009 at 8:18pm

wow. good stuff. We will try to get additional info on this. Thanks Alan.

Permalink Reply by alan4s on April 29, 2009 at 8:22pm

BTW - if Robby were to be there for all of this race, he would need miss the fall Atlanta and Richmond races - the last two before the Chase begins.

Of course there is more than one Hummer driver on Team Dakar USA.......

Permalink Reply by TOG on April 29, 2009 at 8:29pm

thats what I was thinking, possibly seatime for the added drivers for 2010

Permalink Reply by Jaci on April 29, 2009 at 9:08pm

Yeah, I was thinking Eric too. He's been running other rally's, he is currently running in The Rally of Tunisia in a Ronn Bailey Vanguard, Toyo Tires Chevy Trophy Truck.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://...

Permalink Reply by alan4s on April 30, 2009 at 2:26pm

Dress rehersal for the support crew and equipment too.

I just don't know if Robby would let someone else have so much control over all of his expensive toys, if you know what I mean.

Permalink Reply by Tufftimes on April 30, 2009 at 1:52pm

I just checked out the official website. There is no mention as to which teams (ie Team USA Hummers) sould be competing in the event as the press release said. There is also no list of entrants as of yet. But the main page does show a half screen slideshow which features a picture of the big black hummer.
The terrain for this rally seems ideally suited for the Hummers, lots of sand and desert. Including the last two stages in dunes. Would Robby be interested in winning the first ever Silk Road Rally? He would likely have his best chance at winning a Dakar event there. Besides, he would probably get twice as much exposure for not being at the Nascar races (and having a fill in driver to get points for the car) than he would if he actually raced.

Permalink Reply by alan4s on April 30, 2009 at 2:31pm

Yeah, I checked those other sources last night before posting this thread - that's why I'm suspicious that it may just be sloppy reporting (e.g., it's a Dakar Series race, so it must have all the drivers who drove in the last Dakar Rally).

I don't think it would be a good idea for Robby to skip cup races this year to play in the sand. If/when he's ready to do that, he needs to announce up front that he's only running cup on a limited schedule, and he'd need to have someone locked in as an RGM driver to fill in for him. I don't see that happening soon.

I could see some of the other Team USA drivers having a go at it though, if Robby would let them loose with his toys.

Permalink Reply by TOG on April 30, 2009 at 2:50pm

RG would not run in this.

Permalink Reply by David Neth on May 1, 2009 at 9:02pm

If all goes well at the 500, he should be racing Primm which is during that time. He has already said he would take off from NASCAR to race that a while ago.

Permalink Reply by GrayAntiMatter on June 7, 2009 at 12:24am

I was disappointed that Team Dakar USA didn't have someone in the 2008 PAX Rally that ASO put on. Even if RG wasn't there, it could only be bonus to have the Hummers and support teams to put to the test against VW and Mitsubishi in race conditions.

If Team Dakar USA is serious about putting Salazar in a Hummer next year, then this would be a fantastic warm up for him. Its not pulling some SCORE/BITD Trophy Truck driver is going to be an option, since SCORE Primm conflicts with the dates.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Meyer on September 16, 2009 at 6:58am