Robby Gordon Dakar Stage 5 UPDATE

No stage 5 for Robby Gordon....2011 Rally is now over for the #303 HUMMER.

Robby Gordon had right front wheel bearing issues before the start of the timed special, costing him about 5 hours. He completed the stage, but because he was late to the special, he is disqualified from the rally.

"This is not fair" said Gordon after the stage, "I can´t understand the descision of the Organizer ASO. During the stage the officials told me that we can still run, after the stage they told me I´m disqulified. I tried everything to start again."

The technical problems happened during the liasion, Gordon was waiting for the second Hummer of Eliseo Salazar and his Service-crew. But Salazar was still in the timed stage, the service trucks had to wait after all participants were in the stage because to fasten the border-crossing between Argentina and Chile.

"I don´t know if I will come back next year" said a disappointed Gordon. The second Hummer with Eliseo Salazar is still competing in 81st overall position.

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Permalink Reply by S Jones on January 6, 2011 at 1:11am

Can't help it, been drinkin' SPEED all day

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Permalink Reply by Short Bus on January 6, 2011 at 6:56am

From Steve LaRoza's report, before RG was stranded at the side of the road, he stopped at a service station to try to fix it before it completely seized up. While in this service station, the second car passed and RGs car wasn't easily visible from the road. Dakar rules don't allow car to car, or car to base communications. You are utterly on your own and that is part of the race. I believe that have a radio for emergencies, but if you use it, you are an automatic DQ.

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Permalink Reply by S Jones on January 6, 2011 at 10:39am

They won't allow car to car on a liaisons? Interesting. All the more reason for Kellon to be in the middle of the road flagging down everything that drove by. Think of the pit crews in Baja who jump up and down in the middle of the course, waiving signs to stop their drivers, and yet the truck still flies past the scheduled stops... Robbie included. It's ridiculous to assume the second truck was just driving along the road, drinking slurpies and talking about the glory days instead of keeping an eye out for any and all danger. I can agree with everyone here, the car is BRIGHT orange and it'd be impossible to miss... so clearly something else happened.

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Permalink Reply by Billy on January 6, 2011 at 1:27pm

Well at least it was SPEED flavored Slurpies they were drinking... lol

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Permalink Reply by Bricoop on January 6, 2011 at 4:00pm

Yo, Robby was in a service station when Eliseo drove by.

As said earlier, get over it.

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Permalink Reply by Banner Dawson on January 6, 2011 at 10:44am

well whatever the problem is lets hope for the best and that RG can continue to race this mother

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Avsec on January 6, 2011 at 11:29am

Robby said himself the 327 blew by him, and doesn't understand how they missed him.

Brutal teammates

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Permalink Reply by Gordon Thomas on January 6, 2011 at 4:23pm

Robby is also saying it is unfair that he can't continue after not making it to the timed start before it closed. Robby makes emotion based irrational statements all the time (see "victory" burnout at Montreal). That is one of the reasons why we all like him so much.

I do wish they had let him continue for our entertainment, but under the circumstances it is hardly unfair. It would be very unfair to any competitors that he impacted in any way if he continued to run, especially all the slow vehicles that he would be passing each and every stage as he would always be way behind on total time.