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 NIKAL on January 7, 2011 at 12:17pm

No the current VW's dont have any Jimco parts under them. The original Jimco VW 4x2 cars were built for the 2003 Dakar. This was prior to VW becoming a full fledged Factory Work's team. Once VW went 4x4 (Touareg model) they were all built in house at VW's racing facility.

In 2002 VW wanted to try Dakar and they contracted out to another team and at that time the chassis and suspension were all Jimco. Once VW felt Dakar was a good platform to sell their new cars they took everything in house and became a full Worx team.

The original VW Dakar car was called a Tarek. Some of these cars are still racing today as VW sold their old cars to privater teams. I dont know if VW has sold any current Touareg Dakar cars to privater's. Many times Factory teams will do this to re-coop some of their money and to give the brand a bigger presence. It also gives a smaller budgeted team the chance to get in better equipment and they will sometimes get some limited support.

Also JLS buggy that he won Dakar several years back was built of a Jimco chassis. Its funny overseas they dont call the car by the chassis manufacture like we do in the states. They call it by who owns it. aka the Schlesser Buggy.

Here is the original VW Tarek built on the Jimco platform (2003)

Here is one of the VW Tarek's owned by a privater team. I believe this pictures was taken before the 2008 Dakar rally.

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Permalink Reply by kurt kern on January 7, 2011 at 7:51am

Robby's chasis are fine. I don't think that ended his rally this time. Robby's car is fast.

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Permalink Reply by chino on January 7, 2011 at 11:44am

One problem, bigger than the rest and 2X4 instead of 4x4. In this kind of environment the 4x4 is essential. The accident with the rock and the time lost on the fist two stages is proof of this.