Special Motorsports Event - Stage Report 6 Dakar Rally

Calama, January 11, 2013: After one of the longest stages of the Rally, Robby Gordon brings home a solid third place finish, making it back-to-back podiums for the SPEED Energy / Toyo Tires / MAPEI HUMMER.

The competitors started on a 291KM liaison which led into a 455KM Special. In between the Special was a road section for cars to be serviced on before finishing the final kilometers of the Special. Gordon would met his team, and unfortunately find himself waiting there for too long. Sitting in a comfortable 3rd place, the team discovered that the hatch had taken some burn damage from the exhaust. The team spent more time making sure that this would cause a fire heading into the final legs of the stage. In essence, Gordon would lose 5 minutes in the transfer zone. Luckily it did not take away his 3rd place finish but certainly did not help him gain anything either.

"It was another good Special for us, another podium result for us as a team. Unfortunately, we gave up 5 minutes in the transfer section, and missed a couple of roads near the beginning. Getting beat 13 minutes does not really concern me because it really does not matter, we are just in a mode to get the best results we can and finish the Rally. We have the ability to break into the top 15, top 10 with a lot of cars are dropping out daily. We picked up a ton of spots in just one day, so the HUMMER's been good. We have had no mechanical failures...just driver and navigational errors that could have been prevented. If we would have just set our pace, we could be sitting here third overall; it's just a bummer because now we face another 8 long days of pain and wear and tear on the vehicle," commented Gordon after seeing the overall results following the stage.