Robby Gordon is confident his Hummer H3 is going to be able not only to battle for the win with the Volkswagen Touareg but give him the chance to win his first Dakar Rally, after six tries. VW has been unbeatable in South America, winning both editions of the “Ultimate Race” in Argentina and Chile with Giniel de Villiers in 2009 and Carlos Sainz in 2010. “I think we can beat them. If I didn´t think I could win, I wouldn´t come for the race. I finished 3rd in 2009 behind the Volkswagens. Last year, we lost 6 hours because of an alternator. Without that problem, I would have finished 3rd again. We can beat them. We´re ready.” said Gordon, in a Press Conference done in Santiago, Chile, for the official announcement on the second driver of the team, which will be chilean veteran driver Eliseo Salazar, former IndyCar and IMSA driver during the 90’s.
For this Dakar, the Hummer H3 developed by Robby Gordon Motorsports, has a lot of improvements comparing to the previous version. According to Gordon, the car now is more drivable and is 10% lighter (“that´s a pretty big number”, Gordon said). RGM has also worked hard on the engine and the transmission, adding an extra gear to improve top end speed and agility. “This is the finest car we have ever prepared for Rally Racing. You know, it looks like a big Hummer, but it´s a Formula 1 car for the dirt.”
Robby Gordon Motorsports Hummer H3 - Image: Planetrobby.com
Last year´s Dakar wasn´t a very good one for Robby Gordon Motorsports. Three Hummers started the race in Buenos Aires, but only one finished, with Robby Gordon on the wheel. He ended up in a not bad, but disappointing 8th place. One of the drivers of RGM´s Hummers was chilean off-road star Carlo de Gavardo. He had to withdrew on the third stage of the rally after a clutch failure. De Gavardo had paid for the ride with Chilean government sponsorship, and he said that Gordon´s deal was unfair and that the team didn´t have the resources to repair his car, because all the spares were for Robby´s car. Gordon made clear that the last Dakar is past for him and that everything De Gavardo said is not true: “Last year on Day Two, I had three cars: One on it´s roof, one out of the race and one of the finish line that day. I think you can understand this: This is racing. Shit happens. We just have to make sure that this year, shit doesn´t happen. This year, we always anticipated racing two cars. The two cars are exactly the same.”
Eliseo Salazar
On Salazar being his teammate, Robby said he was pretty happy with the deal: “Known Eliseo for a lot of time, we have worked together before [in IndyCar for the Indy 500 at A.J. Foyt Racing]. He´s a very capable race-car driver.” The problem with Salazar, is that the deal was just announced today, with four days to the start of the Dakar Rally, and the chilean hasn´t tested the Hummer since the beggining of last year. He would have to start learning everything about the car in the link stages the first days in Argentina. Gordon is confident though, that he is going to be successful if he keep his mind centered: “The most important thing is finishing the race. You have to take each stage as one. It´s very dangerous to race 100% everytime. The first goal for Eliseo is to get to Chile. The second goal, the rest day. The third goal, Argentina. The fourth goal, to finish the race. If he does all that, he should be in the Top 10.”
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