Dakar 2010: Team HUMMER Stage 14 Recap – Robby Gordon finishes Dakar in 8th place

Dakar 2010: Team HUMMER Stage 14 Recap Robby Gordon finishes Dakar in 8th place

Photo: Willy Weyens ©willyweyens-rallyworld

Buenos Aires, Argentina (January 16, 2010) – Saturday marked the 14th and final stage of the 32nd edition of the Dakar Rally. The rally came full circle as competitors drove 707 kilometers from Santa Rosa to the finish line in Buenos Aires, where the Dakar Rally began nearly two weeks ago. The key to the final stage was staying focused for the duration of the 206 kilometers timed special. The 14th special was composed of a series of very fast track that forced competitors to navigate their way through the Argentinean landscape with precision. After reaching the finish line in the village of San Carlos de Bolivar, drivers had to travel another 335 kilometers to the official finish line of the 2010 Dakar Rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Team HUMMER was “wide open” for the final stage as they tried to gain as much ground as they could before the conclusion of the race. Robby Gordon piloted his Monster Energy / Toy Tires HUMMER to a seventh place finish while his Vanguard teammate finished ninth. When the dust had settled from this year’s Dakar Rally, the Monster HUMMER came home in eighth place overall roughly six hours behind this year’s winner Carlos Sainz. The Vanguard HUMMER was 21st. As much as Robby Gordon and his team would have liked another podium finish, they are happy with a top-10 finish.

“Today was another good, consistent day for the Monster Energy / Toyo Tires HUMMER. We were wide open for miles and miles. In fact, it is the longest I’ve ever held the throttle open in the Monster HUMMER during the Rally. I really hoped that we could have brought home another stage win before the Rally concluded,” commented Gordon on the final day of competition.

“We’ll have to go back and go through all of our notes from this year so that we can be better for next year’s Dakar Rally. A top-10 finish is still impressive considering just how difficult this race is – both on people and equipment. I am just disappointed that we didn’t get another podium finish this year, but we will come back next year and be that much stronger because of it. We won’t give up, and I’m confident in our race team that we have what it takes to be competitive against the world’s best. We’ve proven that time and time again. We build great race cars and have a good team; we’ll be back next year looking for a Dakar Rally overall win.”

Dakar 2010: Team HUMMER Stage 14 Recap Robby Gordon finishes Dakar in 8th place