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 | Dakar Rally 2013: Robby Gordon - "Time to win - and we are not cheating".
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With no desert too large and no mountain too tall, the Speed Energy Hummer on victory proven Toyo Tires will once again attempt to conquer the world’s most famous off-road event (as marathonrally.com announced yesterday).
Registration discussions between the organizer ASO and Team Gordon began back in early summer months in preparation for the 2013 Dakar Rally, and on December 2nd registration for the Hummer became official.
The ASO and the team agreed on a pre-check inspection of the Dakar Hummer prior to being approved to race. Once the detailed pre-check inspection of the Dakar Hummer and its air-inflation system by ASO officials, the team was approved to officially race the 2013 Dakar Rally.
"I am excited to go back to race the prestigious Dakar Rally and show the world that we are ready to give it our best shot once again at an overall victory. Obviously our cars are good enough to compete for the win."
"Last year we had the fastest cars at the rally and led the most check points with fastest times, winning five specials as a team, two with the second Hummer and three special stage wins for myself. It is now time for us to go back and capitalize on what we worked on and developed over the last seven years to put ourselves in a position to win."
Gordon will be joined in the cockpit by his navigator, Kellon Walch, who served as team navigator for B.J. Baldwin in 2010 and for Gordon in 2011. Walch looks to bring back the experience and chemistry gained as the team’s navigator in previous rally races along with the focus and drive needed to guide the vehicle through the challenging navigation obstacles that Gordon will face.
On his fansite [ PLANETROBBY.COM ] there is a (unconfirmed, source Kevin Wilson "SPEED Energy Racing Transcript") discussion after the official announcement on December 5th. This discussion shows, how emotionally Gordon is looking forward to the Dakar Rally.
Planet Robby: Dakar-winner Stéphane Peterhansel commented last year, "This is a cheater born, we are here to compete, not for show race, and this is not the circus, even if it pleased the audience. We must fight on equal terms, Robby Gordon must comply with the rules. If this is the case, it is welcome. Otherwise. Not!"
So if this is true, Peterhansel was calling you not only a cheater but calling you a Showman rather than a racer. How do you respond on that?
Robby Gordon: "I take that personal, the fact he is calling me a cheater or my team a cheater. We explained our system last year to ASO at initial technical inspection and we did not change anything from that day of initial tech on our car until the day they saw our car, saying it wasn't legal.
With all that said what Peterhansel needs to understand is this is the entertainment business and it is not just about racecars. If it was just about racecars we would all be driving diesel powered Mini’s and they would sound like a bunch of sewing machines."
Planet Robby: What do you have to say about him talking about fighting on equal terms?
Robby Gordon: "We are really excited to go to the Dakar, last year ASO can say we were disqualified, but to be honest with you at the end of the day we finished 5th and it wasn’t worth fighting with them.
So we'll accept whatever we have to accept, but in regards to Peterhansel and playing fair and square, we played by the rules ASO told us we could play by last year and they came and inspected our cars for 2013 and we are ready for the challenge.
Last year if you take out the stages I had to tow Al-Attiyah around we would have been easily ahead of Peterhansel at that point. This year our car is even better fine tuned, we’ve had more time to work on it.
Even with the inflation disconnected last year, I want to remind Peterhansel that we beat him 10-15 minutes a day when we wanted to go. So he's going to have to tighten his seat belts and we are ready for the battle. There is STILL nothing Monster, about his Mini!"
2012/12/06 | 16:13 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/SPEED/PLANETROBBY.COM
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