The Dakar Rally has been over for not quite a week now, and already the media arm of Robby Gordon’s off-road truck empire, Team Speed, has produced this very cool video of the final stage, which he won in the car class.
The video is mostly a wrap-up of the team’s Dakar experience, with major props going out to the team, the fans and the organizers. Robby Gordon and his bright orange beast has a huge following in South America. Maybe because he’s always flat-out and balls-to-the-wall. Maybe it’s because he builds his own beastly vehicle that sounds like no other. Whatever the reason, fans love seeing his dusty orange blur roar by, and I can’t say I blame them.
Congratulations on the stage win, Mr. Gordon. It’s a shame the mechanical issues early on took you out of contention for the win. The Gordini is fast as all get out, although the name is pretty silly.
I looked at the top 10 finishers of the 2015 Dakar car class, and interestingly all but 1 (an SMG Buggy) are 4WD machines. Makes me wonder why Gordon and Peugeot stuck with 2WD? The 4WD Mini has dominated the past 3 years straight, and prior to that the previously dominant machine was the VW Touareg which was also 4WD. As cool as the Gordini is, it seems to me that it needs to be converted to 4WD if it has any hopes of winning the entire event.
Oh, and one thing of note. That final stage that Gordon won? It was cut down to only 35 miles from an original 100 miles due to really sloppy mud cancelling most of the stage (apparently the area had massive thunderstorms the day before). That’s why his winning time was only 13 minutes and change. Sure it is a stage win, but more of a sprint stage than a real Dakar stage.