Robby scored his second special win of the Central Europe Rally today.  This was the same course in which he destroyed his rear left wheel hub.  The stage was familiar grounds for Gordon and he left camp anxious to go back in to the racetrack.  He felt that there was a time mix up on the last Special.  Robby said he was faster than any body else on the road.  He sure looked like it when I was standing on the mountaintop where a VW crashed and rolled yesterday.  He finished the special with a time of 32 minutes and 58 seconds winning by a mere second!  BJ Baldwin had his highest finish this afternoon of the rally finishing 4^th.  His final time was 33 minutes 17 seconds, only 19 seconds behind Robby.  Robby stays in 11^th placer overall with a time of 11 hours 1 minute and 50 seconds.  BJ is in the 7^th position with a time of 10 hours 33 minutes 48 seconds.  In the eyes of the press, BJ was a no name coming in to this rally.  I think BJ has made his mark in the rally, he is up there fighting it out with the top drivers in the world and is holding his own.  When this last special finish, a woman from the French press came over and told me how excited she was for BJ and she can’t wait to see him out in a real Dakar Rally.

I can’t even begin to explain how the local people react to the Hummers and the crew members.  They love the Hummers, chase or race Hummers it doesn’t matter.  They are quick to pull out their cameras or cell phones and click away.  When we walk through the pits or the towns, people are so hospitable.  This exert is from a Hungarian website called Marathon Rally:

“Robby Gordon, who managed to remove one of his wheels yesterday while hovering in full speed over the bumpy slopes, is back into the race. Even without possibilities for a total victory he remains one of the crowds favourites. In a strong contrast to the untouchable and corporately professional very "German" team from Volkswagen and the well-experienced Mitsubishi crew Robby and BJ's team lives what it stands for. With their Monster Energy drink logo on the black shirts almost every team members airs a level of non-uniform screwd individualism that makes everyone curious and lets the Hungarian and international spectator realize that there is more here than just racing as a way of achieving materialized board targets. While this is true for many if not all of the professional and semi-professional drivers and teams who invest a lot of heart blood into the event the Hummer crew is possibly most actively broadcasting this way of racing by their sheer presence.”

Comments like these are endearing and humbling.  We came here to win, to be competitive with the unlimited budget teams.  I think we have done that so far.  The TV time that the ASO is giving the team is amazing.  Today the TV helicopter did not leave Robby’s side, even though the favorites were ahead of him.  When he came in to the pits after the win, the crowd gathered all around the car and started clapping like if he had won the whole rally.  I wonder what the outcome would have been if the hub had not broken.  The press says it would have been the most exciting rally in a very long time.  The team is no longer the black sheep of Dakar.  We have finally earned a spot in the bivouac next to the big factory teams.

Robby brought up one interesting point this morning. Do we finish in the top ten and get a smaller restrictor for the ‘09 Argentina-Chile? Or do we just run the cars and keep them outside of the top ten.  This would give both Hummers a larger restrictor and one more gear.  This could add up to 40 horsepower to each car.  The 2^nd special is about to start…will be back soon…

The team worked tirelessly all last night to have the Hummers race ready for this morning’s start.  I saw the guys this morning and they looked beat, but their hard work will pay off.  Robby went on to win the 1^st special of the 5^th stage this morning.  The moral back in the pit was sky high when we received the official results from the ASO.  The 2^nd leg of race was up in the Vezsprem Mountains making it very tight and technical.  Perfect terrain for the 4 wheel drives.  Robby was optimistic; his main focus was to put time on Carlos Sainz, which started behind him.  Around Kilometer 36 Robby’s chance for the overall win came to an end. I’ll let him explain what happened with this quote and video:

"After the special win we were pumped up because we had fought our way back into this thing. The only thing left to do was to go hard and keep pace with the leaders. I'm very disappointed after the second special. We flew a decent size jump and the truck just came down wrong on the rear and damaged the rear hub. We finally managed to get it fixed but at that point it was too late. Our chances on this rally are over but I'm really proud of this effort. We are competing against the best off-road teams in the world and they knew we were here! On the bright side BJ has done a fantastic job in the Vanguard Hummer. Both Hummers have really performed very well,” explained Gordon. 

The 1^st checkpoint had Robby beating Sainz by 40 seconds.  Who knows what would have happened if that Hub wouldn’t have broken.  This Rally has been teeter tot, up and down, up and down.  On the bright side like Robby said, BJ has done an awesome job in his Rally racing debut.  We will race again tomorrow in the same course backwards.  Who knows we might score a few more specials and possibly stage wins!

Find more videos like this on Robby's upRising

Robby Gordon won the 1^st special of the 5^th stage in the Central Europe Rally today.  He piloted his Monster Energy/Toyo Tires Hummer to victory with a time of 1 hours 41 minutes and 4 seconds.  That puts him about 2 and a half minutes behind the leader Carlos Sainz. 

BJ Baldwin had a great day as well.  He finished the special 8^th overall with a time of 1 hour 46 minutes and 30 seconds.  There were some monir navigation problems on his end that set him back a couple of minutes.  He was 5 minutes and 26 seconds behind Gordon. 

Check out this morning's race action:

Today’s stage 4 of the central Europe rally was an emotional rollercoaster.  We started the day pumped up because we were going to head in to the same course that stage 1 took place in which Robby finished 2^nd.  This time the course would run backwards.  We heard word that at the 1^st checkpoint, Robby was the fastest.  I went out to the first media wave point and saw him fly through there.  I was standing next to the course taking some pictures when he came roaring through.  It was one of the very few times I’ve been scared of standing next to a road when he is racing.  He was coming through this narrow path and the Hummer was just kicking the rear all over the place, he was on it!

There was a second wave point for the media to go film but when we calculated the time it would take to get there and get back to the finish we would not make it.  Robby finished 3^rd in the stage with a time of 39 minutes and 46 seconds.  De Villiers won the leg of the stage with a time of 39 minutes and 34 seconds.  Robby was only 14 seconds behind him at the finish.  He said he pushed the Hummer to its limits on that run. 

BJ Baldwin also had a great run until he veered of course with only a few kilometers to go and hit a tree.  When I spoke to him about it he said that typically that size of tree would easily be no issue in the Baja deserts.  The trees here are very green and full of moisture making them extremely strong.  He lost the drivers side mirror, a cracked windshield and a bend on the front bumper. BJ finished 7^th with a time of 41 minutes 55 seconds, 2 minutes and 21 seconds behind the leg winner.

The Hummers could not receive any assistance from the crew in the finish of this leg.  They had an hour or so before departing to Vezsprem to stage for the start of the final leg of the day.  When we drive from a beginning, during or and end of a stage to another mandatory race/pit point  is called a “liaison”.  Last night after the race we had a 400 plus kilometer liaisons to Debrecen.  If the cars don’t make it in the allotted time that they are given you can be disqualified. 

Robby commented that everything was going great until he lost the rear brakes.  He had to pull over and do a line bypass that allowed him to keep the front brakes functional.  That set him down around 2 minutes, but there was still a chance for a victory.  The leading cars got lost in the course and Robby caught up to them.  The stage win came to an end for Robby when he made a turn and the brakes failed to stop and headed straight in to a ditch.  He lost around 4 to 5 minutes on that ordeal.  Robby finished with a time of 1 hour 2 minutes and 34 seconds.  He came in a whopping 6 minutes and 6 seconds behind the stage winner Al Attiyah in his BMW X3.  The Hummer was completely covered in mud.  The rear engine cover panel would not stay up because of all the weight the mud was creating.  The guys are working hard on the Hummer right now.  It will be extremely hard to make up the deficit that brought today’s stage.  Robby stands 8^th overall with a time of 5 hours 17 minutes and 40 seconds. 

BJ had a great performance today finishing 5^th in the stage with a time of 58 minutes 46 seconds. Only 2 minutes and 15 seconds behind the stage winner. That jumped his ranking from 21^st to 15^th place with an overall time of 5 hours 57 minutes and 40 seconds. Way to go BJ!

For the 5^th stage of the rally we stay here in Vezsprem.  The special is very similar to today’s stage but much longer and more variation of terrain.  It will be a 210 km special that will favor the Hummers.  After the man trucks ran today the terrain looked real rutted.

Here's the DirecTV Shows below in case you missed them:

Robby finishes with a strong 9^th place in the 2^nd leg of the 3^rd stage.  He drove his Hummer H3 finishing with a time of 25 minutes 45 seconds.  Carlos Sainz won the stage finishing a minute and 15 seconds faster than Gordon.  We did not have to do any travel last night; today’s stage was the same as yesterday’s stage but backwards.  He is still 6^th in the overall classification with a time of 3 hours 35 minutes and 20 seconds. Robby is 2 minutes and 27 seconds behind the 3^rd place Car of Luc Alphand and 5minutes and 33 seconds behind the leader.  Tomorrow’s stage should favor the 2-wheel drive Hummer.  These technical roads suit the 4 wheel drive cars better, they have a lower center of gravity and they don’t drift as much as the 2wd Hummer. We go back to Debrecen where Robby finished 2^nd only 41 seconds behind the stage winner.  The Man trucks raced through there after the cars did in stage one and the roads will be rutted up.  This type of terrain will favor the Hummers due to their suspension travel and larger tires.

BJ Baldwin had a great run finishing 11^th with a time of 25 minutes and 41 seconds.  He jumped up in the overall standings to 21^st with a time of 4 hours 16 seconds and 59 minutes.  If it had been for that wrong road he took earlier he would have been in the top 15 for sure.  I will update this Blog entry with pictures and quotes as I receive them.  The cars didn’t come back to camp because all the support vehicles have left back to Hungary.  The media crew has to stay here until the DirecTV piece is finished. I am estimating 9 o’clock my time.  We then have to drive to Debrecen; I’m expecting a 6-hour drive back…

Robby finished 4^th in the first leg of stage 3 this morning.  His total time was 59 minutes and 32 seconds.  De Villers is his Race Touareg finished 1^st with a time of 57 minutes and 51 seconds.  This finish puts Robby in 6^th over all in the standings with a time of 3 hours 9 minutes and 39 seconds.  Robby is only 2minutes and 52seconds from being in the 3^rd position.  With one more leg in the stage to go, Robby is confident to improve his time this afternoon.  We travel to Debrecen this evening to run a special tomorrow that favors the Hummer’s amazing suspension.  The moral in the team is high and we can’t wait to see the results today and race the stage tomorrow!  I will update the blog with this afternoon’s race results shortly...

Robby is only 2minutes and 52seconds from being in the 3^rd position.  With one more leg in the stage to go, Robby is confident to improve his time this afternoon.  We travel to Debrecen this evening to run a special tomorrow that favors the Hummer’s amazing suspension.  The moral in the team is high and we can’t wait to see the results today and race the stage tomorrow!  I will update the blog with this afternoon’s race results shortly...

We were walking towards the last turn of the special when I tried to avoid a car that was finishing the stage...I hopped to the side of the road where it looked firm and this is what I ended up with! 2 feet deep in mud!

Race recap of the inaugural Central Europe Rally: Stage 2

Today’s stage took us around the beautiful town of Baia Mare. It’s in the northern vicinity of Romania.  We had to drive for 36 kilometers uphill windy roads with loose gravel.  Rob Harris drove the Media H1 Hummer up to the starting line.  Let me remind you that the H1 in the size of two Honda Accords parked next to each other.  The drive wasn’t fun.  This was after a nigh of driving all night from our previous location.  It took us 10 hours of driving time to get here.  Windy roads and Semi trucks coming in the opposite way at 80 miles per hour so that slowed the process. We are the Hungary-Romania border crossing.  Kevin Mooney, Rob Harris (BC) are assigned to the Media H1.  Joe Parsons of Monster Energy was driving with us because he was originally riding in the MAN race/support and he decided to come along after the stage was done.  Ok again, we were at the border crossing and they asked us for our passports.  We all had them except for Joe.  The guard would not let us into Romania. We waited and waited for a long time.  They went back and forth calling “their boss” but it didn’t seem to work.  We tried everything, money, shirts and team sweatshirts but the guy would not budge.  Finally we decided to back to Hungary and try another border crossing to our hotel in Romania.  That was another 4 hour driving northeast.  Kyle had two of the guys go over to that border crossing and bring Joe’s passport.  We FINALLY crossed and drove straight to the hotel.  When I pulled my Luggage off the Hummer, the sun was coming up.  Robby called a Crew meeting an hour later so that left absolutely left no time to squeeze in a nap.  I feel tired, I am almost falling asleep right now, but I cant. 

Check out the pictures below!

Here are the finishing results for today’s two-lap stage:

First Lap: Robby finished 11^th in 1 hour 3 minutes and 55 seconds.  4:43 minutes behind the winner Peterhansel on his Mitsubishi.

BJ finished 15^th in 1 hour 7 minutes and 26 seconds.   8:14 minutes behind the winner.

Second Lap: Robby finished 4^th in 25 minutes and 35 seconds.  39 seconds behind the winner Al Attiyah in his BWM

BJ finished in 31^st minutes and 18

Robby is currently sitting in the 10^th position at 2:10:07 total elapsed time and 4minutes and 3 seconds behind the leader.

BJ is currently sitting in the 19^th position at 02:28:21 total elapsed time and 22 minutes 17 seconds behind the leader.

"This was the first time the Hummers had seen anything like this. The tracks were really muddy, there was snow, slippery rocks and it was very tight. Obviously it suited the four-wheel drive cars. Really we just wanted to finish in one piece. We did have some navigation challenges. This is very different from what Andy is used too. R now we are behind and we are going to fight like hell to get back into this rally. But as it stands right now, with the stages being short like they are it's going to be very difficult without help," said Gordon. "

Robby Gordon powers to a second place finish in Stage 1.

Robby Gordon finished second today in the first stage of the Central Europe Rally.  I am in the ASO Press Center in Baia Mare right now.  We made our way to “Hero” square this morning to see the cars stage and make their driver and car presentations.

There was a small liaison today to the start of the race.  I was traveling in the rental van that Kyle was driving.  The ASO gave us a press packet, which included special maps to different points of access to the racecourse.  We followed the directions and threw in the GPS coordinates to our GPS system.  We were lost around this small rancher/farmer town for about an hour.  All of us were very frustrated; the Media Hummer H1 was also behind us.  We finally found the racecourse after numerous attempts. We headed out to the middle of the course; Robby and BJ had been through that section 10 minutes prior.  The Policeman that I talked to said: “He was the best one”.  We heard word that Robby and BJ finished, so we headed towards the finish line.

Robby finished 2^nd in his Hummer H3.  His final time was 40 minutes 37 seconds.  He is 41 seconds behind the stage winner Carlos Sainz.  This is Carlos’ backyard so Robby knew he had his work cut out for him.  I’ll upload a video below so you can see Robby’s comments on the stage.  BJ Baldwin finished 23rd, 9 minutes 41 seconds behind the winner.  A spare drive shaft that is fastened in the engine bay fell of, knocked in to the engine pulley and popped a belt. He lost about 8 minutes changing the belt.

Robby Currently stands in 2^nd place, he started 12^th this morning. BJ is 23^rd right behind Gordon.  BJ proved himself to be very fast among the top drivers in the world.  We will see tomorrow how he performs.

The ASO had their inaugural press conference today. After the conference, Robby and some of the guys headed out to a Toyo Tires dinner reception.  There was a brief presentation by Toyo Tire Europe on it’s off-road race efforts and marketing campaigns.  Enjoy the video…

Hummer had a special media event and test session today.  We drove the two race Hummers and a support H1 Hummer to Veszprem, Hungary.  The city will host the last two specials of the race.  We headed into what appeared to be a military base; it was.  It felt kind of eerie being there, especially the inside of the buildings.  Volkswagen tested here a couple days ago and Mitsubishi is supposed to test tomorrow.  Robby didn’t really need to test the Hummers, they are ready to race. 

This was more like a press event; there was local and international media here.  After a few hot laps Robby and BJ offered rides to the media.  After the test we headed indoors to have a traditional Hungarian lunch.  The food was great! I’ve taken a liking to Hungarian food. 

After lunch we proceeded to leave the military base. As we were leaving, the Mitsubishi team was pulling in with their Semi trucks. The guys jumped out of their trucks and pulled cameras out to take pictures of the Hummers.  The drive back into town was a drag, traffic is really bad. We hear that there will be a public transportation strike tomorrow, which will make for some fun…

The road to Budapest was a long and treacherous one.  Having to keep together two unimogs, one man truck, two Hummer H1’s, and the two race Hummers is not an easy feat.  We drove from Paris, France to Budapest, Hungary, 1,484 Kilometers. The trip took twenty-eight hours of straight driving.  It just seemed that something went wrong with the vehicles every forty-five minutes.  We lost some of the vehicles, so we had to stop and wait.  People wanted to use the restroom so we had to pull over.  People were hungry, tired and sleepy.  We had to switch drivers every 200km or so.  About two in the morning we stopped at a Bunger King in Germany.  I felt bad for the workers, getting that type of order in the middle of the night.  We drove through Germany and headed into Austria.  The Man truck kept stalling us because the limiter straps kept falling off.  Robby was complaining that his stomach hurt.  He toughed it out for some time, then all of a sudden he told me to pull over NOW!  He ran out of the van and proceeded to regurgitate the cheese balls he had the night before.  I felt really bad for him, the guy is tough as nails and he was showing signs of mortality. 

The team finally made it to Hungary. It was a nightmare trying to get around town, the streets are narrow and we had no idea where the hotel was.

As I am writing this Robby came into the lobby and told me I have to go to the ASO and get my Media credentials. I will be back in a bit and finish up this blog and post some pictures…

It is Monday April 14^th 2:43am. The adventure has already begun. We started out our day meeting Saturday afternoon at the Off Road shop. The team had a quick meeting, gathered our luggage and headed out to LAX. The flight was on Air France non-stop to Paris. I think I don’t have to frequent the video rental store for awhile. I watched 5 movies during the flight and a couple of sitcom shows. Eleven hours later and only one hour of sleep, the plane finally arrived in Paris.

Kyle Robbins (Robby’s crew chief) rented a van and we headed out to our hotel.  Check-in was a breeze then we proceeded to a quick team meeting to decide our dinner plans. Everyone decided to head into town to see some sites and grab dinner.  Being strangers to Paris, we tried our best to get around without getting lost.  We walked a lot, took some pictures and had pizza for dinner.  The team headed back to the hotel, everything was going great. Took three trains back to the airport (to get the hotel shuttle). We waited and waited and waited.  We started to get frustrated because the shuttle was not coming around.  They were no longer running. We headed downstairs to the Taxi pick up location.  All the taxi drivers refused to take us back. They were waiting for an incoming flight and they did not want to lose their spot in line.  Hours passed and we finally got someone to take Kyle back to the hotel to grab the van.  Twenty minutes later I was turning on my PC to draft this Blog entry.

Robby lands this morning (Monday) at 11am.  We will spend all day at Eric Vigouroux’s shop prepping the support and race vehicles.  The itinerary is to leave tomorrow afternoon enroute to Budapest. I will post pictures and video in a couple of hours…But now I need to get some sleep…stay tuned…