Dakar

Dakar: Team Dakar USA stage eight report

With its 589 km special, stage eight proved to be the longest special yet in the 2007 Dakar Rally. It was the first special where the competitors faced the serious sand dunes of Mauritania and a day where Robby Gordon and his Monster Hummer felt at ...

Edited: Jan 17, 2007, 1:42 AM

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With its 589 km special, stage eight proved to be the longest special yet in the 2007 Dakar Rally. It was the first special where the competitors faced the serious sand dunes of Mauritania and a day where Robby Gordon and his Monster Hummer felt at home. Gordon, a frequent visitor to the Glamis sand dunes in Southern California had high expectations for the day.

Gordon and navigator Andy Grider began the special in the 13th slot and at days end they managed to move up five positions for an eight place finish for the special. The Hummers time of 8:46:36 put the team 1:14:44 adrift of stage winner Gniel De Villiers of South Africa. The result vaulted the team up into the top ten in the overall classification. The first American team and car manufacture to win a stage in the Dakar Rally now finds themselves back 06:23:17 from the overall lead.

Robby Gordon's Quotes following Stage eight

"We have moved ourselves into the top ten which is a testament to how hard the team is working. The Monster Energy guys did a fantastic job of preparing the car for the eighth and ninth stages. Tonight we are without assistance in Tichit which meant we had to be easy on the Hummer. The team is making its way to Nema were we'll meet up tomorrow. Today's stage was very difficult. The sand was fine and very soft -- much different from the coarser sand in Glamis. Everything ran well but had to be slightly conservative because we were stretching the fuel window and we don't have any support tonight -- there really was no room for error. Now that we are in the top ten we are going to set ours sights on a top five finish. There is still quite a bit of racing and in this business you never know what is going to happen until the end."

-credit: tdusa

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