(photo: Mauro Urrutia)
Robby Gordon is not taking his suspended disqualification from the 2012 Dakar peacefully. Gordon was found in violation of technical regulations, I believe 1P and 3P, which state that anyone getting too close to a winning French driver in a French run Rally will run afoul of article 1P and 3P.
Gordon was clearly guilty of getting too close to Stephane Peterhansel who in a bit of irony is driving for Mini who's notorious disqualification from the 1966 Montecarlo Rally was also due to running afoul of Article 1P and 3P!
To punctuate his salutation to the Dakar organizers, Gordon won today's stage by 15 minutes over his nearest rival.
Zut!
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As A French guy, I say that this is a very stupid and unfair decision.
ReplyDeleteEspecially after what Peter' has done against a biker....
It is sad to see a beautiful race like the Dakar taking that direction....
It has had a bit of a tendency of those things this year.
ReplyDeleteDepres crashing and getting his time back, Peterhansel hitting a biker and nothing happens, etc. etc.
It IS rather annoying, like Jean said.
I'm not the biggest fan of Gordon, but he at least he's honest, i give him major credit for that one.
Thanks for sharing, watching todays stage highlights now, but doubt that i'll see all that :P
I am French too.
ReplyDeleteDo not mix French and Dakar promoter please...
Monte Carlo is not in France, but in Monaco...
Last 3 Dakars winners are Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos Sainz, Giniel de Villiers. Are they French?
And Gordon is only fourth, he will have to overtake one spanish and South African....
Welll, I think if you look back at various decision made over the years, be it rally, raid or Le Mans, one might start to think there is something to this beyond the humor of this post....
ReplyDeleteHas anyone followed the other Dakar , the Africa Eco-race, organized by former Paris-Dakar competitors retracing routes from classic raids of the past?
Frederic, what we're implying is that certain decisions made by the FIA over the years, as AC said, have been rather "French biased". Then again, in F1, everything is always "Ferrari biased", so you can argue many many ways.
ReplyDeleteIt's just become rather obvious as of late.
Don't forget that ASO, Dakar's organizer, is the group that runs the Tour de France (amongst other bicycle races) and has at times exhibited behaviour that benifited French teams and riders. Not that any Frenchmen has won the Tour in 26 years.
ReplyDeleteas a french guy, i don't care if Peterhansel or Gordon win dakar but before to be angry or nationalist, it 'll needs to be sure the system used by Gordon is legal or not. It seems he succeed to avoid the air restrictor flange and gain a lot of power. If it's true, it's unfair and the sanction is understandable, if he used this system last year without sanctions, he deserve to compete to the end
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, It's not about a restrictor related to the motor and power. It's about how fast the tire inflation system can bleed air from the tires. A system that apparently has been just fine for 5 years now, up until Gordon is overtaking the overall lead in the event.
ReplyDeleteI've been familiar with both Gordon and Peterhansel for years now and can't say I've either liked or disliked either up to this point. After watching the coverage of the Dakar this year on TV I can honestly say Peterhansel is a huge fucking douche. The comments he was making didn't make any sense, and they were all based off of the fallacies he was fed by officials and teammates, and not reality.
ReplyDeleteCan we please stop the biggotry and 2001 style french bashing?
ReplyDeleteYes, there are corrupt people on this planet, they are not all french.
Robby's SCORE style is great for the show but the dakar is a little more than a show. Peterhansel knows this. Sure there are favoritism going on, just look how SPEED covers the story with such patriotic bias. Same for the french.
Ok. We need specifics regarding the claimed " cleverly disguised" split line bypassing the air restrictor.
In 1994 the dakar organisators changed the race when the french team Citroen got stuck, while Mitsubishi passed the dunes. Again, they did it this time by giving Despres his time back while he couldnt match Roma. Bad. Really bad.
ReplyDeletePeterhansel got no penalty after pushing the biker ... Bad.
The truck " tsar" tchaguin has killed a biker and pushed countless others and is still presented by SPEED as a hero. Dutch truckers will tell you of the dirty tricks and tactics the kamaz have used for the last decades. Illegal repairs, switching off the sentinel, allegation of bribing the officials.
SPEED has a clear bias of Gordon/Peterhansel, showing clear and friendly faces of Gordon and dark, heavily contrasted images of peterhansel in his worst light.
What gordon is doing is nothing new. Remember jean louis schlesser who as a privateer raced a 2wd buggy and fought the big teams. Yeah he too got disqualified when things got too feisty.
All the drama is good for a tv show, but schlesser did win the dakar. Gordon was great as a learning flamboyant race touareg driver. Now it seems he needs his own tv show. It must be frustrating to spend so much money and get beaten by girls.
EVEN without the disqualification, he never lead the race and lost because of driver error and mechanical failure.
Look, his fancy jumping and borderline out if control style is great for the masses, it attracts north american and south american attention, but there are still rules. I'm not sure this is the kind of publicity we want to represent our great nation. Schlesser won with renault and ford v6 engines. Gordon's Chevy v8 is fighting turbodiesels. If he is cheating by using substancial power advantage, then that's sad.
And if all that french red tape, favoritism and b.s. is too much than he can whine about, there's always Baja, SCORE, etc where he can duke it out without getting beat by " girls in mini's".
Not specifically a Gordon fan. But watching him over the past 2 weeks has been great entertainment. I hope he comes back even stronger next year.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Bias. It's been shocking this year. Peterhansel knocks over a biker in a river hitting him with his car in the process, caught on camera and NO sanction? WTF!
It was the same shit in the Bikes too. Depres ges stuck in some mud, Coma manages to avoid this mud and they give Depres his lost time back! And lets not forget another rider helped Depres dig his bike out and then Depres fucks off leaving his helper still floundering after he said he'd help him in return. What a remarkable human being! Compare that to the various competitors helping each other in the Dunes.
@ Anonymous... "fancy jumping and borderline out if control style" FTW!
ReplyDeleteI will agree that this year's Dakar was nothing to brag about. Coma should have won it for sure, but as in any other sport there is always a place for favorites. Gordon is known for his insane, all-out driving. It might work in NASCAR, but this is Dakar with 14 stages. He is Kimi of Dakar. Drive fast without care in the world and hope that equipment holds up. That tactic doesn't work in any endurance racing... Did he cheated? In my eyes Yes. Any additional air after the restricting plate has no excuse. And by doing so, he played in favor to Mini and Peterhasel. I wish we had a Dakar coverage of a decade ago. Where they would show other classes such as showroom 1 and 2.
ReplyDeleteAll this fixing and cheating leaves a bad taste. An adventure of this magnitude and fame should be pure competition only if nothing else.
ReplyDelete