The 2009 Dakar Rally has finally reached it's destination in Buenos Aires after a 5,951 mile journey around South America. Nascar Sprint Cup driver Robby Gordon raced his Monster Energy Hummer into a third place finish in the car classification. Robby's time of 49 hours 57 minutes and 12 seconds was good enough for 5th. overall in the first ever Dakar Rally held in South America (threats of terrorism and civil unrest in Africa forced the change). Gordon had to overcome a violent crash on the 4th. stage of the event and only a 1/4 of the way through the rally. I don't know about you but after I just had my own head stuck up my butt I think I'd call it a day. The winner of the car class and overall Rally Champion was South-African driver Giniel De Villers in a Volkswagen Touareg in a time of 48:10:57 followed by American Mark Miller in another Volkswagon. This is the first Dakar championship for VW in the 31 year history of the race. Russians Kabirov and Savostin finished 1, 2 in the truck class and 3rd. and 4th. overall.
If you would like to see some amazing photographs taken at this years rally, the Boston Globe has posted some on it's blog. You might want to read a few of the comments as there seems to be wide difference of opinion regarding the necessity of such a race.
Robby Gordon is now off to the Nevada desert for a leisurely 2 day drive in his off-road trophy truck. More on that to come.
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