American Robby Gordon, driving a Volkswagen, celebrated his 36th birthday a day early when he won the 123km timed section of the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally on Monday.
Gordon timed one hour, 14 minutes and one second for his second victory of the rally, 53 seconds ahead of Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, driving a Mitsubishi, and one minute and eight seconds in front of Bruno Saby’s Volkswagen.
Gordon — nicknamed ”Flash Gordon” after the American cartoon character — also took top spot in the overall standings off Britain’s former world rally champion Colin McRae, with a 59-second lead on Peterhansel and one minute and 14 seconds ahead of Saby.
Gordon was not sparing on the accelerator as he passed the Nissan of South African Giniel de Villiers and then tried in vain to pass another Nissan driver, Finland’s four-time world rally champion Ari Vatanen.
While Gordon — a winner on the ChampCar and Nascar circuits in the United States but competing in his first Dakar rally — criticised Vatanen for blocking him, the Finn laughed it off.
”It isn’t true that he lost some time,” said Vatanen. ”I thought it was Giniel behind me, I couldn’t believe he was able to pass both of us.”
Earlier, fog grounded security helicopters, meaning the motorbike timed section was cancelled.
However, the fog had lifted by the time the cars and lorries were due to start and the Nissan of McRae was the first car to drive off from Rabat, but the Scotsman ended the day more than three minutes adrift in the overall standings of Gordon in 10th place. — Sapa-AFP