bajabound2005 - 6-12-2009 at 12:44 PM
Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:31 pm EDT
Robby Gordon stripped of his Baja 500 championship
By Jay Busbee (Yahoo Sports)
So remember last weekend, when everybody was all excited about Robby Gordon winning the Baja 500 and then jetting across the country to run at Pocono?
Yeah, well, turns out that the story was a bit too good to be true.
Gordon, who'll apparently race anything that's not chained down or on fire, knocked off the field by a mere five minutes, crossing the finish line in
downtown Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico after 432 miles.
Problem was, Gordon apparently cut quite a few corners along the way. Not literally; he didn't leave the race course, but he did exceed the maximum
allowable speed of 60 mph while traveling on a highway. (Aside: Only 60 mph? Really?) There's also a YouTube video out there somewhere of Gordon's
truck taking fuel, also a violation.
SCORE International, the governing body overseeing the race, dinged Gordon with a 10-minute penalty for the speed and a 90-minute penalty for the
refueling. The penalties dropped Gordon to seventh place. Gordon has, as yet, made no public statement on the penalties. It's worth noting, however,
that prior accusations of him cheating in a March off-road race were withdrawn.
If there's any solace Gordon can take, it's that nearly every vehicle competing in the race received penalties. Of the 21 trucks in the race, only
five didn't receive penalties, and two of those didn't even finish the race.
BajaNews - 6-12-2009 at 12:46 PM
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=39200