A Racer For All Seasons!
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It’s strange that I chose
this week to do this piece, within which I compare this racer to Tony Stewart.
To compare anyone to Tony is a compliment of the highest order. Please get well
Smoke! Heal fast and give ‘em Hell in this last year. It is said that life
isn’t fair, and I guess that is true, but sometimes it seems more unfair than
others. This is one of those times… Prayers for Smoke!
I bid you welcome gentle readers, and a cordial Howdy-do
to our assigned reader for today, wherever he or she might be. Over the years, I've learned something from my
readers... something I dearly wish I could impress on a man named France. Are
you listening Brian? When our first off-season at RFF began, we asked our
readers what they'd like to read about over the winter, and received an
overwhelming number of votes for learning more about some of the drivers that
never made a big splash or earned the brightest spotlight. What I've learned is that it pays to pay
attention to the fans. It's so simple. They know what they want, and if you
just ask, they'll be more than happy to tell you.
So today, gentle readers, I've chosen to write about a
driver that has long been one of my favorites, who perhaps never made it to the
big stage in the eyes of most NASCAR fans, but instead of marching to just a
different drummer, this racer marches to an entire brass band of well-tuned
instruments, all playing the same tune, "Race! Race! Race!" We often
hear Tony Stewart described as a “pure racer”, because he's raced in so many
different series, and Tony is a racer in every sense of the word.
What then would we call a man that must have raced in at
least twice as many as Tony? The man of whom I speak is Robby Gordon. In the list
of nicknames bestowed upon drivers by my alter-ego, The Lady in Black, you
might recall Robby being referred to as "The Other Gordon", obviously
allotting him a spot in line somewhere below that of Jeff Gordon, long a NASCAR
darling. Yet in so many ways, Robby is second to none. Please allow me to tell
you a bit more about "The other Gordon."
Robby was born on January 2, 1969, which by my
reckoning means he turned 47 years old only a month ago, but what a lot of
racing he's packed into that time!
His career started in 1985, when at only 16
years of age he won the first off-road race he ever entered by
beating his father, Bob, who came in second. I never saw that Nevada 500,
but two weeks later he managed to win his first of what would become many races
in the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series, and I saw every one that ever made it to
my TV! The following year, father and son teamed up to win four races in the
SCORE/HDRA series and the Class 2 series championship.
In 1987, the pair won three more races in that series
and Robby was voted Rookie of the Year. The year 1988 found him driving a
Ford factory truck for Jim Venable Racing to four victories and a Class 8
championship. At the same time, he drove his own Super 1600 to a class championship
in the Mickey Thompson Stadium Series. For a bit of icing on the cake, he
was voted the Off-Road driver of the year.
In 1989 Robby won the prestigious "Baja
1000", making the 17-hour drive alone, and becoming the first driver
to win the overall event in a pick-up truck, (Ford) a feat he would
accomplish four more times. That same year he won six of the eight Mickey
Thompson "Factory Truck" events in a Toyota, and was champion of that
division. Oh yes, and he was once more voted Off-Road Driver of the Year.
In 1990, (still only 21 years of age} Roush
Racing signed him to drive in the IMSA GTO series with co-drivers Lyn St. James
and Calvin Fish in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
The trio won both! Robby also posted victories at the Meadowlands, Lime
Rock and Del Mar to tie with Pete Halsmer for second
place in the series. That same year he also won the SCORE/HDRA
championship in Class 8 for Venable Racing. The next year, 1991, would
bring more of the same as Robby again won the IMSA GTO class in the 24 Hours of
Daytona, this time with partners Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Mark Martin, followed
by another win at Sebring with partner Max Jones. After winning three more
times, he finished second in the championship race to Pete Halsmer,
by only four points. It was this same year that young Robby made his
initial foray into Winston Cup, driving for Junie Donlavey in the Daytona 500,
where he only managed an eighteenth place finish after spinning to avoid an
accident.
1992 saw Robby debut in the CART series, driving for
Ganassi Racing in seven races with a best finish of eighth (twice). Once
more, he was on the winning team in the IMSA GTS (Formerly GTO) series in
the 24 Hours of Daytona, this time with Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Dorsey Schroeder.
He went on to win the IMSA event at Del Mar for a third time in as many years,
and an SCCA Trans Am race at Long Beach, driving a Roush Mustang in his series
debut.
During the ensuing years, while he continued to race
open wheel, sports cars and trucks, Robby made a few starts in Winston Cup;
notably he drove the first race for Robert Yates’ #28 Havoline team after the
death of driver Davey Allison in 1993. At the end of 1996, he signed a
contract with Felix Sabates and drove 22 races for Sabco
Racing over the next two years, capturing one pole (Atlanta) and posting a best
finish of fourth at Watkins Glen. After a few more "catch"
rides, he formed his own team in 2000, running 17 races that year, the
only highlights being at the road courses of Sonoma and Watkins Glen, where he
managed respectable finishes of 9th and 4th respectively.
2001 saw him start the year driving for a
seemingly struggling Morgan-McClure team, who informed him after five races
that his services were no longer needed. A dejected Robby began to
concentrate on the Indianapolis 500, which he would drive for that legendary
and loveable curmudgeon, A.J. Foyt, and his
brand new business partner in the person of Richard Childress, car owner for
the late, great Dale Earnhardt.
Strangely enough, the still grieving car owner and the
young driver took to each other almost immediately, in what Robby described at
the time as the turning point of his career.
"It was my seventh Indy 500, and I was in my
element. I had never so much as sat down with Richard before then, but we had a
blast. He saw that I was committed to my racing program, and we hit it off. We
both speak the language of racers."
For Richard's part, he had this to say, "I
saw how well he and A.J. worked together, the respect they had for each other
and how good Robby was with the press, the sponsors, and the fans. It was a
totally different Robby Gordon than I had seen or how people had described him.
Everyone knows he has great car control and the ability to win. He's a talented
driver, and he has great feel for any car he climbs into."
Over that summer, Robby filled in at two races for
an injured Mike Skinner, then driver of Childress' #31, and when Skinner
left the team for knee surgery after the Dover race, the ride went to Robby
since it had already been announced that Skinner's contract would not be
renewed. By the end of 2001, both Robby and the #31 team had their
first Winston Cup Victory, coming in the final race of the season at
Loudon New Hampshire.
The year 2002 appeared to be one of "growing
pains" for the teams at RCR. So much so in fact, that Richard decided a
radical change was necessary, and literally swapped the teams of Gordon and his
teammate, Kevin Harvick. From my point of view, that had to be a plus for
Robby, since it put him with the crew of the late Dale Earnhardt, arguably
the best in the business. Indeed, 2003
brought 2 more wins for the team, both coming on the road courses at Sonoma and
Watkins Glen, highlighting a season that saw 4 top-5s and 10 top-10s.
Those wins would be the last for Robby in Cup
competition. He drove one more year for Childress and moved in 2005 to the #7
team, then owned by Jim Smith. The year proved to be far less than fruitful,
with the team failing to qualify for seven races and suffering engine-related
DNFs in nine more, gleaning only one top-5 and two top-10s for the entire
season. At the end of that season, Robby purchased the team from Smith and in
the years that followed, tried his hand at being an owner-driver... something
that has been proven time and time again not to end well.
In the years from 2006 through 2012, Robby amassed
only 4 more top-5s and 10 more top-10s. Over that same period of time, he
became what most fans saw as NASCAR's favorite whipping boy... if there was a
penalty to be assessed, it was assessed against Robby. If there was a fine to
be levied, it was levied on the #7 team. At one point, his sponsor was rejected
because the logo supposedly too closely resembled someone else's graphics. As
we've seen over many years, when NASCAR doesn't like you, they have a million
ways of letting you know. I think they let Robby know in all but a couple of
that million. Eventually, the cost of NASCAR and renewed interest in off-road
racing caused Robby to fade from the NASCAR scene.
It has to be noted though, that Robby is never still.
Even through his Cup career, during the off-season he was racing off-road
somewhere, including the prestigious races of Baja and DAKAR, long noted as the
most dangerous race in the world, for several reasons. Terroristic threats
forced a cancellation of the DAKAR Rally in 2008 and the race has since been
relocated from a Europe/Africa location to South America, where it encompasses
parts of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. Still a grueling course, to be sure,
but that's what Robby looks forward to, always enjoying a challenge. To date,
his best overall finish in the Dakar is 3rd in 2009, but he's won 9 stage
competitions along the way.
Last year and this year, I followed the DAKAR Rally
with great interest, though I confess to knowing little about the rules and
regulations of the Endurance Rallies that last for days. Two years ago, I
joined a Community website at http://www.planetrobby.com/, and “with a little
help from my friends”, I’m learning. This year, I followed along on both Planet
Robby and the DAKAR site, and was able to provide coherent information and daily
updates here on Race Fans Forever.
Oh, and I've not mentioned yet that in addition to
running the DAKAR Rally each year and at least one class of the Baja races,
Robby started a series of his own in 2013, featuring Stadium Racing for several
classes including his favorite, the Stadium Super Trucks, the
series he won the first year out. For those who can remember, this series is
very reminiscent of the old Mickey Thomson Stadium races, which this fan always
enjoyed to the max.
And so, at age 47, when some are plotting retirement and
others already have, racing remains the largest part of this racer's life.
Robby Gordon is living, breathing proof that there is racing beyond NASCAR, and
it's everywhere around us. All we have to do is look... and if it's the
toughest, most challenging racing on earth, that's where you'll find Robby
Gordon. For years it was rumored that Robby was difficult to work with. To that
his reply was, "The problem is I'm really not a bad boy, I'm just not
afraid to be aggressive. I just want to race, and I want to have fun. If it
wasn't fun, I wouldn't be doing it."
And that is Robby Gordon in a nutshell. If it wasn't
fun, he wouldn't be doing it. Just as a quick side note in closing, I've also
been told several times that Robby is the life of any campground, kind of like
a walking party, if you will. With that infectious smile, that doesn't surprise
me one bit. I just wish I'd been able to experience it firsthand. Tell the
truth now; aren't you glad you met and learned more about this racer?
The little banjo means it’s time for our Classic
Country Closeout. We had a request this week for the song, “Oklahoma Hills.”
The request was for Moe Bandy, but really, Moe is not classic. He came along
much later, but I told the gentleman that he was in luck because though Woody
Guthrie wrote the song, the biggest recording of it had to belong to Hank
Thompson, and I just happen to be a huge fan of that gentleman. Here then is
Hank, with his original version of “Oklahoma Hills.”
Since I’m “In the Mood for Hank”, which happens to be
the title of one of his many, many albums, LPs, and CDs done over his long
career, let’s stay with Hank today and I’ll show you a tiny sampling of his
talents and why I always loved this singer… and still do. I guess the best
place to start is with his biggest hit. Those of you that know your Classic
Country will recognize “The Wild Side of Life” as the precursor to Kitty Wells’
answer song, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels.”
Already there are two dozen and more songs running
around in my head and I just can’t play them all. Here’s one more from Hank’s
earlier days, this one from 1954. This one’s called, “A Fooler,
a Faker.” Please enjoy.
OK, I told a tiny little lie. This is another from the
early 50s, but it’s one of my real favorites. (I have many of those) This is
“Yesterday’s Girl”, the original version.
This one comes from a bit later; first recorded in
1966, but one of Hank’s very best in this fan’s opinion. Here for your
listening pleasure is “Most of All.”
And finally, just because I can, this is one is
obviously from the 1960s as well. Hank made so very many wonderful love songs
and heartache songs, but he also knew how to have fun, and this song is proof
of that. There’s nothing like a little psychedelic experience set to Western
Swing to really get the party rolling. Please enjoy Hank and the Brazos Valley
Boys performing “I See Them Everywhere.”
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay
