NASCARs Robby Gordon
NASCAR's Robby Gordon - From boy to Superstar
While most racers started racing because their fathers were racers or because they were interested in the sport, Robby Gordon picked up racing to keep himself out of trouble as he cheekily claims. Born on January 2nd in 1969, this Californian’s dream job as a child was to be a race car driver. Nicknamed “Flash” by close comrades, Gordon was racing motorbikes at the age of 8 and by the time he was 16, he had his hands firmly on the steering wheel. Gordon credits his father, Bob Gordon, as the most influential person in his life is passionate about life. He believes in getting the best out of life and he does it with zeal. Because of that philosophy, Gordon has driven possibly nearly every type of racing vehicle imaginable.
The first off-road he entered, the Nevada 400, was a victory for the Gordon clan in 1985. In 1987, Bob Gordon and Robby Gordon teamed up to win three races in route to capturing the championship and Rookie of the Year honor using his own Mickey Thompson car. It was when he was in the Baja, Mexico that he was approached by Ford Racing executives during which he was already running off five off-road championships back-to-back. Still a teenager then, he was brought along to meet the bigwigs of racing like Jack Roush.
While Gordon claims that the craziest vehicle he has ever raced was a Wells Coyote that weighed 900lbs with 1200hp at Pikes Peak, he moved into sports cars in 1990 and won five GTO races in 1991. His enormous talent would then lead him to driving for a great many important and famed owners like Richard Childress, Foyt, Walker in the list. He would race in Indy cars, NASCAR, off-road trucks and sports cars. It was an honor for Gordon when he was driving for Foyt in 1993 as AJ Foyt is his racing hero. The same year, Gordon drove for Roberts Yates Racing in the Diehard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Although he started at the 14th position, he was soon in the top five before he got into an accident that caused him to come in at the 42nd position. In 1994 to 1996, Gordon raced for Derrick Walker. He managed to pull in two career wins during that period of time. During the years 1998 to 1999, he fielded his own team and raced 10 times in the Indy 500. While his open-wheel years, he was highly regarded as a tough racer and when he left the open wheel, he cited safety concerns as a reason.
In 2001, Gordon announced publicly that he would be donating the money he receives from racing to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. He went on to excite the crowd at the Race of Champions in Spain and replaced Mike Skinner in the #31 Lowe’s Chevrolet for the remainder of the season when Skinner had to be wheeled in for a knee surgery. Gordon would go on to achieve plenty career highlights which also include staring his own NASCAR Busch Team that completed 25 events in 2005, getting his second career (first road-course) NASCAR win at Sonoma when he beat Jeff Gordon in the final lap and he also became the first American to win a stage in the Dakar Rally (a 16-day 5,700-mile race from Barcelona, Spain to Dakar, Senegal). He enjoyed the experience so much that he planned to return to Dakar on his own.
When he isn’t on the track, Gordon is still on full throttle. He goes boating, mountain biking and motorcycle riding between his residence in California and North Carolina.
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