During 2004 VW entered three other rally-raid events in Turkey, Morocco, and Dubai. The best finish was Third place for Kleinschmidt in Turkey. From VW's perspective, these races were really just test events as they prepared for the assault on the 2005 Dakar. Last summer, VW announced the addition of a third car, for yet another former Dakar winner and WRC ace, Juha Kankkunen from Finland.
However, the real surprise came on Thanksgiving Day last year, when VW surprised everyone by announcing that Robby Gordon would be driving a fourth car. Gordon had tested for VW, along with other drivers last summer, for a spot in the third car. But once that ride was given to Kankkunen, everyone assumed the three-car team was finalized. With Red Bull sponsoring the VW team as well as Gordon's Baja Trophy Truck, his addition to the VW team made sense.
Experience counts for a lot in Dakar. With three previous winners on the team, Gordon, despite having won Baja several times, was still regarded as a rookie.
What's more, it turns out Gordon had never raced a four-wheel-drive vehicle before, and certainly not a diesel. Neither had Gordon raced with a navigator previously, so it was definitely going to be a new experience for him as he learned to listen to the navigator telling him where to go and how fast to drive. In rallying and Dakar, the co-driver/navigator can make the difference between winning and losing. Make one wrong turn in the dunes, and you can easily get stuck for hours.
Having won the dubious distinction of crashing more than any other driver in NASCAR's Nextel Cup during the 2004 season, pundits were betting that Gordon would not last more than four or five days in the 17-day-long running of the 2005 Dakar. Few were terribly surprised when he won the first stage in Barcelona, as it was nothing more than a really short 2.5-mile stage along the beach. Veterans knew all too well that a win there was meaningless. Nonetheless, Gordon's first-day victory did mean a lot to him, as he became the first-ever American to win a stage and the first to lead the event overall. (In all fairness, we should point out that American Jimmy Lewis has lead the event and won stages in the past on a motorcycle, but like Baja, the motorcycles are really treated as a separate event.)
The second stage saw a win from Scotsman Colin McRae, without a doubt the most famous driver in the Dakar. Although he might be a former Word Rally Champion and star of the famous computer game, like Gordon he was a rookie in 2004 when he drove for the Nissan team. He finished 20th after getting stuck in the sand dunes in a remote part of the Sahara desert for more than a day. Despite the setback, he vowed to finish the event rather than quit, which would have been easy to do for a star used to winning. McRae was amazed at the incredible will to just finish the event that overcomes top drivers, even if they can't win.
Gordon really impressed everyone when he won the 77-mile-long stage in Morocco on the fourth day and re-took the overall lead. The stage was set for an epic race between these two strong-willed drivers. McRae had said he would win the 2005 Dakar, and he wasn't about to let an American rookie beat him.
Not surprisingly, McRae then set the fastest time on the next stage and took the overall lead with Gordon, who sat nine minutes back in Seventh position after suffering from tire problems and being more cautious.