Ensenada, Mexico (June 5, 2010) – Robby Gordon and his Monster Energy / Toyo Tires off-road team headed south to Ensenda, Mexico with high hopes of winning the 42nd Annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500, one of the most difficult desert races in the world.

Before the event took place, Robby Gordon and navigator Andy Grider set out to pre-run the challenging course. After a successful pre-run, Andy commented that everything went smooth and that he expected a good finish for the No. 1 Monster Energy / Toyo Tires Trophy Truck.

During the driver's meeting held on Friday, June 4, Sal Fish, owner of SCORE International Off-Road Racing, made it clear to the field (one of the largest trophy truck fields in the 41-year history of the Baja 500) that the course was by far one of the toughest that he has ever seen. Drivers, including Robby Gordon, welcomed the challenged and set of obstacles that lay ahead of them and couldn’t wait to see who proved victorious in Saturday’s 500-mile race.

On Saturday morning, the duo of Gordon and Grider strapped themselves in and prepared for their 10:03:30 am start. They were the seventh truck off the line. Once Gordon got into his rhythm, he would end up passing a few trucks within the first 30 miles of the race. By the half way point, Gordon was only 11 seconds behind leader, Andy McMillin, who had started in 8th place. Just before Gordon was making the pass onto the famous Mike's Sky Ranch Road around race mile 222, the truck’s transmission popped out of gear hindering Gordon's chance of taking the lead. With his pit only 10 miles back, he decided to head back there to assess the situation. Once Gordon limped his way back, the team went to work on a broken transmission and replaced it with a new one. Luckily for the team, it wouldn't end their day, but it did put them one hour and 30 minutes behind the leader and the 18th place truck on the road. Gordon tried to pick off as many competitors as he could, but time was running out for the Monster Energy / Toyo Tires trophy truck. Heading into the night, he did everything that he could to pick up as many positions as possible, but ended up finishing 13th.

"All and all, it was a good effort by my guys. They gave me an awesome truck that got me to the lead fast but unfortunately we broke a transmission at the same time. I haven't broken a transmission in years so it really surprised me but we'll move forward and get prepared for Primm."

Gordon would also leave the Baja 500 with no flat tires. Gordon spoke highly of his "Robby Proof" tires, "I just can't say enough about Toyo Tires. What an excellent job their team of engineers and staff did to come up with a tire that can outlast Baja. I'm even thinking of switching to the size 37 tire on my HUMMERS because they worked so well here today. I think they'll be better for us in the Rally coming up, and I just can't thank the guys over at Toyo enough."

Next up for Robby Gordon's Off-Road team is the Terribles Primm 300 in Primm, Nevada on September 10-12, where Gordon became the overall winner last year.

Charlotte, NC (March 15, 2010) –  For the second consecutive year, Robby Gordon and his Monster Energy / Toyo Tires Trophy Truck finish second in the San Felipe 250.  The team’s second-place finish was not easy to come by as a left rear shock broke just past Race Mile 35.  For what seemed to be a disastrous turn of events early in the race, the championship-winning team worked quickly to come up with a plan to change the shock as expeditiously as possible at Race Mile 44.  Knowing that time was of the essence to get Gordon back on the course, the team hustled and were only down a total of 13 minutes. As a result of the change, several trucks passed Gordon during the stop, leaving him 17 minutes behind. He and navigator, Andy Grider would make up valuable time as they made their way over the rough terrain of San Felipe’s washes and valleys.  By Race Mile 160 Gordon was only 11 minutes behind the overall leader and scored in seventh position.  Luckily for the Monster team, the turbulent terrain resulted in mechanical failures on many of the trophy truck entries. As the duo was making up ground on the leader, they experienced another issue around Race Mile 170 when the right rear shock failed due to the rough terrain.  Despite the shock issue, the No. 1 Monster Energy / Toyo Tires trophy truck was only seven minutes behind eventual winner Jesse Jones at Race Mile 200, which was not that bad considering the adversity that the team faced during the race.

 “Our Monster Energy / Toyo Tires truck got off to a great start, but unfortunately we would end up breaking our left rear shock at the beginning of the race,” commented Gordon. For something like that to happen, one would think that your day would be ruined, but the team made a great recovery and changed the shock fast.  Later on our right rear shock would go out as well, and it would be hard for us to gain any ground through the bumps.  During the last stretch, all we could really hope for is for other trucks to fall out.  It’s pretty amazing to see what this course does to these trucks, and we beat a lot of guys with broken equipment.  We’ll change some pressures in our shocks and be ready to repeat as winners in the Baja 500.”

After the second event in the 2010 SCORE season, Robby Gordon would also gain ground in the point standings leaving San Felipe in the fifth position, 26 points behind overall leader Andy McMillin.  Gordon commented, “As far as points go it looks like we’ll be in the top-5 leaving here but we still have a lot of more racing to do before it’s all said and done.  I’m sure Andy McMillin will be tough to beat, but we come out here to win so I look forward to coming back to Mexico in June for the Baja 500.”