In May 1993 a young Robby Gordon appeared to be heading towards the very top in motorsport. Here’s how the Californian rose to prominence. IndyCar F1 ⬇️
The 13 May 1993 issue of Autosport magazine featured a young Robby Gordon, whose career trajectory had him tracking towards the very top in motorsport. From Ford backing and making friends with Nigel Mansell to a rivalry with Eddie Cheever, here’s how the Californian who grew up on dirt racing rose to prominenceRobby Gordon wants to be the next Indycar racer in Formula 1. He’s on his way to the top.
At 24, Gordon is on track for the top. His progress in Indycars since his debut last year has been astonishing, topped by a brilliant performance at Surfers’ Paradise which saw him share the rostrum with the 1972 and 1992 Formula 1 world champions. But then he let himself down by crashing at Phoenix and tangling with Eddie Cheever at Long Beach.
From 1985-89 the teenage Gordon won a host of titles in off-road marathons and Mickey Thompson stadium sprint events, and soon earned works Ford support. He won the Baja 1000 with a 17-hour solo drive, and at one stage was driving for Ford in the deserts and Toyota in the stadiums. Forced to decide between Toyota and Ford, Gordon chose the latter. A wise decision. Ford motorsport supremo Mike Kranefuss took the lad under his wing, and has been a fairy godmother ever since.
Next step was stock car racing. As usual Robby adapted well: at the end of 1990 he did an ARCA race supporting the Winston Cup finale at Atlance, and took a surprise pole. In the race he led… and crashed. In July that year Kranefuss took his protégé to the British Grand Prix to introduce him to influential people. Later in the summer Robby had a second go in an F3000 car, this time a Paul Stewart Racing Lola. But after just a few erratic laps of the Le Mans Bugatti circuit he backed in hard into the wall at the Dunlop chicane, neatly removing the gearbox.
Gordon surprised many people with strong showings in a seven-race programme. There were spins and a few brushes with street circuit walls as he sought the limit, but he was quick, often quicker than team-mate Cheever, and no one could fault his determination. In the race Robby battled with Fittipaldi and Mansell, and ended up third. AJ himself was not there to see it, preferring to skip the Aussie trip. He was at Phoenix however, where Gordon had a major crash."We were fast at Phoenix, and I think we could have won the race if we’d hung in a little longer. At the time I think I was two laps ahead of Mario, and he ended up winning. It was just a rookie mistake.
"I'm definitely interested in F1, and I'd like to do it some day, with the right team and the right engineers. With Indycars, you can stay there and be happy, or you can go through there and be happy" So far Gordon is getting on well with Mansell, and the world champion praised the youngster after Surfers’.
"Ford can help me, but I think I can help myself. I would say good finishes are going to get you to F1. In racing you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time to get a good ride, like Michael Andretti was. A switch to Formula 1 never came for Gordon, whose early single-seater promise never translated into a sustained Indycar title challenge.
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