Thursday's special was delayed two hours and shortened from 395 km to 178 km by the A.S.O. due to an impassable river ford.

Kicking off the stage in third place, things seemed to be looking good for the No. 309 Monster Energy Toyo Tires team. In a change of events Robby Gordon and rider Andy Grider lost their way early in the stage putting them behind. The duo displayed their resilience, and rebounded to earn an eighth place finish.

Leader Nasser Al-Attiyah was disqualified by the A.S.O. His disqualification was a result of not passing through all of the checkpoints in the stage. With the disqualification, Gordon moved up to sixth in the overall standings.

“I am obviously very disappointed that we got lost today," Gordon commented. "I am going to say that it costs us about 35 minutes and was just a huge mistake. I missed a waypoint and started heading the wrong way. It took a while to recover from this, but luckily we were able to do so. Towards the end of the stage, the Monster Energy Toyo Tires Hummer was doing great. I am still going to say that we had a decent finish in spite of today’s incident. The team will go to work tonight doing normal maintenance on the Hummer, and we will be ready to go tomorrow morning."

The No. 324 Vanguard Hummer driven by Eric Vigouroux started the stage in 28th. Vigouroux showed just how talented he was after moving his way up the field and capping the day off with a 14th place finish.

“We had a great run today. I can’t tell you how much better it was starting up towards the front than in the back." Vigouroux continued, "All things considered, we are just keeping our heads high and working our way back to the front. We haven’t even completed half of the race yet, so there is still time for us to regain some lost ground. I hope that we can continue our charge to the front. I would love to see the Vanguard Hummer end the 2009 Dakar Rally in the top-20.”

Stage number seven spans 419 km from Mendoza to Valparaiso. Look for Team Dakar USA to keep the ball rolling and continue to compete up front.

“On a positive note, I can’t say enough good things about the team that we have put together for this year’s Dakar Rally," said Gordon. "I think that everyone is doing an excellent job getting the Hummers prepared for each special. After the first couple of days, this has really become a science to them, and I couldn’t be happier with their work and dedication to this program.”