Robby Gordon Says Dakar Rally Cancelation Cost Sponsorship

Driver Robby Gordon indicated that the Amaury Sport Organization's (ASO) decision last week to cancel the annual Dakar Rally "cost a potential sponsorship deal with Microsoft that would have allowed fans to race the 2009 event with an Internet connection via the Xbox," according to Nate Ryan of USA TODAY. In addition to terrorist threats, the December 24 "slayings of French tourists by al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mauritania" led ASO to cancel the event. Robby Gordon Motorsports spent "about $4.5[M] preparing two Hummers" for the 16-day race, and with "sponsor contracts through 2010, he intends to return but isn't certain of the race's future." Gordon: "I'm mad (the organizers) didn't have a backup plan." Gordon estimates race organizers are holding "hundreds of millions of other people's money." Gordon also indicated that ASO "offered to refund his entry fees (about $360,000), but he worries the organizers could face multiple lawsuits from teams seeking to recoup their investments." Gordon: "I think they're out of business" (USA TODAY, 1/8).