Gordon Wins GTO Division

DEL MAR — Robby Gordon knows all about a long day’s journey into night--and day. He also knows all about Victory Lane.

The 21-year-old driver from Orange had a day to dream about after completing about 500 miles of the Baja 1,000 at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, then winning the Chevron International Motor Sports Assn. GTO/GTU Challenge in the afternoon at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Gordon’s Whistler Radar Mercury Cougar RX7 passed Pete Halsmer’s Mazda RX-7 at the beginning of the final lap, then Gordon twice held off Halsmer on the 10-turn, 1.62-mile course to win his second consecutive GTO race and fifth of the year.

“I think (Halsmer) had a better car at the end, but our car was wider,” Gordon said, jokingly after edging Halsmer by .338 seconds. Gordon, who won $10,000, covered the 73.6 miles of racing in 1 hour 49.6 seconds.

Gordon’s weekend began Friday at 6 a.m. in Ensenada, Mexico. He raced a Ford off-road truck to fourth place through the Mexican desert, overcoming five wrecks and six flat tires, to clinch the 1990 HDRA/SCORE Class 8 title. At 5:30 a.m. Saturday, he left Ensenada and reached the U.S.-Mexican border at 7:30 a.m., where he waited in line until 8:30 a.m. to pass. He finally arrived at Del Mar at 9:30 a.m. and was able to drive his Cougar for the final 15 minutes of warm-ups. Max Jones had qualified the car third on Friday.

Jeremy Dale was third in a Nissan 300ZX for the sixth consecutive race.

Don Knowles, in an Infinity Dodge Daytona, was sixth overall but winner of the GTU race. John Finger, in a Mazda MX-6, was second. Mark Porcaro won the All-American Challenge in a Chevrolet Beretta, which finished 11th in the 32-car field.