A visit to Robby Gordon's Speed Factory

Dylan W.

Dylan W.

lone resident of Bro-Lite Island
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Location
Mocksville NC
Story starts way back several months ago.
I happened across Robby Gordon milling around the pits at the Traxxas TORC race in Chatlotte. We chatted a bit, while enjoying a Speed energy drink. I had a buddy snap a pic. I told him about the Bro-lite truck we were building and he seemed genuinely interested, so I told him all about it. I told him that I would bring my truck to his shop and do donuts in the parking lot until he came outside. After a good laugh , he said to bring it on by, but to call the shop to make sure he was there first.
Cut to a week ago. I had painted the truck black and thought it might be presentable. So just on a whim, I called the shop Thursday of last week. I was told to bring it on! Robby would be at the shop most of the day Saturday,as he was also allowing a charitable group to host a fundraiser that day. Robby was set to do a few SST demos. (Super stadium trucks)
The group also had vendors,food, and various other booths set up. As well as a raffle. I bought 5 tickets and ended up winning twice. I won a free custom handgun holster from Watchdog tactical and a grand helicopter tour of Charlotte, from Queen City Helicopters. I think I'll enjoy both of those prizes!

Long story shorter...I was able to go, hang out in the speed factory, check out all kinds of sweet toys, watch Robby do some awesome stunting, jumping his truck nearly 130ft, driving on 2 wheels, plenty of drifting,smoky donuts...and more launches.
He actually drove around the property on 2 wheels..speeding up,slowing down, making left and right turns, and even a 1 wheel burnout while on 2 wheels. His driving skills are frikkin A awesome. After the event was over, I was able to kinda just hang out with Robby for a bit. He took me for a ride in his desert prerunner, and get this...He hopped in my bro-lite truck for a few donuts and some baby drifting. I have videos, but he is out of video sight when he popped my truck up on 2 wheels for a few feet. (I'm gonna master that skillset ha)
I had a great time and really can't believe how nice and accommodating Robby was while I was there.

I have some more cool news, but I am waiting till it happens to announce it.

Ok. Picture time!
 
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This was as soon as I unloaded. He came out and checked out my truck, and was happy to autograph my dash.
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He even snapped a few pics of the fab work.
 
Nice! Are you talking about last years torc race or am I missing something? I know there is a party in August....err I mean torc race.
 
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This is the Dakar truck. Almost every thing has a back up, some of the back ups even have back ups. Double and triple redundancies throughout. Thing has 8 fuel pumps. Gotta make sure you have all your bases covered when you're racing thousands of miles through some of the harshest environments on the planet. The air jacks would be really handy.
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When I called,and found out there was a benefit event and a raffle the same day I was there, I decided to bring this brand new,camouflaged youth helmet, that ironically enough, I had won at our local vol. Fire department's fundraiser raffle just a week before. I had Robby sign it and here we are giving it to the event coordinator to be raffled off at their event.
 
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Couple of random cool pics.
Its understandable that there were a couple of places in the shop that Robby asked me not to take pictures of, but he didn't mind me looking at everything..it was great!
He owns the SST series, and that includes every truck. He has 30 or so of these trucks. They are completely built in house and they do all prep,repair and builds and every thing they can to make all of these truck the exact same.
Established racers, essentially pay a franchise fee to race. The trucks are chosen by a random draw at every race. Robby Gordon Motorsports handles every aspect of the trucks including all sponsors and transport of all 30 trucks and the traveling show. Race winners receive upwards of 60k per win. Series points Champs receive a lil more than 500k. He never said what the franchise fee was, but I am sure it's hefty.
 
Is that the Speed shop right off 485 and 77 in Charlotte/Huntersville? I drive past it all the time and wonder what was in it.

Sent from my HTC Desire Eye using Tapatalk
 
That's pretty sweet. I've met him once, years ago. Seemed like a real down to earth guy. It's a great thing that he's genuinely interested in your Bro-Lite, too.
 
He didn't have an ifs bomber fab car did he? Word on the street was he bought the one Tim Cameron had randy start.
 
BLarkin said:
That's pretty sweet. I've met him once, years ago. Seemed like a real down to earth guy. It's a great thing that he's genuinely interested in your Bro-Lite, too.
Click to expand...
Genuine interest in listening to the ideas, and checking out some videos and my truck, but I doubt he'll be building one..haha.
 
Indy car just sitting there. This one is from 1 of 4 attempts at the double duty day. 4 times he has raced the Indy 500 then flew to Charlotte for the 600. Also in the foreground of this pc..a Super buggy and a Super trophy kart. I wish I had taken better pics of these. They were badass. More Nascars in the background.
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And a sweet Hauler.
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Dakar support rig. These trucks are my favorite part of the Dakar races. Robby told me that most of the eguipment
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and the race car get flown to Argentina...but this big bad boy has to take the boat.

My lil truck got a lot of attention all day, but none more than when it was parked here. I spotted tons of peeps checking in out and taking pictures of it.
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Reminds me when my brother worked for J Gibbs racing. All those cars sitting around an me drooling,was able to just walk in an go my brothers work area. Great pics.
 
I always liked Robby. When he drove in NASCAR he went after Tony Stewart and Tony ran from him. He became my favorite driver after that.
 
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