Dakar: Honda To Compete With Motorcycle Factory Team |
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File under Dakar Race Honda
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Normandy, France
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Since 23 years, Honda motorcycles has not competed officially in the famous Dakar  race. It had competed officially with a works team between 1981 until 1989, and won the race 5 times.
But now they're back! The official works Honda team, called Team HRC, includes the Portuguese veteran Helder Rodrigues (3rd in the 2012 race) and Brazilian Felipe Zanol . The second team has British racer Sam Sunderland and Argentian Javier Pizzolito .
The motorcycles used are based on the Honda CRF450X , but modified specially for the rally.
Tetsuo Suzuki, President, Honda Racing Corporation, commented "The Dakar requires competitors to cover several hundred kilometers per day for more than two weeks. It needs a totally different type of vehicle from events such as motocross, trials and road races. Honda has put a great deal of effort into designing and building a powerful and winning machine. We are aiming for the championship from this first year."
It looks like Honda is going to try to give KTM a run for their money. KTM have been dominating the rally for 10 years now, but will Honda be able to compete against the legendary Cyril Despres and Marc Coma? We'll see next year when the race starts.
Via: Honda
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