Honda Motor Sports Guide 2020
Honda Motor Sports Guide 2020 THE FINISH LINE IS NEVER THE END DAKAR RALLY 2020 CRF450 RALLY Conquers World’ s Most Grueling Rally Giving Honda First Dakar Motorcycle Class Win in 31 Years The 2020 edition of the Dakar Rally, considered the world’ s most grueling motorsports event, was held in Saudi Arabia over thirteen days, in twelve stages covering over 7,000 kilometers, more than three-quarters of which was desert. Team riders for Monster Energy Honda Team, Honda’ s factory team, rode their CRF450 RALLY bikes to six stage wins out of twelve, of which Ricky Brabec won two. From Stage 3 onwards, Brabec defended his race lead to take the overall victory. Brabec, on his fifth Dakar, became the first American rider to win the event, and gave Honda its first overall win in 31 years. Honda first competed in the third Paris-Dakar Rally in 1981. Its first victory came in 1986 on an NXR750, which was followed by three consecutive wins up to 1989. Honda left the Dakar the following year, and in 2013, decided to race once again in the Dakar Rally, then held in South America, with its new CRF450 RALLY factory bike. Despite finishing runner-up in 2015 and 2018, victory had eluded Honda until this year, the 8th attempt after returning to the Dakar in 2013. Honda’ s History in DAKAR RALLY Year Best result Rider Nationality Bike 1986 Win Cyril Neveu France NXR750 1987 Win Cyril Neveu France NXR750 1988 Win Edi Orioli Italy NXR750 1989 Win Gilles Lalay France NXR750 Honda did not compete in the Dakar from 1990 to 2012 2013 7th Helder Rodrigues Portugal CRF450 RALLY 2014 5th Helder Rodrigues Portugal CRF450 RALLY 2015 2nd Paulo Gonçalves Portugal CRF450 RALLY 2016 4th Kevin Benavides Argentina CRF450 RALLY 2017 5th Joan Barreda Spain CRF450 RALLY 2018 2nd Kevin Benavides Argentina CRF450 RALLY 2019 7th José Ignacio Cornejo Chile CRF450 RALLY 2020 Win Ricky Brabec U.S.A.
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