Honda’s Dakar Rally track record!
Words and images courtesy
Honda made their first Moto category appearance in the Dakar Rally in 1981.
It was with the winner of the previous two editions, Cyril Neveu (France), who finished six on his debut.
The following year Neveu took Honda’s maiden victory.
With new factory teams from other manufacturers entering the competition, the battle for the top spot became very tough, but in 1986, Neveu won again and Honda dominated the event with a 1-2-3 finish!
Honda continued this winning streak with FOUR consecutive victories through to 1989, with a new machine: the fantastic NXR750.
A bike built especially for Dakar.
Between 1981 and 1989, Honda bikes took the top spot on five occasions…
After a 24-year absence, Honda returned to Dakar in 2013.
For that edition, they developed the CRF450 Rally based on the commercial CRF450X and entered three riders;
- Helder Rodrigues (Portugal)
- Javier Pizzolito (Argentina)
- Johnny Campbell (USA)
TEAM HRC reached their primary target of all machines reaching the end.
In 2014, with a completely new bike, the Honda CRF450 RALLY, brought to the big challenge a heterogeneous team, with Joan Barreda (Spain), Helder Rodrigues (Portugal), Paulo Gonçalves (Portugal), Javier Pizzolito (Argentina) and Sam Sunderland (Great Britain).
Barreda took five stage wins and Sunderland was also the fastest in another stage.
Six wins that showed the great potential of the bike. With the support team Honda South America, Laia Sanz (Spain) was outstanding, finishing in 16th place.
The 2015 Dakar was a great success for Team HRC taking runner-up spot with Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves.
Joan Barreda was forced to retire from the battle for the overall race title after a terrible day in the Uyuni saltflats in Bolivia, whilst leading the world’s toughest competition.
Instead of throwing in the towel, Barreda went on to finish the Dakar showing his true fighting spirit!
Teammate Jeremias Israel sacrificed his race to help out the Team.
Another extraordinary team success was that of Spaniard Laia Sanz, who finished the Dakar 2015 in 9th position, the best result ever for a female in this race.
Portuguese Helder Rodrigues ended his final Dakar with Honda in 12th position.
Team HRC came back to the Dakar in the 2016 edition where, unfortunately, current race leader Spaniard Joan Barreda once again suffered in the Bolivian stage which forced him to retire from the event definitively.
Nevertheless, the race led to the discovery of one of Cross-Country Rallies’ rising stars; Argentinian Kevin Benavides, showed his skills and clinched a fantastic 4th position on home soil.
Likewise, the young American Ricky Brabec made an excellent debut in the Dakar grabbing 9th place.
Like Barreda, Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves and French Michael Metge were forced to retire.
Monster Energy Honda Team wrote another chapter of the Dakar history in 2020, with Ricky Brabec reaching the top spot – being the first American to do it!
It was the first time the Dakar Rally moved from South America to Saudi Arabia.
The following year, Honda repeated the title in the hands of Argentinian Kevin Benavides, giving the Honda CRF 450 Rally another gold at the Dakar and this year, Brabec won Dakar for a second time.
After taking the overall lead in Stage 6, in this year’s edition, Brabec defended his position with solid riding in the subsequent stages to take the victory by a margin of 10 min 53 s for his second Dakar win.
Adrien Van Beveren (France, age 33) was 3rd, and Jose Ignacio Cornejo (Chile, age 29) was 6th, giving Monster Energy Honda Team 3 top-ten finishes.
Honda’s Dakar Rally Track Record (Best finishes)
- 1986 1st Cyril Neveu (F) NXR750
- 1987 1st Cyril Neveu (F) NXR750
- 1988 1st Edi Orioli (I) NXR750
- 1989 1st Gilles Lalay (F) NXR750
- * 1990 – 2012: Honda did not compete in the Dakar Rally
- 2013 7th Helder Rodrigues (P) CRF450 RALLY
- 2014 5th Helder Rodrigues (P) CRF450 RALLY
- 2015 2nd Paulo Gonçalves (P) CRF450 RALLY
- 2016 4th Kevin Benavides (ARG) CRF450 RALLY
- 2017 5th Joan Barreda (E) CRF450 RALLY
- 2018 2nd Kevin Benavides (ARG) CRF450 RALLY
- 2019 5th Kevin Benavides (ARG) CRF450 RALLY
- 2020 1st Ricky Brabec (USA) CRF450 RALLY
- 2021 1st Kevin Benavides (ARG) CRF450 RALLY
- 2022 2nd Pablo Quintanilla (CHL) CRF450 RALLY
- 2023 4th Pablo Quintanilla (CHL) CRF450 RALLY
- 2024 1st Ricky Brabec (USA) CRF450 RALLY
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