Honda preparing Dakar assault

Wonderful news.

Here's to a quick recovery!

Such good news.

Just great

Soooo,
Any more whispers about Jake getting the Honda gig?

Hope to see Felipe outa that hospital soon!

sUpeR Zanol !!

Back to full fit soon !

Might be a bit wrong on the jake ride with HRC spoke to Todd tonight and he wasn't given anything away

Couldn't have said it any better. Get well soon Felipe.

A day with Helder
http://www.redbull.pt/cs/Satellite/pt_PT/Video/Um-dia-com-Hélder-Rodrigues-021243294322333

(only in portuguese, sorry...) but you can see his dakar bikes collection for a few seconds!

Interview with the leader of the Dakar Rally TEAM HRC

story here

an excerpt:

"Q.How did you proceed with development?

"First, we built clay models. We used design clay to create models that would approximate the exterior parts of the actual machine. We more-or-less finished this work in June. That is when we had two racers-Helder Rodrigues and Sam Sunderland-come to Japan, so we could perform the fitting work at HRC in Asaka.

"In mid-July we went to Morocco in Africa for a second set of tests. . . . I chose to test the bike where I knew we could subject it to extreme harsh conditions. We had the riders ride the bike, and, to make a long story short, the bike got beat up. Almost all of the parts broke."

I saw a tweet today suggesting that HRC felt 'the [Dakar Team] structure was too young' to absorb new riders at this late stage...

Makes sense really, riding an unfamiliar and unproven bike at anything like race pace is going to be tricky for anyone - it would be a hell of a gamble on both the side of the rider and the team? - Noone wants to see a failure or an accident.

Jx

Great article, gives some good insight into the amount of resources that have gone into the HRC project. How long until the podium see's red on the top...2 or 3 years from now is my hunch...

It does make a lot of sense when you consider what the team have been through over the last 6 months, plus they have effectively lost (when you look at past performance times, so totally objectively) their 2nd and 3rd riders, so who would they draft in?

It would have to be a top line rider, as there would be no point having another rider of support speed only, someone who could navigate at the top level in this format, someone who knows the team and the custom developed bike.

So, all in all and consider the between Europe, South and North America and that HRC are not in this for a single season, it makes total sense to run with Helder, Javier and Johnny - it may be a bit of a needle in a Haystack though finding a rider within the Honda Bivouac

HRC will have the technical side fully there by next year and especially if they run the 6 race 2013 FIM WRC Calendar
Plus they have time on their side, Helder and Sam as a 23 year old speedster who is gaining rally experience all the time; so yes, good call -

Some interesting times ahead from another perspective also.
The Aliens may be on the wane over the next few years, so who will KTM develop - they need to be showing their hand soon? :eek1

With Barreda being a potential future Alien, but with Helder also getting on in years, we will certainly need to see some Enduro (or other?) riders making the jump across soon - but who, as it does take time?

Caselli has expressed interest in Dakar, and from chats with other front-runners at Dakar, the lead pace at a National Hare and Hound is faster than the lead pace at Dakar. Clearly, there's much more strategy involved in Dakar, not to mention navigation, but just as clearly, Caselli has Alien potential.

Taddy Blazusiak:

"As I said, I’m a racer. I’d love to race in the Dakar Rally on a bike and in a car one day – we'll see what life brings!" Feb 2011

“One thing’s for certain – competing in the Desafio Litoral is going to be one hell of an adventure for me....At this stage this is definitely just a rally one-off – I don’t have any plans to race the Dakar any time soon." Jul 2012

Rumours is that Helder went to Japan and found a giant "africa twin", so his first request was to make a lighter bike, more suitable to nowadays dakars...

:d:d

The Knighter also shows some interest.
At least he started following @RallyRAIDio.

So what is the deal, has HRC got other guys to ride the bikes ?