NEW HONDA 450 Rally looking GOOD in Morocco

[Guest Crusty]

http://www.autoevolu...56515.html#sjmp

The OiLibya Rally of Morocco is underway already and it looks like Honda's new CRF450 Rally is showing real off-road racing attitude, as Joan "Bang Bang" Barreda won the first leg of the year's latest race.

[Guest Crusty]

Video here.http://teamhrc.com/video/sao_paulo_0930.mp4

Bike pics here.http://www.autoevolution.com/news-g-image/2014-dakar-honda-crf-450-rally-is-ready-for-dakar-looks-gorgeous-2014-video-link/155017.html#sjmp

[Bagstr 288]

It will be fun for the Championship Team to have a fully staffed competitor to race.

[Guest Crusty]

With last years sales over 18 Million and 16 years dominating Baja,in a struggling economy,

it's great to see that Big Red has decided to add more bikes to their line up.

[robertaccio 412]

Its great marketing strategy. AdV style bike are raging all over the world now. In EU those P to D (rally styled) bikes have always been good sellers. In the US not so much...but just look around it's a rapidly growing market for rally type machines. This new breed (450 based rules) IMHO are much better for the average ADV guy. Manageability, weight, simplicity, cost, again IMHO is a much better choice than those huge twin cyl panzers in the offroad realm. And in addition these "little" rally bikes have proven themselves in major competitions from Baja to Dakar to Pharaohs to Morrocco and in the FIM Rally cup. Honda built a good one. Looks like Yamaha Motor France (for Depres) has good one as well, but its a team built machine not a factory effort like KTM and Honda.

[Guest Crusty]

Another great day!

A terrific Paulo Gonçalves on the Honda CRF450 RALLY takes the Stage and the Leadership

TEAM HRC continues to lead the Morocco Rally. In a 298 km second stage, including 240 against the clock, 'Speedy' Gonçalves carved out an amazing victory that places hims at the top of the leaderboard. The other TEAM HRC riders put in fine performances too, with Sam Sunderland third and Joan Barreda in fifth.

Another day, another type of rally. After the sand and dunes of yesterday's opening stage, today saw an entire day of rocky mountain terrain with a lot of navigation. Joan Barreda started out first and rode a fine race, although this allowed the other riders to follow his tracks and thus gain time. His colleague TEAM HRC rider Paulo Gonçalves, seemed at ease on his Honda CRF450 RALLY and kept up the consistency in the first leg, before pushing hard in the later stages. Around Zagora he was practically unbeatable. Gonçalves finds himself leading in the overall standings after two days of rally.

British rider Sam Sunderland also put in a fine performance, overcoming a slight navigational error early on in the special and finishing in third. Joan Barreda's fifth place leaves him behind Gonçalves in the overall standings. A good all-round team effort.

The tough rocky terrain suited much less Argentine Javier Pizzolito, who is looking forward again to the sand and dunes, where he hopes to better today's seventh place.

Finally, Hélder Rodrigues, who set out from fourth position suffered an electronic failure some fifteen km from the end of the stage.

Paulo Goncalves 1st 2:50'22 TEAM HRC

It was a mountain and rocky stage with a lot of navigation. I think I did well trying to stay on course. The Honda CRF450 RALLY never ceases to amaze me. In the hard terrain the traction is very important and it's been great to see how it handles the curves. Let's see how the next four days play out in this tough rally.

Sam Sunderland 3rd +2'09 TEAM HRC

A very tough one today with loads of navigation and a lot of rocks. I kept up a great speed until the end after I had a small error near the start. I lost a little time but after was able to push hard. I navigated well and I'm happy.

Joan Barreda 5th +3'45 TEAM HRC

I'm very pleased. Having two fast riders like Marc and Paulo behind pushing all day, means that I've got to be happy with the result. There was a lot of difficult navigation and I had to mark out the route up front. Tomorrow I start behind them so hopefully I'll catch up and we can stay together.

Javier Pizzolito 7th +6'52 TEAM HRC

We've finished a really hard, complicated stage with a lot of rocks. I'm getting used to that type of terrain now. It's been a very positive stage and the idea was to not lose time. I think if I keep up this pace I should be able to make it up among the leaders.

PaddockTalk Perspective

[Afry 1]

1381845480[/url]' post='160738']

With last years sales over 18 Million and 16 years dominating Baja,in a struggling economy,

it's great to see that Big Red has decided to add more bikes to their line up.

Are you thinking that a version of this bike will be marketed in the USA? So far nothing I have have read has led me to believe this but love to hear otherwise.

[Guest Crusty]

With last years sales over 18 Million and 16 years dominating Baja,in a struggling economy,

it's great to see that Big Red has decided to add more bikes to their line up.

Are you thinking that a version of this bike will be marketed in the USA? So far nothing I have have read has led me to believe this but love to hear otherwise.

I think so!

http://www.teamhrc.com/team-hrc/team/

TEAM HRC's aim is to win the Dakar; the most prestigious and toughest off road motorcycle race in the world. An exceptional work bench for the bike, which in turn will become tomorrow's mass-production model.

sure looks like it.

http://www.teamhrc.c...0-%2014/10/2013

And in Baja.

http://www.bajarallymoto.com/

[Guest Crusty]

# 23 Honda CRF Rally takes 3rd. stage today in style.

Interview here.http://mailer.teamhr...barreda_eng.m4a

Classification - Stage 3

1 - Joan Barreda - 08:03’44 - ESP - HONDA - TEAM HRC

2 - Paulo Goncalves - +07’27 - PRT - HONDA - TEAM HRC

3 - Marc Coma - +07’41 - ESP - KTM - KTM Red Bull Rally Factory

4 - Chaleco López - +10’52 - CHI - KTM - KTM Red Bull Rally Factory

5 - Sam Sunderland - +14’16 - ENG - HONDA - TEAM HRC

6 - Javier Pizzolito - +22’04 - ARG - HONDA - TEAM HRC

7 - Alessandro Botturi - +29’40 - ITA - SPEEDBRAIN - Team Speedbrain

8 - Alain Duclos - +31’33 - FRA - SHERCO - Sherco Rally Factory

9 - Ben Graham - +38’11 - AUS - KTM - KTM AUS Rally Factory

10 - Olivier Pain - +46’56 - FRA - YAMAHA - Yamaha Racin

http://mailer.teamhrc.com/au

Three stages of the Morocco Rally completed, and three wins for the Honda CRF450 RALLY in the bag. Joan Barreda came in first today and retakes top-spot on the overall leaderboard. TEAM HRC team-mate Sam Sunderland ran the fourth fastest time and Paulo Gonçalves finished sixth and is second in the overall standings.

Joan 'Bang Bang' Barreda once again proves that he’s a force to be reckoned with. The Spanish rider appeared to be at ease even on such a navigationally tricky stage as today’s. Erg Cheggaga and Lago Iriki gave him the chance to really put the Honda CRF450 RALLY through its paces. The rider from Castellón thus takes back the top position on the leaderboard. British rider Sam Sunderland too, was pleased to be back in the dunes, finishing in a fine fourth position which keeps him in fifth overall place after three days of racing.

Portuguese Paulo Gonçalves had his work cut out as he started the special from the front, but in spite of this was able to finish in good sixth place. Gonçalves is now second in the overall standings.

TEAM HRC has once again kept its components up in the top eight overall positions, with Argentine Javier Pizzolito putting in a fine performance in eighth place and Hélder Rodrigues ninth, penalized with an fifteen place start after an electrical problem yesterday, which saw him forced to overtake various riders amidst the heavy dust that they were generating.