Honda has announced that it will take part in the 2013 Dakar Rally next January with a special motorcycle works team. It’s been 23 years since Honda last took part in the rally, back when it took place in Europe and Africa and sailed under the Paris-Dakar banner. Between 1981 and 1989, Honda walked away with the gold five times, but hasn’t so much as touched a grain of sand on the new course that spans from Peru through Chile and into Argentina. Team HRC is out to change that with its new four-rider team.
Helder Rodrigues, Felipe Zanol, Sam Sunderland and Javier Pizzolito will each command a new prototype race bike based loosely on the CRF450X. Honda has also whipped up a ration of kit parts designed to be bolted to a factory CRF450X should any privateer team feel like following in the Japanese bike maker’s tracks.
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