Team HRC holds a media event at Motorland Aragon Circuit in Spain to introduce new and returning rally team members.
Team HRC chose the Motorland Aragon Circuit in Spain to announce its five-rider 2015 factory Honda rally squad today.
The team will consist of five riders on the new factory Honda CRF450 Rally machine. Returning to the team are Joan Barreda of Spain and reigning FIM Cross Country Rallies World Champion Paulo Goncalves of Portugal, along with Goncalves’ countryman, Helder Rodrigues. Two new riders have been added to the squad for 2015: Jeremias Israel of Chile and the ever popular female rally specialist Laia Sanz of Spain. Sanz rode a semi-supported Honda CRF450 Rally in the 2014 Dakar Rally, finishing 16th overall.
Immediate plans call for the new team to contest the final round of the 2014 FIM World Cross Country Rallies Championship, the Rally OiLibya du Maroc in Erfoud, Moroco, which begins October 3. Goncalves is still mathematically in the hunt for another World title, and the rest of the team will use the event to prepare for the genre’s most difficult and prestigious rally, the Dakar Rally, which begins on January 4, 2015, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The two-week long 9000-kilometer Dakar Rally will visit Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, subjecting riders to a gamut of challenging terrain and conditions. The Dakar Rally concludes on January 17 in the Argentinian capital.
Team HRC is planning a massive assault on the Dakar in an attempt to claims its first motorcycle class win since France’s Gilles Lalay won it aboard a factory Honda in 1989; Lalay was tragically killed while competing in the 1992 Dakar Rally.
Team HRC General Manager Martini Bianchi said that the new team has tremendous potential.
“This new team…combines the best virtues of different drivers for a winning team,” Bianchi said. “We’ve shown that we are a winning team, and so we can only win ‘The Rally.’ The Dakar Rally is more than a race, it’s the mother of all rally-raids. It’s an adventure, and it’s a great challenge. The race is 9000 kilometers and is full of traps, but the prestige for the winner is enormous. And that will be our main goal. We’ll start 2015 with the intention to win the Dakar, with our talented team with so many assets, and with a great bike.”
While any of the team could step up to the challenge, most eyes will once again be on Barreda, who has won multiple stages and shown the speed to win both aboard the Team HRC Honda CRF450 Rally and previously on Husqvarna motorcycles, only to suffer bad luck that dropped him in the final standings in the past two Dakar events. Barreda is optimistic that 2015 will be his year.
“We will fight for the victory in the Dakar–is our target!” Barreda said. “The last Dakar was very intense, very hard, difficult day after day, but we were always ahead and never give up despite accidents or set-backs. We showed that we have a bike capable of winning and a team that works for it. Honda wants to win, and hopefully this year we can make it in first. We have all worked hard to achieve this main objective.”
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