Honda’s big year
Honda factory rider Kevin Benavides won the rally this year, with teammate Ricky Brabec in second. Almost as importantly, a couple of other Honda riders were in the hunt until the final stages. It’s a big change from the rally’s South American days, when riders like Paulo Goncalves and Joan Barreda would put in solid riding but were let down by their machinery. This year, Honda had no embarrassing bike problems. The combination of new team management and careful mechanical updates is working out very nicely.
And now, the word on the street is that Honda’s looking to cut its team budget. Barreda is supposedly considering retirement after a head injury, so Honda might save some money by not replacing him, or replacing him with a new rider on a smaller contract. Whatever happens, hopefully the Honda team can stay competitive. The team has been a major disruptor in the past few years, even if its results were uneven until 2020. Honda gave both up-and-coming and established riders a different option for a properly-backed factory ride, instead of everyone fighting for a spot on a KTM. It’s also changed up the Euro-centric Dakar formula; Benavides is from Argentina, Brabec is from the US. That goes a long way to boosting the Dakar in North and South America.