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Felipe Zanol

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Our first official news from the showroom floor of INTERMOT is Honda’s race bike for the 2013 Dakar Rally. Rumored, teased, and now official, the 2013 Honda CRF450 Rally is as the name implies, a CRF450 built out and specially suited for adventure rally racing. The fuel-injected off-roader will get its first outing at the Rally of Morocco, which starts October 14th.

Honda intends on fielding five riders on the 2013 Honda CRF450 Rally bike: 11-time Baja 1000 winner Johnny Campbell (USA), Helder Rodrigues (Portugal), Felipe Zanol (Brazil), Sam Sunderland (United Kingdom), and Javier Pizzolito (Argentina). Expect to see Honda CRF450 Rally on the Dakar Rally starting line come January 1, 2013 in South America, where it will take on the KTM contingency of Marc Coma and Cyril Despres.

Honda has announced that it will field a factory entry in the upcoming 2013 Dakar Rally, which starts January 2013 and goes through Peru, Argentina, and Chile. Enlisting four riders to ride on the yet to be released HRC adventure racer, the return of HRC factory team to The Dakar is a boon for the series, which has been dominated by KTM in recent years.

Coming into the series with a pedigree of winning in the 1980’s, HRC hopes that Portuguese rider Helder Rodrigues, who came in third in the 2012 Dakar Rally, will be able to contend with KTM’s factory-backed efforts for Marc Coma and Cyril Despres.