Honda and off-road racing.

[BigBore]

So, who else thinks Honda should get an off-road team going? This is something I've been thinking about lately. Sure, they've got their desert guys. But come on.....I'm so tired of Honda bragging about winning Baja! Maybe the reason they win is......pretty much everybody has pulled out of racing Baja!

I would really like to see Honda get a team together to race GNCC's, or maybe at least Hare Scrambles or the new WORCS series, maybe on modified CR250's or CRF's. Oh wait no, we wouldn't want guys racing motocross bikes off-road, people might get the wrong idea and stop buying XRs! :silly:

For years, Honda had a one-man wrecking crew in the form of Scott Summers. He's gone now, and I really believe Honda needs to think about getting the off-road team up and going again.

 

[KWJams]

Amen!

There are a bunch of riders who are hanging onto MX and SX jobs that could easily fill the roster of a --"CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM", Dowd, Ward, Lamson, etc-etc!

The problem is they can make more money riding for a 20th place SX finish than an off road contract. :(

Our hillclimb series (6 events) had a total cash purse of $86,000.00 not counting contingencies etc, you would think that would coax some riders. :(

We may never see Factory support with all the Frankenstein machines competed on, but like you said, somehow Honda needs to get involved.

They pulled out of Flat tracking and Suzuki and other brands are filling the void.

Big races south of the border will never sell as many XR's as what KTM has picked up when Honda forgot about the GNCC. :ugg:

 

[KTMdude911]

That would be cool.I love Hondas and it would be awesome if they would start building off-road machines.:)

 

[ADS]

Honda has a good rider right under their nose in the form of Josh McLevy. He is up and coming in the GNCC series, is pretty consistent, and would be a good choice to have on an off-road team. And of course there is always us DRN'ers that would be more than happy to accept a contract.;)

 

[KTMdude911]

ADS

what does Josh Mclevy ride?

 

[Offroadr]

Totally agree! I don't understand why they haven't stayed involved since Summers retired. All three other jap brands support off-road.

Guess Ricky costs too much :think

 

[IDkTm]

Mclevy rode a Honda this past year. Honda should make this move. I'm sure that Stanton would be competitive if he trained for it. I'd take the job if they offered it to me.

 

[Dave Wood]

I agree Honda should field a Off-Road team on CR's. Last year I had lunch with Hondas Paul Slavek and raised this very question. He jumped up on his corporate soapbox and delivered the company line that "CR's are for closed course competition only" Honda sells XR's for off-Road use. Even today, Honda insists that there off-road riders like Johnny Campbell "WILL" compete on the XR650's in off road events. At selected "closed course" events off road team riders MAY ride the CR450.

Paul told me, what is important to Honda is being perceived as an "environmential friendly company". Car sales=huge dollars for Honda and it is more important to introduce state of the art energy efficient cars and earn the backing of the environmental movement. Rather than Honda creating an corporate image that "closed course racing machines" are being raced on our nations public lands. Honda feels that supporting off-road riders on CR's would create a unfriendly environmental corporate image.

To bad Honda does not get it, Corporations are the target of the environmental movement. Just like land use, they start attacking small defenseless people, (like the good folks in Klamath). Remember the alar scare with apples, how about using junk science and the endangered species act, falsely claiming the spotted owl as being an endangered animal and its only habitat being "Old Growth" total bunk, yet look at the devastation it caused the timber industry, many peoples lives destroyed. Another hoax was attempted with the Lynx hairs, notice this story remains on the back page because it does not support the politically correct story line. Those of us who enjoy the outdoors with our dirt bikes, snowmobiles, ATV's, Jet Skis, Jeeps etc. have been in the environmental crosshairs for thirty years. Environmentalists are very patient and stick with there game plan. The environmental agenda with corporations like Honda is corporate Blackmail, a very effective way to fleece huge amounts of money to fund the environmental terrorist attack on our country. It's sad that companies like Honda, GM, Ford and many more, have no problem selling out there customers who buy there products. It is also unfornutate to many of us are politically ignorant. Few among us support our political advocates and organizations. Thus, we as a group, are politically irrelevant. Honda looks at the big picture and the dollars the few of us riding CR's Off-Road generate is very small. Honda would rather waste millions of dollars on a public relations scam, there new environmentally friendly, eco-system rider and environmental training center in Southern California than support a single off-road rider competing on any CR.

Join AMA, Blue Ribbon Coalition, CORVA...we must become politically relevent. Consider this, AMA has about 250,000 members, a little less than half there membership are dirt bikers. There are over 500,000 registered dirt bikes in California alone. I hear a lot of complaints about how ineffective the AMA is, how effective can the AMA be, with so few dirt bike riders supporting them nationwide? If your riding buddies won't support the groups who support us, then it is time to find new riding friends.

Dave Wood
AMA charter life member
Blue Ribbon Coalition member
D36 member
trail volunteer
I buy both a Idaho trail sticker and California green sticker to support our trail systems.

 

[Smitty]

What about Scott Sheak finishing 3rd on a CRF in the Harvey Mushman 100? Their are plenty of national level MX'ers willing to give offroad racing a go. Scott bought that bike out of his own pocket (with his wife's permission) and raced to try and pay for the bike (per an interview on Motorcyclist.)

 

[Camstyn]

What's the Harvey Mushmann 100?

Just curious, as RMD used to have a character knows as Har-VEE Muschmann

 

[KWJams]

Elsinore Grand Prix

Steve McQueen used to enter races under the name Harvey Mushman--(see the movie "On any Sunday".)

It was called the Hamel 100 for a few years in honor of Danny Hamel but recently they renamed it the Mushman 100

 

[ADS]

OK,OK, so there are more than a few riders that could fill the bill. I just thought that McLevy would be the best choice, since he did put in some strong finishes on CR's during the GNCC's.
The sad reality is the whole XR=off-road and CR=closed-course thing.
Honda, this is a load of crap, the rider should have the option of which Honda they ride.

 

[KWJams]

Hey, it is not such a done deal--

Not sure which BITD race it was, but Johnny Campell competed on the CRF 450.
It may have been the Laughlin round?

 

[DANIEL JOSEPH]

Re: ADS

Originally posted by KTMdude911
what does Josh Mclevy ride?

I was told last night Josh is riding a CRF 450

 

[KTMdude911]

daniel thanks for answering my question!!