Honda Announces Plans for 2019 Motorcycle Motorsports Activities
Honda's Participation in World Championship Racing and Dakar Rally 2019
Honda announced plans for its participation in motorcycle motorsports world championship racing activities for the 2019 season, at EICMA 2018 in Milan, Italy.
In 2019, Honda will continue to compete in the premier classes of motorcycle road racing, Motocross and Trial world championships and the Dakar Rally 2019, with Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) factory teams*1 aiming to win the titles in each category.
In the FIM*2 Road Racing World Championship Series MotoGP class, five-time champion and 2018 winner Marc Marquez will be joined by Jorge Lorenzo to race for Repsol Honda Team. In the FIM Motocross World Championship Series MXGP class, 2016 champion Tim Gajser and Brian Bogers will continue to represent Team HRC.
In the FIM Trial World Championship Series TrialGP class, twelve-time consecutive winner Toni Bou and Takahisa Fujinami in his 24th year in the championship will once again race for Repsol Honda Team.
In the Dakar Rally 2019, Kevin Benavides, Joan Barreda, Paulo Goncalves, Ricky Brabec and Jose Ignacio Cornejo will represent Monster Energy Honda Team.
In addition to Honda's factory teams, major Honda teams will compete in major world championship in 2019.
In the FIM Superbike World Championship Series, HRC will support the team operated by Althea Racing and Moriwaki Engineering with Leon Camier and Ryuichi Kiyonari as their riders.
In the FIM Endurance World Championship series, 2017-2018 winners F.C.C. TSR Honda France will continue to be represented by Freddy Foray and Josh Hook, with Mike Di Meglio also joining the team. Last season's overall third-place team, Honda Endurance Racing, will continue their quest to win the EWC title.
In the 450SX class of the AMA*3 SuperCross World Championship Series held mainly in North America, American Honda's factory team, Team Honda HRC, will continue with Ken Roczen and Cole Seely.
Racing is Honda's driving force, and through competing in various races, hones its technologies and its people. The racing spirit and technologies gained are part of many Honda products. Honda will continue to realise "The Power of Dreams" with its customers, in its products, services and racing activities.
*1 Factory teams: Teams operated by motorcycle manufacturers
*2 FIM: Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
*3 AMA: American Motorcyclist Association
