Dakar

[MX808]

Who is riding for KTM this year in Dakar? And has Honda put together a team to run it yet. I am pretty sure that I heard from this site that they were going to put a team together.

[MX304]

Look over on www.motorsport.com. They have entry list as well as some awesome pics up on there. Chris Blaise and Andy Grider are the americans on team KTM this year again.

[scoobs]

What happened to Kellon?

[Hog Wild]

What happened to Kellon?Kellon is injured.

There are 7 American's on KTM, plus me on the original orange brand:

Links to the American invasion:
9 Chris Blais - Team KTM blaisracing.com (http://www.blaisracing.com/)
23 Andy Grider - Team KTM griderracing.com (http://www.GriderRacing.com/)
42 Jonah Street - KTM privateer rallypanam.com (http://www.rallypanam.com/)
98 Mike Krynock - KTM privateer rallypanam.com (http://www.rallypanam.com/)
99 Charlie Rauseo - KTM privateer rallypanam.com (http://www.rallypanam.com/)
132 James Embro - KTM privateer no website
180 Kevin Heath - KTM privateer KevinsMidLifeCrisis.com (http://www.kevinsmidlifecrisis.com/)
242 Scott Whitney / Duane McDowell - Harley privateer HogWildRacing.com (http://www.hogwildracing.com/)

[MX808]

Ya i know that ktm puts a team together each year for Dakar but I heard from I beleive this site that Honda was going to put a team together. Does anyone have any info on that?

[Hog Wild]

Ya i know that ktm puts a team together each year for Dakar but I heard from I beleive this site that Honda was going to put a team together. Does anyone have any info on that?There are no other Americans on bikes, so if Honda is doing something, it's not here. My buddy from AmHonda will be with us over there, and he'll be wearing orange & black! He never said anything about any American Honda effort for Dakar.

[BajaboundMoto]

I have not heard anything, even gossip, about a US Honda effort at Dakar.
There will be some private XR's there as usual, just not from the US.

"HogWild" - You guys are nuts! That bike is crazy and the photo of the hacks airing it on the track is even more crazy! Hat's off to ya!

So yesterday I was BS'ing with Jonah.
He was initially expecting RallyPanAm to be sort of a non-pro half-assed little effort but thought "why not give it a go"..... NOT SO ANYMORE!
He is really excited about Dakar and very stoked on the Team he's with.
He has not seen the bike or even met Charlie or the others but said the group REALLY seems to have all the bases covered.
He is completely happy with all the bike-prep discussions he's had with the Team and said he understands everything and all the reasons they have done what they've done.
The 525's they are racing are almost 3QT capacity of oil and the front end (forks/wheel) are same as the 660's and the rear is modded to use 660 rear cush-drive wheel for less stress on the trans and more parts availability. Very cool.
Jonah is thinking he is on possibly the best bike for the course when you figure in the 95MPH speed limit and the probability of the course being a little more technical than usual.

Jonah is super happy with how things are going and it sounds like RallyPanAm is doing an excellent job!

Good luck guys!