Team HRC – MXGP

Team HRC – MXGP

Team HRC is the factory Honda outfit in the FIM Motocross World Championship, known as MXGP. The 2015 season marks the second year of the HRC name in modern motocross, since Honda Racing Corporation’s high-profile return to the sport at the start of 2014 after more than 20 years away.

The team was originally established as the Martin Honda squad in the 1980’s by Paolo Martin and his brother, and has since developed into an integral part of the MXGP paddock. In 2011 the squad was renamed the Honda World Motocross team, a reflection of the Japanese marque’s increasing presence in the sport, and the elevation to factory outfit is the natural culmination of Honda’s drive to return to the glory years of HRC’s past.

This is the latest chapter in a long and successful history in the Motocross World Championship, in which Honda have sealed a raft of 125, 250 and 500 MX world titles in a period of domination that started with Graham Noyce’s 500cc title in 1979 and was continued into the 1980s with the likes of Andre Malherbe, Dave Thorpe, Eric Geboers, Georges Jobe and Jean-Michel Bayle to name a few.

Indeed, 12 500cc World Titles were delivered on Honda machinery between 1979 and 1992, including nine in a row from 1984 and podium clean-sweeps in 1985, 1986 and 1989, and a further five titles in the 250cc and 125cc classes in the same period. The last World Championship on a Honda came at the hands of Klemen Gercar in 2013, in the MX3 category.

The team’s Honda CRFs received the designation CRF450RW in 2014, marking the bikes as Works machines. Totally redesigned in 2013, the bike has since undergone extensive testing and development with HRC’s engineers at the technical helm, bringing with them the wealth of experience and success of HRC and Honda’s R&D department in Japan.

In 2015, Honda stalwart of six seasons Evgeny Bobryshev once again will climb aboard the big red bike, and is joined by new signing Gautier Paulin, who returns to the team having started his European career with Martin Honda in 2007.