WWW.DAKAR.COM I am getting excited about the race coming in a week. I was looking over the list of competitors and it looks like Husqvarna has 15 entries out of 153 bikes. Our brand has had some good riders in years past. Hopefully one of these can step up and take a podium. One of the Husqvarna riders this year is Alexander Smith. Here is a little bio on him. Out of the many promising newcomers on the Dakar, one should certainly keep an eye on Alexander Smith. Not only is he the son of Malcolm Smith, a legend in US off-road racing (6 Baja 1000 wins) as well as an actor alongside Steve McQueen in the bike documentary « On Any Sunday », and 4th of the Dakar in 1988 in a range Rover. He's also a very fast and competitive rider. Alex will be discovering the rally at age 30 and will be part of the HT Husqvarna Rally Raid squad. Several time winner of the Baja 1000 in the Ironman class (solo), He knows he'll have to adapt to the Dakar and would be « devastated » not to finish it… On other news, we do have another hopeful from USA. With such a teammates as Barreda and Concalves he will need to show that he is a front runner early or he may just end up lending support at the end. The latest US wonder kid to show up on the Dakar will be Ricky Brabec. At only 24 years of age, the Californian has already captured the three most prestigious titles in US desert racing: the Hare & Hound, Best in the Desert and Score, thanks to triumphs in the Baja 1000, Baja 500 and San Felipe 250. And it wasn't really a surprise when the HRC team turned to him for the Dakar. Brabec will indeed be competing on one of the best bikes of the field and will have at his side references such as Paulo Gonçalves and Joan Barreda. Another interesting story is about a couple other USA entries. Bright Scott and Blythe Ian are friends that are living the dream to compete in the Dakar rally. Without a large team it will be hard to compete but I am certainly interested in how this duo stands at the end. If you have not followed the Dakar before now I can certainly understand. It has been one of these events that is slightly televised, almost not even news worthy in the world of racing. In recent years NBCSN has stepped up and put a 30 minute segment on for each day of the rally. It is alright, but between the four classes that are racing it does not give much time to go into detail on any class and leaves you wanting more at the end of each show. I will try to add a little to this thread an I encourage others to do the same.
Toby Price is looking like he will have a good chance now that he is with Red Bull KTM. It will be strange this year without Coma and Despres.
Rooting for the rally pan am team. Scott Bright and Ian Blythe are locals, hoping they kick everyone's ass lol
I like his quote "No one said this was gonna be easy!" I like Antoine Meo's chances since he has some great enduro expeience. It is too bad that he does not go back to the Husqvarna brand that gave him all the opportunities that brought him here.
http://dualsport-sd.com/forums/index.php?/topic/21128-dakar-2016-newsbikesetc/?p=205556 I posted this on our local site TE125 Rally Machine
Malcolm's son Alexander Smith, he's a strong runner seen him on the course in Tecate. http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2016/us/rider/103.html
Im wondering if that bike (TE125) is a "demo" bike because I cant find it in the entry list all Huskys are 450 Rally machines on the list.
I found it on the RS concept FB page it looks like they are in as number 111 with Sylvain Espinasse as the rider
He did some kind of pro racing series in south america last year. Pretty cool experience for him I'm sure. Watched him at our local series, crazy the difference with other local pros
For anyone that doesn't know, you can also download the app, just search dakar 2016. Get the latest updates
It will be interesting how they handle this this delay. I think I counted 6 Husqvarna bikes within a minute on the short prologue. I think that the Honda team is going to be the team to beat this year. Hopefully Ricky can show some promise in the coming stages so he does not get relegated to support for the team. It is good to see that the Husqvarna rider matched the leaders time. I cant wait to see the update tomorrow on NBCSN. Robert: Thank you for finding out that interesting fact that we have a 125 in the field. I wonder if it is a true 125. He did not fare well on the opening prologue. I am not sure that a 125 can hang with the competition but it is always exciting to see someone trying to do something different. On other news...I heard that a Mini rally car ran into the spectators. From what I read it does not sound like there is any fatalities. Let pray for the competitors and the spectators of this amazing event.
