Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 10:58AM Ricky Brabec cements his lead in the overall standings as the final day of the 2024 Dakar Rally awaits for the Monster Energy Honda Team riders.
Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 10:51AM 
Dave and Marty Smith celebrating a win!
Legends and Heroes, along with their spokesman Broc Glover, is proud to announce that they will honor Dave Arnold at the San Diego Supercross on January 20th., 2024.
For nearly 50 years, Dave has been one of the motorcycle industry icons since beginning his career at Honda in the mid-1970s. Soon after he began at Honda he started working with Marty Smith, who won the ‘74 and ‘75 125cc titles, as well as the ‘77 500 championship. Fast forward 50 years and Dave is still at it, working with Triumph Motorcycles in the development of their new motocross line.
• Dave was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2021
• Working with Roger De Coster, Dave organized an all-Honda effort comprising riders Donnie Hansen, Danny LaPorte, Johnny O’Mara, and Chuck Sun and scored Team USA’s first win in the Motocross des Nations and Trophee des Nations.
• Dave has a long list of motocross and supercross titles with riders including David Bailey, Rick Johnson, Ron Lechien, Jean-Michel Bayle, Jeff Stanton and Jeremy McGrath.
Parade Lap of Champions to Honor Dave Arnold
Dave Arnold’s contribution to the sport has led to numerous world championships and paved the way for successes enjoyed by every manufacturer today. With the suggestion from Feld Entertainment, Legends and Heroes has invited many of Dave Arnold’s friends and former teammates to join us in this celebration and will be doing a parade lap around the racetrack at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium. The parade lap will feature about 20 past champions of our sport. Riders like Lars Larson, Broc Glover, Tommy Croft, Gary Chaplin, Rex Staton, and Grant Langston to name a few. Four-time National Champion David Bailey, and Monster Energy Supercross announcer Danny Hubbard will handle rider introductions. These past champions will be riding vintage motorcycles in period correct gear.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 3:09PM Honda Dominates Dakar
The 2024 Dakar Rally continues to be a Honda dream event with the team’s sixth stage victory today. Teammates Adrien Van Beveren, Ricky Brabec and Pablo Quintanilla went 1-2-3 on the day and now occupy three of the top four spots overall. Ricky Brabec continues to have near perfect rides from day to day, always close to the front but never getting a stage victory and therefore never having to start first. His lead in the overall standings has now grown to 7 minutes, although Hero’s Ross Branch won’t let go of second overall and is the only fly in the Honda ointment.
Ricky Brabec
Ricky Brabec: “Today was possibly one of my only shots to make a big push and try to make a bit bigger gap than forty or fifty seconds so I gave it my all today. I think tomorrow we’re probably going to have to open but if I can clean up I think we’ll be set free. In the 2020 Dakar I pulled a gap early on and this has definitely been the most stressful race of my life because it’s so close. Anyway, with a few more days to go, let’s keep the hopes up and keep charging.”
Jacob Argubright: “Little bit of a bittersweet day for me. Rode really well and finished P15… but I missed my first waypoint ever and the penalty put me back to P23. I still had a really fun day on the bike so I’m going to continue bringing that energy into the last 3 stages!”
Kyle McCoy
Kyle McCoy is the U.S. service veteran who is riding in his third Dakar. Currently, he is running 12th in the Originals By Motul classification, which allows no outside assistance. On social media, he recently posted his account of a harrowing incident on Stage 7: “I came over the crest of a very large dune right as the cars caught up to us in the mid pack. When I came to the bottom of the dune I dropped the bike in the sand. I was in the main line of traffic when this happened (which I normally avoid for this reason) so I rushed to pick it up and get going. Only the bike didn’t start. I ran up the dune as fast as possible on all fours clawing at the sand to mark my position with my helmet right as one of the lead cars was coming at me. Then I ran back down as cars and bikes came through all around me. It took me a while until it was quiet and I realized I couldn’t hear the fuel pump when I pressed the starter. All this happened in a very chaotic,sweaty and loud way. Then a nice French man came on the phone from Paris to my bike and asked if I was okay. I said yes it was mechanical. He then asked “How long will it take you?” What??!!!! I said I had no idea. 5 min later he said it again and then again until I shouted to the nice French guy I needed him to shut up. I said it with more direct language than that :)… he was just doing his job though. I then remembered it’s usually the fuel tank selector (front to rear) when you don’t hear the fuel pump and there’s a bypass created by BAS Dakar that I had on me. I took it apart and plugged it in and voila. I’ve done some stressful things (like all of us) but this was top 5 in my life. The low and high were so extreme I can’t express it in words.”
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 3:06PM 5 X World Champion testing the new HRC CRF
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 10:11AM
2024 KX450 SKID PLATE
Retail $ 94.95
Part # 10-299
Features:
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 9:44AM 
Kevin Benavides has won stage eight of the 2024 Dakar Rally ahead of his brother Luciano Benavides and Adrien Van Beveren while Ricky Brabec extended his advantage in the overall standings.
Thankfully for the riders, stage eight at Dakar lessened the intensity a little with the 458-kilometer timed special split into two – a 179-kilometer liaison joining the two very different halves. The first leg consisted mainly of sandy tracks and dunes, but the second half posed more of a challenge with stones and rocks covering much of the final 119 kilometers leading to the finish in Ha’il.
Times were tight on the stage, with the top six riders separated by less than two and a half minutes. defending Champion Kevin Benavides came out on top, however, skillfully navigating his way through the special to complete the day’s racing 31 seconds ahead of his brother, Luciano. Retaining his fifth place ranking in the provisional overall standings, Kevin continues to close in on the rally leaders, stage by stage.
“It has been a really good day today – I really enjoyed the ride,” Benavides said. “The stage was split into two with the first part more sandy tracks and dunes, but with a lot of navigation. And the second part was more stone and mountains. The two guys opening the stage – my brother and Nacho (Cornejo) – did a really good job, but I was able to catch them both by the end. I’m so proud to win the stage and have a 1-2 with my brother. It means I’ll be opening tomorrow, so hopefully I will do a good job. I’ll give it my all as always.”
Starting just behind his main rival on stage eight, Rally leader Ricky Brabec pulled out the stops to lead most of the day increasing the gap at one point to over three minutes over second placed Ross Branch, but after 400 km of the special he had dropped behind his teammate Adrien Van Beveren that lost him time in the final 50 kms to end the day in seventh. Having caught Branch early on he rode with him for the majority of the day not letting the Botswanan out of his sights as he opened up his overall standings lead to 42 seconds.
” didn’t want to start too far away from Ross tomorrow so I had to play a little bit of cat and mouse with him,” Brabec explained. “I caught him early on so stuck with him all day, then at the refuelling point I saw some times and I was winning. I let Ross take over and open the way to the finish line as we had to play smart today and I didn’t want him starting behind me tomorrow. It was still a good day to finish seventh and I’ll continue to have fun out there.”
With riders spending the night next to Ha’il airport, they will take off for stage nine towards AlUla which makes a return to the route on this year’s Dakar. The fascinating ancient city will welcome the riders after a total 639 km distance, 417 km of which will test them to their limits with complicated navigation and rocky expanses keeping them on their toes.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 9:38AM Jorge Prado has performed respectably in his Monster Energy Supercross adventure. The adverse weather conditions provided him with quite the opportunity in San Francisco's Bay Area and he grabbed that with both hands – his heat race win will be remembered for months.
Monday, January 15, 2024 at 10:16AM 
After Anaheim one it looked like the story was set. Jett Lawrence was the man to beat and Chase Sexton and Eli Tomac weren’t on the pace they needed to be to challenge, and by the time they got there it looked like Jett could have a comfortable points lead unless Cooper Webb on Jason Anderson kept their good form and roughed him up or Ken Roczen got around a first turn free or incident. Either way, Jett looked in control no matter what was thrown at him.
Then the mud changed the plans and the momentum. Jorge Prado even won his first ever heat race in a close battle over Chase Sexton as both surprisingly walked away from Jett Lawrence who crashed twice, then crashed again in the main for a ninth place, again behind Prado but more importantly, three of his biggest title rivals all made the podium.
We may have found Jett Lawrence’ only (temporary?) weakness – mud. While at the same time, Eli Tomac had a great rebound in second, Ken Roczen came through the field again, this time to third and an increasingly confident Chase Sexton dominated in the mud with the best start of his life – how did he do that?!
Sexton even said he actually wished it was dry such is the progress with his new KTM over the last two weeks. Chase saying in the press conference he got the back end sorted before A1 and felt that last week they got the forks sorted. The win and the red plate will only add to his confidence. He know believes he can match Jett on pace and is better than he was last year on the Honda – and he is talking about dry supercross tracks. He looks confident again and believes he’s back to the level he knows he can and should be at.
So, round three might be the new round one. Webb and Anderson know they are fast in the dry, Jett is already saying he wants to win this weekend to right the wrongs of San Francisco, but for the first time since he has been on a 450 he has somewhat lost momentum – or has he? This is a new situation for Jett Lawrence. Let’s see how he responds.
The mud has let Chase Sexton get back to the front of the series, he admitted to gatedrop he didn’t expect to be at this level so fast in the series, he’s there and he’s ready to battle Jett, and so is Eli Tomac who erased most of the gap Jett got on him at A1. He admitted he just rode poorly and then made a bike change last week, so in the dry and back in the points mix, Tomac will be looking to get back to his best. And we have Ken Roczen back on the box and proven fast whether it’s wet or dry this year. If he can finally get around the first lap without a crash or a stall as happened the last two weekend’s, watch out.
Everything has been reset. All the main players will believe they are ready to win now. Jett feels he has to reestablish himself as the man while Chase Sexton wants to prove he still is and the rest want in on the party. The battle is on.
Anaheim one in 2005 ruined the entire season. It gave Ricky Carmichael a solid championship lead instantly over Chad Reed who DNF’d and struggling Stewart in the mud. Both never recovered, with a desperate Stewart breaking his arm in practice the next weekend pushing too hard to impress in the dry after an extra week’s wait for the most anticipated race ever. Chad Reed won races but could never get the points back to level. RC could control, the rest were instantly on the back foot. The mud ruined 2005 but it has made 2024 – at least for round three.
San Diego is the place to be on Saturday night!
Words: Jonathan McCready
Monday, January 15, 2024 at 9:33AM 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monday, January 15, 2024 at 7:47AM 
The second week of the Dakar 2024 was kicked off with José Ignacio Cornejo cementing his status as one of the favourites for the top step in Yanbu as he put in a flawless ride. The Monster Energy Honda Team riders were refreshed after a rest day in Riyadh and if they were expecting an easier return on stage seven then the organisers had other plans. The 483 km special was going to feature some perplexing navigation on small winding gravel tracks around eye-catching canyons, off-piste wadis, a couple of dune sections and adding to this was a total 390 km of liaison as they headed to Al Duwadimi.
Cornejo went into this final week just out of the podium positions, his teammate Adrien Van Beveren had taken the final spot after his faultless 48 Hour Chrono win so the Chilean’s aim was to get back in the hunt. In spite of a small fall he carved out over a three minute gap to reigning World Rally-Raid champion Luciano Benavides. Achieving his goal he is now back into third, just six minutes 48 seconds off leader Ricky Brabec.
As the 2020 Dakar Rally winner and with vast experience in the world of rally-raid, Brabec has been consistent since the start in AlUla where he’s been in the top three of the overall standings before nabbing the top spot after the 48 Hour Chrono on Friday. Catching teammate Adrien Van Beveren and Toby Price during the stage today, he joined in for a share of the bonuses gaining nearly four minutes. His fifth place finish was just enough to keep him at the top of the overall standings by the narrowest of margins to Ross Branch. An astonishing single second separates them after 32 hours of rallying!
First one out onto the stage, Adrien Van Beveren was always going to find it a tough ask to not lose time today. After conquering the dunes at the end of last week, a change of terrain and complicated navigation saw him end the day in a very frustrating ninth. Despite the stage six winner hoovering up over five minutes in bonuses, the gap to Brabec in the overall standings has increased to over fourteen minutes and has dropped him off the podium. A better starting position tomorrow should help to rectify things.
The 48 Hour Chrono derailed Pablo Quintanilla’s shot at overall victory and although his aim was to end the rally strongly for world championship points, he suffered another setback today 112 km into the stage. Suffering from a mechanical issue he eventually got to the finish line two and half hours behind Cornejo on a long day for the Chilean rider.
The intensity of this 46th edition of the Dakar continues as the team heads into the final five days of rallying with a total of 678 km on the bike tomorrow, 458 km making up the special stage. Although the organisers have said stage eight from Al Duwadimi to Ha’il will be easier than the previous days, rocky terrain is back on the route tomorrow and it won’t favour every rider.
Luciano Benavides, thoroughly rejuvenated following the rest day, battled through the extensive and challenging stage seven of the 2024 Dakar Rally to secure the second-fastest time. Maintaining his eighth-place position in the provisional overall rankings, the Husqvarna Factory Racing rider now has his sights set on carrying his momentum and speed into day eight of the race.
It was another challenging day in the desert for all competitors as the 2024 Dakar Rally headed into week two. With a total distance of 873 kilometres ahead of him, Benavides set off into the stage well-rested after his day off. The time to relax and regroup undoubtedly paid off for the Argentinian. Sixth into the special, Luciano got his head down and pushed hard right from the start.
Maintaining a consistent speed throughout the challenging 483-kilometre special, which took competitors along winding, rocky paths before transitioning into a stretch of dunes, Benavides steadily improved his position to ultimately secure his runner-up finish. The excellent result ensures the FR 450 Rally rider retained his eighth-place position in the overall rankings with five stages left to complete.
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Kevin Benavides has finished third on a tough and physically demanding seventh stage at the 2024 Dakar Rally. The KTM 450 RALLY racer now lies fifth overall in the provisional standings. Also delivering a strong performance on the long stage, Toby Price posted the eighth fastest time and sits one place behind his teammate in sixth overall.
Returning to action following their well-deserved rest day, riders were immediately put to the test as they tackled the longest stage of this year’s event – the 873-kilometer stage seven. After initially navigating through a maze of canyons and rocky tracks, competitors then faced an intense section of dunes to complete the 483-kilometer timed special.
Following on from his seventh-place result on the rally’s 48-hour marathon stage, Benavides used today’s later start position to the best of his advantage, pushing hard with the goal of chasing down the riders ahead. Midway through the special, Kevin moved into the top two on the timesheets, locked in a closely fought battle for the lead. Crossing the line as second-fastest, a subsequent three-minute penalty knocked him down to third. However, the Argentinian’s result was still strong enough to elevate him up to fifth overall in the provisional standings.
As the second rider to enter stage seven, Price soon caught up with the one rider ahead of him and assisted in opening the special. Despite not making too many errors, and accumulating close to four minutes in bonus time, Toby ultimately lost out on the rider behind following in his wheel tracks. Completing the stage in eighth place, the Australian now lies sixth in the overall standings with five days left to race.
After enjoying a little down time on yesterday’s Dakar Rally rest day, Daniel Sanders was back in action today on stage seven and clocked in with the sixth-fastest time. Starting from fourth into the special, sixth is certainly a solid result with the Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing star remaining seventh overall and positive of even better days ahead.
Feeling fresh after delivering an outstanding result on the chrono stage and making the most of the Dakar Rally rest day, Sanders certainly came out swinging on stage seven. Even though he didn’t have the most favorable starting position after placing fourth on Friday, Chucky dug deep to deliver another strong result. By relying on his roadbook early on then following the dust kicked up by the leading riders, Daniel would ultimately finish the 483-kilometer timed special as the sixth-fastest rider.
