The 2013 Dakar Rally will again be held in South America with event organizers announcing a new route for the 34th running of the off-road race. Now in its fifth year in Latin America, the 2013 edition of the Rally will feature a new route running from north to south, starting Jan. 5 in Lima, Peru, and ending Jan. 20 in Santiago, Chile.

The new route puts the desert portion of the course in the first few days of the Dakar Rally, the first time the event has ever started in a desert. The course follows the Pacific coast before turning inland, briefly traversing Chile before crossing the Andes into Argentina which offers a mix of terrain towards San Miguel de Tucumán for the midpoint of the Rally.

After a day of rest in San Miguel de Tucumán, the Dakar Rally continues south towards Córdoba before turning northwest and through the Andes again back to Chile before again following the Pacific coast southward towards the finish in Santiago. The entire course spans about 5000 miles of challenging terrain for the 459 entries registered for this year’s race. Continue Reading »

Honda announced it will enter a works team in the 2013 Dakar Rally‘s motorcycle class, returning to the event for the first time in 23 years.

The Japanese manufacturer competed in the Rally from 1981 to 1989 when it was known as the Paris-Dakar Rally. Honda won five times during that period but then stopped entering its own team. The 2013 Dakar Rally will represent the first time Honda has entered a team in the motorcycle class since the race moved from Europe and Africa to South America in 2009.

Honda will enter a new prototype machine based on the CRF450X, which itself has a winning tradition in Baja racing. The prototype will be produced by Honda’s Motorccyle R&D Center. Honda will also develop kit parts for the standard CRF450X to be offered to other Dakar teams. Continue Reading »