#hrc

Honda’s electric dirt bike prototype made its racing debut this weekend in Round 8 of the All Japan Motocross Championship in Saitama, competing against 450cc gas-powered motorcycles in the IA1 class.

Despite the fact that, virus-wise, the U.S. is starting to resemble Dante’s Inferno, over in Europe things appear to be trending well. MotoGP/Dorna has been itching, for obvious reasons, to get some kind of season started and in the books. The sheer amounts of money involved in canceling an entire MotoGP season are unimaginable. They need to get a 2020 season, this kind of MotoGP Lite thing, going, and soon.

Honda Repsol rider Dani Pedrosa announced his retirement early thursday morning ahead of the ninth round of the 2018 MotoGP season at the Sachsenring. The announcement comes on the heels of a flurry of news in the MotoGP paddock with Jorge Lorenzo joining Marc Marquez next year at HRC and the proposed Yamaha Petronas team. Not to mention Pedrosa’s own scheduled press conference at the last round in Assen where the HRC rider was unable to make his announcement for whatever reason, as he had planned.

If you think the competition in MotoGP is fierce, then you haven’t seen what it’s like to race CBR250Rs in Japan. In this video, shot during the Honda Racing Thanks Day 2016, Repsol Honda MotoGP stars Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa line up alongside some of the best CBR250R Dream Cup racers Japan has to offer, at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

I’ll admit, I was one of the many who thought the 2015 MotoGP season would be a fight for second, with the phenom that is Marc Marquez destroying the world’s supply of elbow sliders en route to yet another title. If yesterday’s MotoGP season opener in Qatar was any indication, however, I should have remembered that Sundays are the only days that matter in racing. Here now are my thoughts on the race and the season to come.