Encouraging Debut For Honda
CR Electric Proto
H
onda debuted its CR Electric
Proto at the eighth round of
the All Japan Motocross Cham-
pionship on October 29, 2023. Al-
though Team Honda HRC advisor
and test rider Trey Canard crashed
twice in the three-moto format
race, the battery-powered moto-
crosser showed a lot of promise.
Canard and the Proto easily
qualified Saturday for Sunday's
race. Canard had the second-
fastest time after Sunday morn
-
ing's practice. In the first moto
(the premier IA1 class), Canard
had a solid and steady race and
finished second. En route, Ca
-
nard was just 0.7 seconds off the
quickest lap time of the race.
After taking the holeshot in the
second moto, Canard went down
and did not finish the race.
Canard again took the hole-
shot in race three and, while
leading early in the race, went
down on the heavily rutted track,
ending the Proto's debut.
Honda said it was a success
-
ful and encouraging debut for the
CR Electric Proto—a weekend that
provided valuable data for the
ongoing development of Honda's
all-electric motocross initiative.
"This weekend was definitely a
big challenge for me, but it was a
great race for our development,"
said Canard. "Each time I was on
the track, we improved the motor
-
cycle, and the CR Electric Proto
team adapted to the challenge. We
had some shines of brilliance as a
team, the starts being one of them,
with two of the three holeshots.
There were also some sections on
the track that were very impressive,
and that makes me excited for the
future of this motorcycle. I'm disap
-
pointed not to finish all of the motos
after all of the hard work the team
has put in, but I think we showed
that the potential of the bike is quite
high, especially for our very first
attempt at racing. I'm grateful to
be a part of this effort, and I'm very
proud of each and every person
who has worked so hard."
Taichi Honda, Team HRC Team
Manager, said, "We had three
heats for the first time today, and
we will take what we learned from
each race and feed it back to the
ongoing development of the CR
Electric project."
CN
VOLUME ISSUE OCTOBER , P21
Trey Canard (41) raced the CR
Electric Proto in the All-Japan
National MX series and holeshot
two of the three motos.