INTERVIEW
P78
DAKAR RALLY FINISHER RICKY BRABEC
BY MARK KARIYA
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF HRC
I
t's perfectly natural to be a bit appre-
hensive the first time you do anything.
Most people, however, don't have a
worldwide audience watching practically
their every move when they first attempt
something new.
That, however, is what Ricky Brabec
and four other Americans faced when
they lined up in Argentina to start the
most recent edition of the Dakar Rally.
Though all five had varying degrees of
desert-racing experience, none had
every undertaken the most famous rally
raid in the world. It had been something
they'd only dreamed of before, yet there
they were, about to tackle nearly 6000
miles of unknown terrain spread out over
13 days with just a single rest day in the
middle.
It's somewhat akin to being a com-
petitive state-level high school miler
and then toeing the starting line of the
marathon at the Olympics.
Of the five Americans (Brabec, Ian
Blythe, Scott Bright, C.R. Gittere and
Alexander Smith), Brabec had the most
eyes fixed on him due to him being
picked for Team HRC Rally, Honda's fac-
tory-backed effort now in its third year.
He'd be on a genuine HRC-built Honda
CRF450 Rally that is tricker than any-
thing found in AMA Supercross where
production-based bikes are required.
Off-road racing—and especially rally
raid—seems to be the last bastion of full
DAKAR
TALKIN'
RICKY THE ROOKIE
SHARES HIS DAKAR
EXPERIENCE
