Honda launches fresh assault on Endurance World Championship

Honda has revealed it will contest the 2014 FIM Endurance World Championship with an all-new rider line-up and the aim of securing the title victory. French endurance racing experts Julien Da Costa, Sebastien Gimbert and Freddy Foray, pictured, will form a formidable three-man squad for the five-round series, competing aboard the 2014 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade.
 
The three riders have an impressive collective track record in EWC, with no fewer than seven championship titles between them. Da Costa is a three-time EWC champion – most recently in 2013 – and has placed first at the Le Mans 24-hour three times and the Bol d’Or 24-hour twice. The 32-year-old was also French Superbike Champion in 2012.
 
Foray, 29, meanwhile secured back-to-back Endurance World Championships in 2010 and 2011 and is familiar with the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade, having competed in the 2013 German IDM series and the final two rounds of the 2013 British Superbike season aboard the machine.  
 
Gimbert also has a history with Honda. He raced for official Honda teams from 1995-2001 and starting his endurance career with the manufacturer in 1999. The 36-year-old rider secured the EWC title in 2004 and has placed second in the championship in the last two years. He is also a double French Superbike Champion.
 
Honda’s new direction in EWC supersedes the three-year Honda TT Legends project, which has seen road-racing specialists compete in the Isle of Man TT, North West 200 and World Endurance events under the same banner with the unifying link of the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade.
 
The outfit secured some impressive results and in doing so successfully raised the profile of the Endurance World Championship and Honda’s involvement in the series. The 2014 team will continue to be run from the same UK base and will re-focus its strategy on challenging for the championship title.  
 
Meanwhile, Buildbase Honda has confirmed its full rider line-up for the forthcoming 2014 season, which includes two-time British MX2 Champion Elliott Banks-Browne.
With two highly successful championship winning seasons in MX2 under his belt, Banks-Browne will be making the transition to MX1. He will join team mates Brad Anderson and Nez parker aboard the Honda CRF450R, creating a formidable three-rider line-up for Buildbase Honda in the premier class.

Elliott Banks-Browne, 23, has a strong history of success with Honda during his youth career, where he won a number of titles before turning pro in 2006. Then in 2011, whilst on Honda, he claimed the Red Bull Pro Nationals MX2 title.

Banks-Browne will be competing for championship honours in both the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship and the Red Bull Pro Nationals Series in the MX1 class. However, Elliott’s first competitive outing on the Buildbase Honda will be in the Arenacross series in early 2014, where he will be looking to continue his winning success.
Team Suzuki Racing has just published a new behind the scenes and on-track action video from the Suzuki MotoGP Team’s 2013 testing programme on www.suzuki-racing.com.