Ryan Nitzen | October 29, 2023
Encouraging Debut For Honda CR Electric Proto
Honda debuted its CR Electric Proto at the eighth round of the All Japan Motocross Championship on October 29, 2023. Although Team Honda HRC advisor and test rider Trey Canard crashed twice in the three-moto format race, the battery-powered motocrosser showed a lot of promise.
Canard and the Proto easily qualified Saturday for Sunday’s race. Canard had the second-fast time after Sunday morning’s practice. In the first moto (the premier IA1 class), Canard had a solid and steady race and finished second. En route, Canard 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 holeshot 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 successful 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 motorcycle, 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 disappointed 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.”
Press Release
Whoa, we did not see this coming. News broke this morning that Honda will debut a new electric motocross bike next month at round eight of the All Japan Motocross Championship. The “CR Electric Proto” gets a wildcard entry and will be raced by none other than American Trey Canard.
Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) announced that it will enter the electric motocrosser CR ELECTRIC PROTO in the D.I.D All Japan Motocross Championship 2023 Round 8, Saitama Toyopet Cup, in the IA1 class, to be held at Off Road Village (Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture) on October 28 and 29.
This will be Honda’s first attempt to enter a Honda-developed electric motorcycle in an official race, and will make a wildcard appearance as Team HRC, operated by HRC. Trey Canard (33 years old), 2010 AMA Pro Motocross 250 class champion and current team advisor for American Honda Motor Co., Inc., will ride the CR ELECTRIC PROTO at the event.