MotoGP World Championship
Repsol Honda Team
| Repsol Honda Manufacturer's name: Honda Motors Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan Current Owner: Soichiro Honda, Founder & Takeo Fujisawa, CEO First Year Racing: 1959 Team Colors: White, Red, Blue 2008 Standings: 3rd place (315 pts) Riders: 3 - Dani Pedrosa - Spain 4 - Andrea Dovizioso- Italy MotoGP World Championships: 1995 - Michael Doohan (248 pts) 1996 - Michael Doohan (309 pts) 1997 - Michael Doohan (340 pts) 1998 - Michael Doohan (260 pts) 1999 - Àlex Crivillé (267 pts) 2002 - Valentino Rossi (355 pts) 2003 - Valentino Rossi (357 pts) 2006 - Nicky Hayden (252 pts) |
The Honda team motorcycles racing entry took place in the late 1950’s when Honda participated in the Isle of Man TT classic race nevertheless some years passed before Honda could offer an improved engine with leading technologies adapted for world class racing.
In 1995 Repsol Honda riders Alex Criville, Shinichi Itoh and Mick Doohan made their first official appearance and Dohan ended up winning the World Title in Argentina. One year later Dooha manages to win the title one more time with a total of 8 wins.
In 1998 Honda top rider Dooha was crowned in Australia winning the World Championship once more. However, in 1999 Dooha suffers a very serious crash and retires over the season.
Despite the team’s early success the worst season came as of 2000 until 2003 when Nicky Hayden joined the team alongside with Valentino Rossi who at the time rode for Honda.
Short after Rossi withdrew and Dani Pedrosa replaced him in 2006 to support his team mate Hayden. During the 2007 season Pedrosa achieved two wins with an excellent overall performance managing a second place. More recently Hayden and Pedrosa continue riding for Honda during the present 2008 season.