Dakar Rally Daily - Episode 02: Ricky Brabec Interview

Dakar Rally Daily

Ricky Brabec should need little introduction to American race fans. As the first American to win the notoriously brutal Dakar Rally, Brabec put his Monster Energy Honda Rally bike on the top of the most elusive step in motorcycle sport - an accomplishment that is hard to describe in scale or challenge.

Americans have tried to win this race, and a few have even landed on the overall podium, but the challenges the Dakar Rally serves up simply kept Americans from winning until Brabec and Honda made it happen in early 2020.

It certainly wasn't an easy road to get there. In fact, Brabec DNF'd three years in a row after finishing 9th overall his first attempt in 2016. That's a DNF in 2017, 2018, and while leading the rally in 2019. So, 2020's win was certainly sweet and, from Brabec's standpoint, almost easy in comparison.

Brabec himself is the first to admit that the complexities of Dakar make the race a crazy, crazy place. And that a lot of luck goes into being first. But, as we learned in our interview, Brabec and the rest of the American rally racers are working harder than ever to start their own winning legacy.

So, how did he win and how is he going to win again? It turns out it has a lot to do with feeling at home in the desert and reading the terrain faster than the others. Oh, and he's probably training harder than anyone else.

Brabec brings his honest and refreshingly blunt opinions and insight to this interview covering topics from training with Jimmy Lewis, building and riding roadbooks with Andrew Short, having Johnny Campbell, Kendall Norman, and Eric Siraton in his corner and more.

And if you want some real insight into Dakar's new tire rules, slower navigation, roadbook handouts in the morning, and more, Brabec tells it to us straight including his thoughts on the in-team dynamics and "teamwork", or lack thereof, inside the pits.

Settle in and enjoy this long talk with a living legend of American motorcycle racing. Plus, he tells us what it's like to have an airbag vest go off when he went over the bars at Glamis!

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Dakar Rally Daily is produced and edited by Jesse Ziegler, and hosted by Quinn Cody and Jesse Ziegler.