You think the Honda desert race teams divulge secrets or Honda is going to change the UTV desert race scene? LOL!
Rusty mentioned the 'TT' team
not Honda's desert race team. Nobody said anything about Honda's "secrets", Honda divulging any or Honda "changing the desert race scene". If Honda's
road race team (Rusty's comment) won even one race
with a less than established driver (my comment as Honda didn't even use a recognizable face for their campaign) an apple cart would definitely be upset (scenario driven fact).
"...one race does not disrupt the apple cart. Winning multiple race disrupts the apple cart. Look how long it took Can Am to get to a point they have almost as many cars entered as Polaris...."
A single Honda win with this car might not disrupt
your cart...yet it would certainly result in some sleepless nights for a few product engineers/CEOs who have bet the farm that Honda would not be a player in this market. As in life, winning races every day is not the measure of a man or what he creates. The average consumer couldn't tell you who won what, where, when or why.
"...By the way a trophy truck driver racing a UTV in the desert is not a receipt for success. They drive them like they are a trophy truck and break them. Have you seen a Wildcat XX successfully race in the desert with a trophy truck or truck racer behind the wheel? Only success in the desert for them was when a UTV racer drove it...."
Agreed. I'm hoping that one of the Honda engineers or hourly employees who builds these/races them on occasion climbs in to one someday and beats both. The sport needs a JoeSixPack winner that they can relate to with the GNCC now a distant memory (no disrespect meant to anyone in particular) and possibly Honda can find her (preferably, as who doesn't love to witness a female adding insult to injury).
I don't see Honda getting into a desert race program. A short course race program to compete against the YXZ is where I think they will head. Maybe they have someone race one at the King of the Hammers where a turbo car is not going to blow it away.
They might not with the GNCC now history and obviously no one caring all that much. Why stick a bunch of money in to racing programs (not all but most) that really don't care much about enforcing rules, safety in general or where races are even held? I can't see much that I would stake a company's honor around there (which the Japanese at least have 'some' sense of) and I'm of the opinion that more bad publicity will be forthcoming not to mention
preventable safety-related carnage.
Honda would have to offer big money to entice one of the established UTV teams to make the switch. Most of the bigger money teams are in turbo cars.
With Honda's focus on culture, I can't see them offering anything to any team who didn't match what they stand for closely which would be a pretty far stretch given the sport's history to date. Few teams stood for anything resembling respectful culture, community or even safety when they freely posted here over the years before many were told not to. This might have been part and parcel responsible for Honda never reaching out to established figures publicly when developing/unveiling this car as has been done in the past. I'm not sure either that Honda is necessarily in to the 'party' atmosphere which has developed around this sport with no reins put on the fun whatsoever (again, culture and reputation being a long guarded methodology to success for them).
We'll see.