Race Nation Honda Claims Cham­pi­onship and Titles At Koue Bokkeveld 400 on their Houser Rac­ing & Elka Sus­pen­sion & HMF pow­ered machines

Race Nation Honda’s Dirkie Baard is the 2009 Pro 450 Class cham­pion and has won the over­all quad cat­e­gory of the SA National Off-road Quad Cham­pi­onship after win­ning the Koue Bokkeveld 400, the final round of the cham­pi­onship held in the Ceres area in the West­ern Cape this past week­end (16 and 17 October).

This is the sec­ond race Baard has won this sea­son and he has added this vic­tory to his his­tor­i­cal win of the Quad Roof of Africa ear­lier this year in Lesotho when he became the first for­eign off-road quad racer to win this tra­di­tional event. Except for the dou­ble vic­to­ries, Baard has also added three more over­all runner-up results to his tally and has the SA National Quad MX cham­pi­onship to add to his 2009 accolades.

The 21 year-old Namib­ian posted the fastest time after the qual­i­fy­ing time-trial of the Koue Bokkeveld 400 on Fri­day (16 Octo­ber) and started the 380 kilo­me­tre race from pole posi­tion. A crash early into the race as well as a flat tyre could not keep him from remain­ing at the front for almost the whole race and he beat the 2008 over­all quad win­ner, Brian Barag­wanath, to the finnish.

There were more podium posi­tions for Race Nation Honda with the ever con­sis­tent Juan Coet­zee fin­ish­ing fourth over­all in the West­ern Cape to con­firm his sec­ond place on the over­all stand­ings for 2009 putting Race Nation Honda at the top of the over­all quad stand­ings for the season.

Coet­zee also claimed the third place in the Pro 450 Class cham­pi­onship and has added these podium posi­tions to his third place in the Pro 450 Class of the SA national Quad MX Cham­pi­onship and the runner-up place in the North­ern Regions Quad MX Championship.

A very suc­cess­ful rac­ing sea­son was rounded off by Race Nation Quad Rev­o­lu­tion’s Paulo Costa who brought his Honda TRX700XX home in sixth place in the Open Class at the Koue Bokkeveld 400. This result, how­ever, put him third in the Open Class Cham­pi­onship for the 2009 sea­son and added another cham­pi­onship podium posi­tion to Race Nation Honda’s quad rac­ing list.

Dirkie Baard: 2009 Pro 450 Class Cham­pion and over­all win­ner of the off-road quad category:

“This is like a dream come true. It was not easy to win some of South Africa’s tough­est off-road races and to com­pete against the coun­try’s best rac­ers and for that I have to thank my spon­sors, Race Nation Honda and Pup­ke­witz Honda in Namibia as well as Quad Rev­o­lu­tion for their support. It was dif­fi­cult to leave Namibia to race in South Africa and I would like to thank my fam­ily who trav­elled all the way from Namibia to my races in South Africa,and the great prod­ucts on my quad like my new Houser Pro series a-arms together with my Elka Fac­tory shocks made it all eas­ier for me to win”

Juan Coet­zee: Runner-up in the over­all off-road quad cat­e­gory & third in Pro 450 classs:

“It was a priv­i­lege to com­pete for Honda Race Nation on my HMF pow­ered TRX450R that brought me home race after race. It tack­led the tough­est of ter­rains, which was made eas­ier to tra­verse across with the com­bi­na­tion of my Elka fac­tory  and Houser Pro series sus­pen­sion. My thanks go to my spon­sors Race Nation Honda, Quad Rev­o­lu­tion and HDM Pro­duc­tions for believ­ing in me and my par­ents who sac­ri­ficed their time to sup­port me at the races.”

Quote from André Strauss, Man­ager Team Race Nation Honda:

“We are delighted to win another national cham­pi­onship with Dirkie. Juan Coet­zee and Paulo Costa also made us proud and both fin­ished an extremely com­pet­i­tive 2009 sea­son on the podium. They have claimed cham­pi­onships titles by com­bin­ing their tal­ents and com­mit­ment with the Honda’s reli­a­bil­ity, tough­ness and capa­bil­i­ties. I would like to thank Honda South Africa, Cas­trol, Streamline,Elka sus­pen­sion & HMF Per­for­mance for their sup­port this sea­son”