Honda’s side-by-side racing program expands with the announcement of Team Raceco Honda, a new satellite effort that will campaign the Talon 1000R in the Championship Off-Road Series (commonly known as “Champ”), the United States’ premier short-course series. The project joins Jeff Proctor’s endurance-racing-focused Honda Factory Off-Road Racing program as an officially supported Honda side-by-side team.
Owned and managed by Jamie Campbell, the team fields Dave Mason Jr. as its primary driver. An established short-course competitor and desert racer, Mason has earned top-five Pro 2 truck finishes in Champ racing, was the 2021 Great American Short Course Pro 2 Champion, and has posted endurance-racing wins in a variety of Best in the Desert, SCORE and NORRA classes.
Campbell is the owner of Southern California-based Raceco-USA, an off-road-racing business that specializes in developing high-quality aftermarket components for Honda’s family of Talon sport side-by-sides. In recent years, Raceco has backed Talon drivers in a variety of series across the country, as a part of Honda’s Red Rider Rewards contingency program. Raceco has fielded class-winning efforts in the SCORE International Baja 1000 and 500, as well as the Best in the Desert and Ultra 4 series. This new project receives additional support from American Honda. Raceco will continue supporting additional side-by-side racers, including 2020 Dirt Sports Driver of the Year Eliott Watson and 2020 Dakar Rally motorcycle champion Ricky Brabec.
The team is based in the Mason family’s Crandon, Wisconsin, race shop, near Crandon International Raceway (a hotbed of short-course racing and host to two Champ rounds this season). The family is providing additional infrastructure for the project, including the team trucks and trailers.
Raceco Honda will campaign Champ’s Pro Stock class in Talon 1000R race vehicles. As a part of the 2023 program, the team is giving away a highly modified Honda Talon 1000R through eBay Motors. The giveaway vehicle will be displayed at a variety of motorsports events across the country, where attendees can enter to win in a raffle that will take place near the end of the year.
“For my entire 30-plus-year career, starting with racing off-road motorcycles for American Honda in the mid-’90s and then moving to four wheels soon after, I’ve wanted to launch a project like this,” said Jamie Campbell (brother of 11-time Baja 1000 motorcycle-class champion Johnny Campbell). “It’s a pleasure to be working with top-tier partners like Honda, Yokohama Tire and the Mason family, and to have support from eBay Motors. I look forward to professionally representing our stakeholders, and to showcasing the capabilities of the Honda Talon at the highest level of racing.”
“As Honda’s side-by-side business continues to grow, it’s important that our racing program expands along with it,” said Brandon Wilson, American Honda Manager of Sports & Experiential. “This is an important new project, and we couldn’t ask for a better partner than Jamie. We have a decades-long relationship with him, and it’s been gratifying to see him grow his business while focusing on the Talon. With Raceco heading up our short-course program, and Jeff Proctor’s Honda Off-Road Factory Racing effort continuing to campaign the endurance-racing circuit, we expect to have a successful showing in 2023 and beyond.”
The seven-round Champ series kicks off June 10-11 at Antigo Roaring Lions Raceway in Antigo, Wisconsin.
