Podium Finish For Honda Baja Ridgeline in Nevada

• Honda Baja Ridgeline finishes third overall in Nevada    
• First podium finish for Ridgeline after moving to the premier Unlimited category in 2024

The Honda Off-Road Racing Team took on the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, this weekend, with the Honda Baja Ridgeline truck driven by Ethan Ebert finishing third in the Unlimited Truck category – the first podium finish for Honda since moving up to the premier division of off-road racing full time for the 2024 season.

After qualifying 12th, Ebert and navigator Gatlan Haddon took the Baja Ridgeline on a nearly flawless run through four laps of the 95.5-mile course, run near the Nevada-California border south of Las Vegas to secure their first podium result of 2024. Running fifth as the race entered its final stages, Ebert and Haddon took advantage of the misfortune of others to move into third, then survived a last-lap double flat incident with a quick tire change to secure their podium result with a total time of 7:41:46.127 for the race.

The impressive result was the second race for the latest generation Honda Baja Ridgeline in its new Honda Racing Corporation USA colors, and the third for the latest-generation Ridgeline, which debuted late last season to compete in the top category for unlimited race trucks.

Quotes

Jeff Proctor (team principal, Honda Off-Road Racing Team): "I couldn't be happier with the final results of the Honda Ridgeline's Mint 400. Everything clicked. Driver, navigator, crew, engineers – everyone. HRC brought a full team of engineers to support the team. They were all over the truck telemetry and continue to help us wring everything we can out of this engine to compete against the bigger horsepower engines in our class. They've embraced the engineering challenge and it's special for the team to be a part of watching technology developed in the Honda Baja Ridgeline make its way to the street."

Ethan Ebert (driver Honda Baja Ridgeline Race Truck) finished third: "Words can't describe how I'm feeling after this race weekend. We started the race with some work cut out for us. However, the first lap started off strong with us beating the truck we started next to, which gave us some clean air to chase down the guys in front.  We held our own by coming back to the main pit stop sitting 5th in class from just the first lap, from there we made our way through the super tough desert of Nevada and kept on going. Gatlan [Haddon, navigator] was on point all day and amazing with every single call, we came across the line in third place in TT, a first for this Honda team! I can't thank the team and [team owner Jeff] Proctor enough for getting us such a fast race truck and all the support we could ever ask for!  Now it's on to Baja and this time we're looking for silver or gold!"

Fast Fact

• The Honda Off-Road Racing program began in 2015 with a class win in the Baja 1000. The Honda Baja Ridgeline has gone on to record 17 class victories in 39 races.  For 2024, the Baja Ridgeline has moved up to the premier Unlimited category.

Next

The next race for the Honda Off-Road Racing Team will be the Baja 500 in June.

Honda Racing social media content and video links can be found on:

Additional photos and information from the Ridgeline Baja Race Truck's efforts can be viewed on Instagram at @hondaoffroadracing and @proctor_race.

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