Mason Klein is back for more in Brazil, this time on a Honda CRF450X as he enters the 2024 Brazilian Cross-Country Rally Championship and Sertões Series for Honda Racing Brasil.
Klein first raced in the country last August when he won the Rally dos Sertões on début. Despite being one of rally raid’s top prospects as the 2022 World Rally-Raid Champion in Rally2, he struggled to find funding to continue his career in the series and the Sertões entry came after he lost his W2RC ride with KTM midseason.
He partnered with Kove to race a Kove 450 Rally EX at the 2024 Dakar Rally, which granted him access to the team’s resources equivalent to those of their factory riders though he was officially still a privateer competing for his family team. Klein showed speed in Kove’s maiden race in the RallyGP class, finishing as high as third in the opening stage, but struggled with a rash of mechanical issues that forced him to retire halfway. While he remains friendly with Kove, he was allowed to talk with other teams for the rest of the year and 2025.
Rumours about moving to Honda circulated in the month since the Dakar, and he also conducted rally training on a Honda CRF450X before heading to Brazil to formally join the programme on Thursday. His younger brother and 2023 Baja 1000 winner Carter Klein will also race a Honda in the 2024 SCORE International World Desert Championship.
“This is my first time being part of an official factory team, so it definitely makes a big change for myself and my family as far as the racing career goes,” said Klein. “Being able to go to a new country and follow the series and have the best chance possible at being competitive is really nice for me. Growing up, it’s always been myself, my father, my brother, my mom always doing the work on our own. Now, I get to basically fly and ride. Makes for a much less stressful season and I hope it also brings results for me.”
Honda Racing Brasil is a regional subsidiary of Honda Racing Corporation, whose flagship Monster Energy Honda Rally Team competes at Dakar and in the W2RC. Although Klein is not with the Monster Rally Team, the marque’s rally division now has three Americans as he joins reigning Dakar winner Ricky Brabec and Skyler Howes. However, this technically does not make them allies as Klein’s deal only extends to Brazil, meaning he may still race internationally with another manufacturer.
Klein and 2023 Latin American Rally-Raid Champion Martin Duplessis will represent Honda Racing Brasil in the Brazilian championship’s premier Moto 1 category. The team is also fielding a pair of Moto 2 and national bikes for Gabriel Soares and Tiago Wernersbach.
