“We won. That’s just what you did at Honda,” says David Bailey, an icon of the sport and a multi-time AMA Supercross and Pro Motocross Champion. “You didn’t have any excuse or reason not to. It came with pressure, but in my opinion, the pressure was good. Everybody there during my era was excellent at their jobs, from the mechanics on down and capped off by [Roger] DeCoster—who, by the way, was still riding and very fast.”

It’s crazy to think that factory Honda’s championship-free streak has gone on this long. They started racing (and winning) on the AMA circuit in 1973, but now they’re in their longest premier-class title drought. At the end of 2004, after winning all five AMA Supercross and Motocross series aboard red, Ricky Carmichael split and headed to Suzuki. Since then, Honda hasn’t won a single premier-class title. The brand that had most of the best riders and bikes for practically all of the eighties and nineties has fallen on tough times. Is 2019 the year that this blue streak ends for Big Red?