Schareina Wins Prologue and Stage 1 at Portugal World Rally-Raid Championship

Monster Energy/Honda’s Tosha Schareina fired the first salvo at the BP Ultimate Rall-Raid in Portugal on Wednesday, coming out of the starting gate to win the quick, 3K a.m. Prologue race, then backed that up later in the afternoon by capturing 1st place in Stage 1 of Round 3 of the 2024 FIM World Rally-Raid Championships – Schareina’s first career win as a factory team racer for Monster Energy/Honda.

Joining Schareina on the Stage 1 podium was his Monster Energy/Honda teammate, Skyler Howes, who brought his Honda CRF450 Rally home in 3rd place, 4:13 back of Schareina’s winning stage time of 1:12:15.

Said Schareina of his 1st/1st place effort on Wednesday in Portugal: “We started really, really good with the Prologue. Won. It was super sandy, three and a half Ks (kilometers). And after that we did the first 100K Special. Little mistakes, but was pleased with my riding.”

As for his first time back on the newly re-designed Honda CRF450 Rally since injuring himself in a crash at Dakar in January, Schareina added: “I think it’s a good beginning with us. My first race after injury and I feel really, really good on the bike – and with the team, of course.”

For his part, Howes, who is also battling back from a crash injury suffered at Dakar, the 3rd place podium finish, coupled with a confidence-building run as the first bike out of the start in the Prologue, had the American pumped to be back on the main jet.

“Pretty epic,” said Howes of his opening WRRC day in Portugal. “The Prologue was more or less like a motocross track. They laid it out through the woods and it was really tricky because it was sandy, and at the same time slippery. I opened up the (Prologue) stage and was first on track and the track was absolutely epic. The conditions couldn’t be better than right now. All-in-all it was a really smooth day. Having a lot of fun and it was really cool, good for me to get time on the bike and we’ll see what the next four days bring.”

Ripping into 2nd place in the Prologue, just two seconds back of winner Schareina, was Monster Energy/Honda’s Adrien Van Beveren. And though the Frenchman would get hit with a substantial penalty for missing a waypoint during the Stage 1 race, he was stoked with his effort in the competition-opening Prologue.

“I like this kind of terrain, I really like to ride on this kind of track,” explained Van Beveren. “Especially now because this bike (CRF450 Rally) is really light now and I enjoy the braking and turning. It’s really more technical than the desert. Quite different. But I was feeling good, feeling fast on the bike.”

Notes & Quotes

• “Day 1 in the books. This morning was really fun. Had a little crash in the Prologue, but nothing big. The stage was fun. A little bit different than I was used to, but fun. With about 15 minutes to go I had a bit of a crash and threw the bike down a hill, but we’re all in one piece and ready for the rest of the week.” – Ross Branch, Hero Motosports, fueled by Monster Energy. Branch leads the overall Motorcycle class of the WRRC heading into Portugal.
• Branch also noted that the masses of spectators that lined the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid track was “good to see,” adding that, in the desert settings of Dakar and Abu Dhabi, racers don’t really get to see much of that.
• Added Branch’s teammate, Sebastian Buhler: “Nice day, quite short, but at the same time – long – because the rhythm and the riding are really intense. Not so much the navigation, though. I like it and I’m having a lot of fun.”
• Buher, who hails from Portugal, making his home barely 30 km away from the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid track, felt it was cool racing in front of the hometown fans. “It’s really nice, I pass and see people I know, people I see every day when I’m here. So it’s really nice.”
• Bit of a hiccup in the navigation on Stage 1 for Van Beveren as noted earlier. The Monster Energy/Honda racer would have been on the podium again (in addition to his 2nd place Prologue finish), but he miscalculated a transfer time, from the Special to the Liaison, hit the road too fast and ended up getting penalized 12 minutes.
• A difficult aspect of today’s Stage 1 race, according to Monster Energy/Honda’s Pablo Quintanilla, was the height of the vegetation between the two-tracks that the buggies and automobiles race on. “It’s kind of weird, the things that you can find during the stage,” explained Quintanilla of things like hidden tree roots in the vegetation. “Holes with water and shadows sometimes makes it very difficult. But I think that with more kilometers of riding, more days, it will be easier to understand this.”

FIM World Rally-Raid Championship

BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, Portugal

Day 1 Results

Prologue

1st – Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda)

2nd – Van Beveren (Monster Energy/Honda)

Stage 1

1st – Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda)

3rd – Howes (Monster Energy/Honda)

Up next… The BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in Portugal continues with Thursday’s Stage 2, a 166km Special and 35km Liaison that loops from Grandola back to Grandola, through the Setubal district. Technical roads and lots of sand in the Alentejo coast are on the order for Thursday. For more info on WRRC, link to: www.worldrallyraidchampionship.com