Monster Energy Interview | Brabec and Howes

Having just shook the sands of Dakar’s Empty Quarter out of their gear bags, and now looking ahead to racing the new Honda CRF 450 Rally motorcycle at the Round 3 of the 2024 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship moves to Portugal for the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid, April 2-7, Monster Energy/Honda Rally Team’s Ricky Brabec and Skyler Howes came up with an ‘out there’ plan for another adventure – one certainly right in their wheelhouse.

Brabec, who just won his second Dakar Rally in January, had a bitchin’ brand new Honda Talon SXS sitting in his garage – basically gathering dust. And while he was between Dakar stages in the bivouac around Saudi Arabia’s Medina Province, Brabec came up with the idea to get some work done on his Talon so that he could run stock class in it.

Built by RaceCo with the best parts that Fox Shocks, Method wheels, Tenor Tires and Baja Designs had to offer, Brabec’s new ride was ready to be put to the test.

“While we were in Dakar racing, my car (a Honda Talon SXS) was down at RaceCo with Jamie Campbell, (brother of legendary Baja motorcycle off-road champion Johnny Campbell),” explained Brabec. “So I texted Jamie and said ‘Hey, let’s get this thing (the Honda Talon) ready for a bit bigger race. Let’s just tackle the Mint 400, see how it goes?’”

So Brabec’s four wheel ride was set. All he needed now was a partner in crime to help him rally it around the desert outside of Primm, Nevada. But before that, he 

Brabec: “Fresh off the Dakar win, we were sitting around the house – a little bored – so we were searching for something local we could race and, anyway, we stumbled upon the Mint 400. I got asked to ride the motorcycle for the Mint 400 with Preston Campbell, so I said ‘Yeah, you know, I can do that. It’s a local race for me, and legendary – held in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’ll be fun.’”

So with his bike team set up for the Mint 400, Brabec reached out to his Monster Energy/Honda Rally teammate Howes, via text, seeing if he wanted to race the Mint 400 in an SXS.

Howes: “Came together kind of last minute. Was looking at a way to fill this weekend with some training and racing, or whatever. I called Johnny (Campbell) to see what was happening with the bike race. Figured I’d just go solo, do the whole bike race on my own.”

Howes continues, admitting that, this close to the April 2-7 Portugal FIM World Rally-Raid Championship Round 3, being in the saddle in the Nevada desert for 7+ hours racing the Mint 400 probably wasn’t going to happen. “I may have bitten off a bit too much to chew,” he said. So Brabec’s plan of Howes co-driving Brabec’s RaceCo Talon was perfect.

“Yeah, Ricky basically hit me up and asked if I’d like to run a couple of the laps in his race car,” added Howes.

So it was on! Two of the world’s top off-road motorcycle racers, teaming up to run the Monster Energy-shod Honda Talon at the Mint 400. What a blast!

Brabec: “It’s definitely something fun… something to bring my friends and family closer. We don’t take it too serious. Not something that we’re going to make any money at. But we all camp, have a good time, and it’s cool to come to a big series like this. 430 entries and we were able to win.

Brabec continued. “Is it the future? I don’t know. But it’s definitely something to think about, and looking forward to where this could go. Side by side racing is not the primary focus. I don’t really drive the car other than to sign up and race it, so yeah, it’s not the full focus – but it is fun.”

As Brabec mentioned, he and Howes won the Mint 400’s Stock NA SXS crown. But it wasn’t without some drama as, during Howes’ turn behind the wheel, the Honda Talon suffered a tire puncture – something not at all uncommon in desert racing.

Howes: “The last lap we had a really comfortable lead, but the course was getting really beat up. Ricky’s car, being an NA (non-turbo) with a stock drive train, which is quite slow, and being that the car’s so short, it would fall into the holes and whoops – and it was taking a lot of abuse. We were coming up this really rocky section and I got pretty nervous that I was going to get a puncture. Then like ten seconds later I noticed that we had a rear tire puncture. So we kept going up the trail until we found a safe spot, and I hopped out to change the wheel – and our jack had a malfunction and wouldn’t lift the car up.

Howes continued. “So we hopped back in the car and drove another two to three miles down the race course, until we found a broken down Volkswagen. Luckily someone there had an extra jack I was able to use. Felt like a long time, but I think we lost, maybe, 15 minutes in the whole ordeal – which is definitely too much time. But yeah, be got back in and juiced it all the way to the finish. Really pushed it hard. We came over last bridge into the infield and (here’s where the finish gets fun)…

Howes: “Ricky had a bet with Sara (Sara Price, Brabec’s girlfriend, racing with another Monster Energy athlete, Cameron Steele, in the SXS Modified class) on who would beat who. And we were ahead of Sara most of the day because she was having some issues with broken axels and the four-wheel drive going out. But with the tire ordeal, it put us within seconds of here time. So Ricky got on the radio and was like ‘Dude, you have to make up like five seconds on the infield to get to the finish line!’ So I really let it hang out, drove super hard to the finish line, and we beat her by like 12 seconds. Super, super close. We won the bet against Sara, and got the win in the Pro NA class – which was super, super cool.”

Also cool was Brabec teaming with Preston Campbell and winning the Pro Motorcycle division at the Mint 400, something he, in combination with the SXS win with Howes, was pretty pumped with.

Brabec: “Splitting the riding duties and splitting the driving duties was definitely             a good call. I’m really happy with it. No we’re going to look for the next adventure. Let’s chase the World Rally-Raid Championship and see what happens there. Then maybe we’ll sign the car up for the California 300 in October. We’ll see what happens. We’ve got a couple months to think about it, but the car’s in great shape so we might even be racing in a couple weeks at a local series. Nothing big, but just some fun. Might stuff my dad in the car and let him just go rip around.”

Added Howes on the SXS race win: “He (Brabec) drove a successful two laps, started the race really well – essentially a flawless two laps and got us into the lead. I hoped in and, more or less, with kind of a descent lead, I was just feeling it out, making sure I was hitting good lines and being easy on the car as it was my first time ever in the car. And it’s been three years since I raced four wheels. (My) first lap I more or less took it easy, but my lap time was really close to Ricky’s, so that was cool.

“So that was it, really. Just a last minute deal because Ricky didn’t want to race the whole race by himself. After that I’ll just hang out in the pits and help Ricky and Preston when they race the (Sunday) bike race. ”I’m super stoked. This was a really cool opportunity, and I’m really thankful to Ricky for giving me a spot in his car.”

Up next…

As for the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship, Brabec, Howes and the rest of the Monster Energy/Honda Rally Team head to Portugal, April 2-7, for the BP Unlimited Rally-Raid – Round 3 of the WRRC series.