Interview with Off-Road Rider Tosha Schareina

October 25, 2024 (CORONA, Calif.) – Things didn’t look good for Monster Energy/Honda Rally Team’s Tosha Schareina following the famed Dakar Rally to open the 2024 FIM World Rally Raid Championship. The team’s newest star racer had high hopes, and expectations, heading into the sands of Saudi Arabia last January. But an unfortunate crash early on in the 12-stage race would see Schareina leave the course in a medevac helicopter – his lofty Dakar hopes dashed in an instant and his WRRC season left in question.

Back at home in Spain recovering, Schareina would revel in the fact that Monster Energy-backed racers Ricky Brabec (Honda), Ross Branch (Hero) and Adrien Van Beveren (Honda) would sweep the podium at Dakar. This, while at the same time knowing that given his meteoric rise from privateer to factory-backed racer in the WRRC, he’d likely seen his first career podium at Dakar slip through his hands.

Motivated to even new heights, Schareina was able to bounce back – in a big way – for the final three 2024 WRRC rounds – winning two (BP Ultimate Rally Raid in Portugal and Morrocco’s Rallye Du Maroc) and finishing as the runner-up to teammate Brabec in the other (INFINIA Desafio Ruta 40 in Argentina).

So with 70 points accrued in just three rounds of WRRC racing, Schareina was rewarded with an overall podium finish (3^rd) in his first full year of racing with the Monster Energy/Honda Rally Team program. Not bad for a guy who’d flown away from his first race of the season in a medical helicopter.

Monster Energy caught up with Schareina to get his thoughts on that start to the ’24 WRRC season, his comeback from a broken wrist, along with his recent victory at the Rallye Du Maroc

Monster Energy: Tosha! Welcome back from Morocco. Such a spectacular area of the world to host a World Rally Raid Championship round. Talk a bit about your experience here recently at the Rallye Du Maroc – including being the overall GP motorcycle class winner. 

Tosha Schareina: Morocco is an incredible place for us, as we say, our playground. It is the toughest race after the Dakar, a race with all types of terrain and also serves as a preparation for the Dakar. It is also a race where you have to be careful with crashes because it is so close to January. The truth is that we had a good rhythm, we started winning the prologue and we were in front until the end. It put us to the test with such varied stages, sometimes of few kilometers, but very technical and towards a quite long day. This year we had new scenery and places never before seen in this rally. In short, it was a tough rally, which left Ricky (Brabec, Schareina’s Monster Energy/Honda teammate) out of the fight for the title, and Pablo (Quintanilla, Monster Energy/Honda) out due to a fall in the fourth stage. But also great results, like ours, and being able to reach the second and third place in the world championship.

ME: Your win percentage on the WRRC tour this year was thisclose to being perfect – Two 1^st place finishes (Portugal and Morrocco) and a 2^nd place finish in Argentina. Three races, 70 points and a podium 3rd place overall position. Great season. But that said, it didn’t start off so great as you suffered a crash at the 240 km mark of Stage 1 at Dakar. Talk about that moment and the tough situation it put you in to start the 2024 WRRC season.

TS: The truth is that if you look at where we were a year ago and now... the change is incredible. Sometimes we normalize very quickly something that has cost us a lot. That moment of the fall in the Dakar was very hard psychologically. I was in the helicopter and I was already organizing my recovery so that in just one month, with an operation in between, I could be on the bike. And we did it! There was no time for regrets, only to get down to hard work. More than a physical pain, it was a mental pain for having failed so many people.

ME: So you had an extra WRRC round (Abu Dhabi) to heal and get yourself back into racing shape. You then bounced back – in a big way – winning the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in Portugal. Talk about what that victory meant to you following your early exit from Dakar.

TS: When things happen that we don't like, I try to erase them from my mind and learn from it. So when we arrived in Portugal it was as if nothing had happened. I knew we could have a great result and why not also win? It was a very nice thing to get that victory in the country of many of our team members, and it also gave me that extra strength to face the rest of the championship. 

ME: We asked your teammate Adrien Van Beveren this same question on Honda’s choice to forego Round 2 of the WRRC (Abu Dhabi) in order to process the data gained from Dakar on the new ’25 CRF 450 Rally motorcycle. Bit different in your case (than AVB’s), but would have been ready to race Abu Dhabi after your Dakar accident? Or did the pre-planned absence for the Monster Energy/Honda Rally Team at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge play into your recovery favor? 

TS: Honda is a very experienced team that makes decisions well in advance and has thought everything through, so I trust them and the work plan they have. I also have to say that I would have been ready to race. Maybe not 100%, but I would have been on the bike. 10 days before Abu Dhabi we won in the Explorer of Japan (on Honda’s new CRF-E2 electric bike) race after only one month of the injury. 

ME: At what WRRC round did you really have to dig the deepest to overcome adversity?

TS: In all races there are unforeseen events and we give 100%, but here in Morocco several factors happened to us that we cannot control and that made us keep a cool mind and try to recover as many minutes as possible in the overall. Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control but we have to find a solution as soon as possible. 

ME: And along those lines, what would have been A.) Your favorite WRRC round this season and B.) Your least favorite, and/or the most difficult? 

TS: I think the favorite Portugal / Spain for being close to home and with all your people, but also Argentina for all that public we have there. And the most difficult Dakar, for the reason of crashing in that first stage. 

ME: You and your Monster Energy/Honda Rally Team teammates always do an excellent job with the media explaining the virtues of the Honda CRF 450 Rally. This year’s bike (2025), which you were deeply involved with in terms of input for improvements with the engineering and design, seemed to work out very well. Discuss that process, working with Japan and the Honda engineering team, to improve the already great 2024 model CRF 450 Rally. And, ultimately, what were the main changes to the bike that you and your Monster Energy/Honda Rally team members had input on? 

TS: It's always amazing to be part of the development of a bike and more with a brand like Honda. All the engineers and people of the brand have listened to us during the whole year and have created a bike with our requests. There are some things we can't talk about, but I can only say that riding this bike for the first time is as if you have always done. And what to say about the aesthetics? It’s rock n roll!! 

ME: And just when you thought you had time to catch your breath… the Dakar Rally looms large on the horizon. Talk a bit about your training program for Dakar, what you handle on your own, then what your plans are – and when those begin – with the rest of the 2025 Monster Energy/Honda Rally Team. 

TS: I'm not going to do anything out of the ordinary that I haven't done during the year. I try to train physically, whether it's cycling, running, gym and many other sports that complement me well. But what I try to do the most is a lot of motorcycling... motocross gives me that speed, enduro the technique and rally the confidence at speeds and of course navigation. It's a very complete sport and you have to be prepared in many different disciplines. With the team we will try to train in Morocco as we need to do  hours of desert to prepare as much as possible Dakar. 

ME: Lastly, a lot went in to getting yourself on the overall WRRC podium for the first time. Who were some of the instrumental people that assisted with your success this season that you feel deserve a BIG “Thank you!”

TS: The truth is that I can't name just a few people, because the list is too long. And not just this year, it's the work of a lifetime. I'm just the guy who drives the bike, but the real effort is made by those people, by you, in the shadows, who help me at every moment. 

ME: Excellent. Thanks again, Tosha. It was our pleasure here at Monster Energy to work with you again this season on the WRRC tour and beyond. You always made yourself available and your answers to our questions definitely gave the Monster Army some excellent insight into the sport of off-road dirt bike racing. Thanks again and we look forward to working with you again in advance of Dakar and the 2025 WRRC season. 

TS: Thanks to you guys, I have many conversations with my friend Joe at the races trying to explain how much grateful I'm to him and the whole Monster Army for giving me this opportunity. We are going to do great things together again. Let's go for it!!!

2024 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship (through 5 of 5 rounds) Overall Standings

1st – Ross Branch (Monster Energy/Hero), 88 points

2nd - Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy/Honda), 76 points

3rd – Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy/Honda), 70 points

4th – Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy/Honda), 63 points

5th – Jose “Nacho” Cornejo (Monster Energy/Hero), 41 points

6th – Pablo Quintanilla (Monster Energy/Honda), 37 points

7th – Sebastian Buhler (Monster Energy/Hero), 29 points

8th – Skyler Howes (Monster Energy/Honda), 26 points

9th – Aaron Mare (Monster Energy/Hero), 25 points

Up next… The 2025 FIM World Rally-Raid Championship kicks off in January (3rd through 17th) with the legendary Dakar Rally. For more info on WRRC and Monster Energy’s racers with Honda and Hero, link to: www.worldrallyraidchampionship.com