The 2024 Dakar Rally got underway Friday with a short 27-km prologue that saw Honda supported Tosha Schareina on top. There is often a cat and mouse game to start the event, with riders hesitant to finish in front but unwilling to lose too much time. This year the organizers threw in some tricky sections that cost some riders time–among them Skyler Howes. With a 44th placed finish 5’10’’ behind his teammate Schareina, Howes occupies the last position in the Rally GP class. As a result, the official HRC rider will most likely have to open the way tomorrow, which is an unenviable task for a stage announced as long, difficult and complicated to ride as a lone ranger. At least he will be very likely to pick up the bonus points at the beginning of the special, though this will be of scant consolation to him, leaving him little choice but to go for broke.Before the race even started, Mason Klein was already facing major difficulties. His Kove race bike was stuck in customs in Dubai until the very last moment. He rushed it though tech inspection after Kove mechanics did an all-night drive through the desert.
Mason Klein was minutes away from missing the start of this year’s Dakar Rally.
Ricky Brabec cruised to a safe 13th in the Prologue
Ricky Brabec: It’s just the prologue but I’m happy to get through that and start the rally. We’ll see how everyone chooses their position for tomorrow and hopefully we’ll start in a good spot. The prologue wasn’t technical, but it wasn’t easy, the navigation was a little bit tricky, trickier than you would think going through all these canyons. It’s only the prologue so finishing a minute and 20 seconds out is not a big deal. P13
Skyler Howes fell and damaged his road book in the Prologue.
Skyler Howes: This prologue was really not a good start for me, the organization likes to play a bit with some things and they had some sticks that we were supposed to go through. There were so many lines going through each way throughout the open desert that it was hard to see these sticks, I cut across to go through them, hit a big camel grass that was obviously off track and had a really big crash, but luckily I was OK. I damaged the bike, lost quite a bit of time and it was hard to ride afterwards as I’d also damaged the road book so I had to rely on following the tracks.
Then later on in the stage there was a tricky note, obviously I had no road book to verify so I was more or less going around in circles just trying to figure it out. Finally I validated the way point and was able to continue on but I lost about five minutes today which is super frustrating and an annoying way to start the race like this. P42
Tosha Schareina finished on top in the Prologue, but won’t have to worry about opening the course tomorrow. Top riders are allowed to choose their start position.
Rider Standings
PROVISIONAL STANDINGS AFTER PROLOGUE
Pos.
Rider
Num
Nation
Team
Time/Gap
1
SCHAREINA Tosha
68
SPA
Monster Energy Honda Team
00H 17′ 35”
2
SANDERS Daniel
4
AUS
Gas Gas Factory Team
+0:12
3
EVAN BRANCH Ross
16
BWA
Hero Motorsports Team Rally
+0:19
4
VAN BEVEREN Adrien
42
FRA
Monster Energy Honda Team
+0:24
5
BENAVIDES Luciano
77
ARG
Husqvarna Factory Racing
+0:26
6
SUNDERLAND Sam
3
GBR
Gas Gas Factory Team
+0:28
7
QUINTANILLA Pablo
7
CHI
Monster Energy Honda Team
+0:47
8
PRICE Toby
18
AUS
Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team
+0:51
9
BENAVIDES Kevin
1
ARG
Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team
+0:56
10
KLEIN Mason
43
USA
BAS World KTM Racing Team
+0:58
13
BRABEC Ricky
9
USA
Monster Energy Honda Team
+1:19
42
HOWES Skyler
10
USA
Monster Energy Honda Team
+5:10
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