The infamous Prologue set the stage for the 47th Dakar Rally with defending champ Ricky Brabec coming in just 18 seconds behind Aussie Daniel Sanders and the “Kalahari Ferrari” Ross Branch to start Stage 1 tomorrow. “Today was OK, not bad but not great,” said the Top American.” It was good to start the Rally with a prologue full speed and get the bugs worked out.”
It was mission accomplished for Monster Energy Honda HRC as all the riders will now get to choose their places in the start line order for tomorrow’s stage when they are back at the Bisha bivouac this evening. “There’s nothing to do for the rest of the day, we’ll hang out and then choose our position for tomorrow,” adds Brabec. “That’ll be a little tricky and then hopefully tomorrow we can land in a good position for the 48 Hour Chrono and set ourselves off for a good start.”
The timed 29km Prologue Stage near Bisha in Saudi Arabia featured rocky passes and riverbed tracks with American Skyler Howes first off the line for Monster Energy Honda HRC. Returning from injury he finished the stage in eighth, less than a minute off the quickest time of 16’51”. Teammate Tosha Schareina who had to navigate around some slower cars on the route closed to within seconds of Brabec and finished P4 just 2 seconds ahead of Dakar Legend Pablo Quintanilla, who rode a steady 29 kilometres without taking any risks and then Adrien Van Beveren was P7.
“The Prologue was really fast and I like it like this,” says Skyler Howes. “We had more or less open desert to navigate and so it was good, but of course I had to shake the nerves out today as during the last event that I was racing I had a big crash so I just wanted to get through the day and make sure everything was clean and ride good. So I’m pretty happy with my position for now, then we get to choose our positions for tomorrow and then the race begins.”
There will be nearly 500km of riding on Stage 1 tomorrow — 413km of it against the clock — over a mixture of terrain on a southern loop from Bisha; stony sections, sand and tricky navigation amongst the labyrinth of tracks setting the stage for the upcoming 48 Hour Chrono. That 48-hour stage is one of the hardest tests in any form of motorsport with all competitors sleeping out under the stars with simple rations for overnight, but Monster Energy Honda HRC are the reigning ‘champions’ of the 48 Hour Chrono after Adrien Van Beveren won it last year.
