The new South African Safari Rally roared to life today with a short but demanding 9km prologue near Sun City, setting the stage for the Monster Energy Honda HRC riders.
The course, composed of 60% gravel and 40% black turf, a hallmark of South African terrain, proved anything but easy. Despite the brief distance, the prologue played a crucial role in determining the starting order for tomorrow’s first stage and the mixed surface kept riders on their toes.
After clinching every prologue victory in the rallies he competed in last year, all eyes were on Tosha Schareina to see if he could take his second prologue win of 2025. With the timed action completed in just over seven minutes, a few mistakes cost the Spaniard the win by just four seconds, with Daniel Sanders claiming the top spot.
Ricky Brabec, more accustomed to desert racing, likened the course to a grass track, far from his preferred conditions and trailed the leader by 14 seconds. Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren followed closely, just one second behind Brabec, as he navigated the tight, freshly cut grass sections. Meanwhile, Skyler Howes finished eighth overall, nearly 30 seconds off the lead, after some early confusion caused by tractor markings and a constant battle with the slippery terrain.
Looking ahead to stage one, the riders will tackle a demanding 557km route aboard their Honda CRF450 RALLY machines, with 262km counting as the timed special stage. As they leave Sun City behind and head into dense woodland, they’ll face a fresh set of challenges, navigating through trees, thick shrubs and tall grasses that promise to test both skill and focus.
Ruben Faria
General Manager
Today’s prologue was not too bad, only Skyler lost a little bit of time because he went straight on at one corner and needed to turn around, so he lost a little bit of time and finished twelfth in the overall bikes result. Adrien ended the prologue in sixth position, he also went straight at one corner, however, he felt good on his Honda CRF450 RALLY and is happy to start properly tomorrow. Ricky finished fifth and although he didn’t feel too comfortable with his bike set up, the team will make adjustments so that it’s better for him tomorrow. Riding well was Tosha, who finished in second place. Later on the riders will choose their starting positions for tomorrow and this will be a little bit different to a desert race as we will need to see what position the other riders choose and then adjust our choices. Tomorrow will be a long stage, it’s an early start, however, the team is ready for this first day.
Ricky Brabec 9
PROLOGUE: 3RD
It feels good to get the monkey off our back and do some kilometres in the competition. The prologue was like a grass track, ISDE Six Days style, so it definitely wasn’t my style but I had a lot of fun. I really struggled today with a couple of things, luckily navigating wasn’t one of them. I’m looking forward to the next five days of racing, hopefully we can clear the mind and make a good push this week.
Skyler Howes 10
PROLOGUE: 8TH
The prologue was a little bit similar to the shakedown, but they took a tractor out there and cut all the grass down and smoothed all the ground out. It actually made things a little bit more tricky for me as I expected the tractor marks everywhere and so I missed the very first corner because the tractor marks went the wrong way. That slowed me down a bit, then the grass was quite slippery when it’s cut down like that, so I slid out again. It is what it is, it determines our starting position for the next day. With the dust and with the navigation, there was also 50 bikes in front of me so you almost couldn’t see the tracks on the ground. I don’t think starting behind or having a really perfect prologue matters at this race, starting first would suck but I don’t think it’s going to be that big of a deal. The dust is going to be really bad and the grass is going to be the trickiest part for sure. Not being able to see the ground, especially if the grass is tall is going to be a really difficult thing to try and push through and make up time or to do a good stage. Today I didn’t do a perfect prologue, but we have five more days left to go and this vegetation, the grass and the trees are going to be a way bigger factor than we all thought.
Adrien Van Beveren 42
PROLOGUE: 4TH
The stage was quite twisty and difficult to guess where it was going to turn. Twice I rode into the bushes so I think I lost some time, but overall it was the same for everybody, so I tried to make the best of it. The feeling on the bike is good even though the track was slippery, but we are in a good position to start the rally tomorrow.
Tosha Schareina 68
PROLOGUE: 2ND
I’m happy with the result coming in second, I did three or four mistakes but the real race starts tomorrow. We will choose the starting position later so I’m really motivated for tomorrow.
Rally GP Provisional Standings after Prologue
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 SANDERS Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team 07:08
2 SCHAREINA Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC +0:04
3 BRABEC Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC +0:14
4 VAN BEVEREN Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC +0:15
5 BENAVIDES Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team +0:18
6 EVAN BRANCH Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally +0:20
7 COX Bradley 49 RSA BAS DAKAR KTM RACING TEAM +0:25
8 HOWES Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC +0:27
9 CORNEJO FLORIMO José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally +0:37
