My Ride, My Life: Tosha Schareina

Last year though was when he really set the world of rally alight as he started riding the CRF450 RALLY for the Honda Team, which was supported by the factory outfit.  Up against the top riders in the world at the Sonora Rally he started to make a name for himself when he finished as the runner up in Mexico beating the Honda factory riders.  This was followed by victory at Baja Aragon and then three stage wins at the Desafío Ruta 40 cemented his first World Rally-Raid Championship victory.

“Mexico last year was the beginning of everything, it was my first race with Honda and my first podium in the World Rally-Raid Championship.  I went to Argentina much more confident and it was an incredible thrill to take the win.  But to be honest and I say this in all humility, that victory was something that I knew was going to happen at some point.  So after I got it I asked myself what the next step would be.”

Unsurprisingly he was then signed to the full factory squad and joined Monster Energy Honda HRC for 2024 where he counted the experienced Ricky Brabec, Pablo Quintanilla, Adrien Van Beveren, Nacho Cornejo and Skyler Howes as his teammates.

“Being part of Monster Energy Honda HRC is a dream come true.  Everyone who rides a bike wants to get on an official one.  At the beginning you see everything very far away but I knew that one day it would come.”

First up in factory colours was the gruelling Dakar rally and after winning the opening prologue it was disaster for Tosha on the first stage proper when a crash saw him break his wrist and his withdrawal was immediate in Saudi Arabia.  What had been months of training saw his challenge over.

“The rallies are ruthless and you can never relax.  Whilst I was in the helicopter I was already organising the possible surgery because a month later I had my first E-Xplorer race of electric bikes in Japan, where I didn’t want to fail and be able to race.  That month was against the clock.  Two days after the surgery we were already in rehabilitation, it was really really crazy.”

An extensive course of treatment and recuperation took place so that Tosha could make the start of the FIM E-Xplorer World Cup for Team HRC and it was all worth it when he came away with victory in Honda’s home country.

“It was getting into a totally new bike, Honda CR Electric PROTO.  It was also my first time on an electric bike but the truth is Honda has done an incredible job and the adaption was really fast.  And we did it, we went to Japan and took the victory as a team.”

What has followed since is victories in Norway and the last round at Crans-Montana in Switzerland to seal the men’s FIM E-Xplorer World Cup title in his debut year, an amazing feat considering how his year had started.  He was also joined by Italian racer Francesca Nocera and they proved a force to be reckoned with over the three rounds of the season.

“Having Francesca in the team is amazing, she is a very good rider with a lot of experience and we also have a very good relationship and that help us a lot.”

The 29-year-old first got on a bike when he was just seven years of age, his uncle riding with a young Tosha on the front, before he started to get behind the bars on a little track in Valencia.

“I spent the whole year going to the same track.  I started with motocross and then I moved to enduro where I competed in the World Championship and six days of enduro and then three years ago I made the transition to rally. It has not been easy, it was like starting all over again, a totally new discipline.  We also didn’t have any resources to train and race, like a lot of riders at the beginning of their careers.  I’ve said this on a few occasions, I come from a humble family and we have needed support to make this sport possible.  But it’s not an excuse or a way to give pity, when I was a child I didn’t want people to know, but now, I don’t mind telling the truth.”

2024 has also seen him back on the top step in his first full season in the World Rally-Raid Championship, victory at the BP Rally-Raid Portugal was special as part of the event was raced in his home country of Spain and then he took the fight to teammate Ricky Brabec in Argentina, finishing just 15 seconds behind the American victor after 18 hours of rallying.  Taking a hard fought second position at the season ending Rallye Du Maroc, he managed a third place finish in the championship in what was an impressive year for the Valencia native, who has also won every prologue he has competed in this year.

“There have been and there are many people that have put their trust in me, they have helped me in every way, financially, mentally in my life to improve as a rider of course in absolutely everything.  I want to get to the top so I can reward those people.

I have many goals, both in E-Xplorer and in rally.  But I think it goes without saying, what my main goal is and again in full humility, some day we will make it.”