Team HRC (Honda Racing) confirms 2024 FIM E-Xplorer World Cup entry with riders Tosha Schareina and Francesca Nocera on their CR Electric Proto race bike.

The FIM E-Xplorer World Cup is an endurocross discipline for electric off-road bikes and a natural place for Honda’s CR Electric Proto, which made an impressive competitive debut at Round 8 of the All Japan Motocross Championship at the end of last year against its established 450cc internal combustion counterparts.

Read more on that including more pictures here: Honda CR Electric Proto: detail images of HRC’s e-powered CR prototype

Competing for Team HRC aboard the CR Electric Proto will be EnduroGP Women’s number three, four-time Italian MX Champion and three-time Italian Enduro Champion, Francesca Nocera. The Italian will contest this series alongside her duties for the Honda Racing RedMoto World Enduro Team in the EnduroGP World Championship.

She will be joined by the rider who made a big impact in the Rally-Raid World Championship in 2023, Tosha Schareina. The Spaniard signed to the Monster Energy Honda Team only last year and won the 2024 Dakar Rally prologue before crashing out a few days later. Like Nocera, Schareina is experienced in motocross and enduro and together they will form a strong partnership which is all-important in this electric motorcycle series.

Stiff competition

Nocera and Schareina will pair up against nine other teams, each comprising a male and a female rider under the series’ regulations. In 2023 the inaugural series was won by Team MIE riders Jorge Beltran and Sandra Gomez.

New for 2024, there are two categories of competition, with the larger Hyperbikes (prototype 7kwh-max machines using a standard MX wheelbase) joined by a lighter-weight GT class, based upon regular production models and weighing below 112kg.

Honda CR Electric Proto specifications:

Model Year: 2023

Power Unit: M-TEC (Mugen) water-cooled motor

Battery Capacity (kWh)N/A

Maximum output (kW) N/A

Frame Type: Aluminium twin tube

Suspension: Front Showa, 310mm stroke, USD fork, Rear Showa, 310mm stroke (single tube)

Brakes: Front 300mm two piston Rear 240mm singe piston

Wheels/Tyres: Front Dunlop 21 Inch Rear Dunlop 18 Inch

Team HRC’s duo will campaign the CR Electric Proto in the premier Hyperbike class across a series of 10min qualifying rounds, three intense 10-minute races and a play-off series of sprint relays for the best four teams each weekend.

“It’s incredible really from the Sonora Rally last year where I got my first works Honda bike, the CRF450 Rally, then to have become a works rider for the Dakar, and now to be a works rider on the CR Electric Proto!” Says Schareina.

“I know the team well and feel very comfortable with them, and we work very well together. The challenges of E-Xplorer are of course very different, but I am looking forward to adapting and to getting on the electric machine alongside Francesca. The series is new but already the CR Electric Proto showed it was capable of matching the performance of the petrol bikes so I think it’s an exciting time to be working with HRC on developing such a capable electric machine.”

“I have won a number of titles in Italian motocross, and recently have come back to Enduro and finished third in the world last year,” says Francesca, “so for me to be able to blend the two disciplines is very exciting. I am riding the Honda CRF in the World Enduro Championship and the CR Electric Proto in E-Xplorer so will have a very good feeling of how these two versions of the machine, and the electric and internal combustion worlds, compare and I am very excited to get to racing it. We have a great and proven team, the bike is clearly strong, and Tosha will be a great teammate, so I am feeling confident in this new adventure.”

Ruben Faria will be the team principal, just as he is for the victorious rally team: “I am very excited to be in another Team HRC project, heading into a full season of electrified competition using the Honda CR Electric Proto. We saw that when the machine made its competitive debut last year in Saitama it was very fast at the hands of Trey Canard – two out of three holeshots and more than capable of running at the front, ahead of the established 450cc competition. That was a very encouraging debut, as well as a valuable development platform, so we are all keen to bring those learnings to the track in 2024 in the E-Xplorer series. The competition will be intense I’m sure, and this is the best place to continue developing our approach to sustainable, electrified two-wheeled motorsports. With Francesca and Tosha we have two very strong riders.

“Obviously this project is very different from Rally-Raid, but my career started in Motocross, followed by Enduro before finally Rally, so this is an area that I like and where I feel comfortable. Tosha and Francesca have extensive experience in Motocross and Enduro and I think they have the skills for this new and innovative electric motorsport series, E-Xplorer.”

2024 FIM E-Xplorer World Cup calendar:

Round 1: February 16-17, Japan (Osaka)

Round 2: May 3-4 Norway (TBA)

Round 3: June 21-23, France (Vollore Montagne)

Round 4: September 20-22, Switzerland (Crans Montana)

Round 5: November 29-December 1, India (TBA)

More information: www.fimexplorer.com

Photo Credit: Honda Racing + Of1.jp + Future7Media