Last year, we told you about the Honda CR Electric Proto—an all-electric dirt bike that Honda debuted in a Japanese motocross championship. As it turns out, Big Red hasn’t given up on this battery bike; it’s currently racing in the FIM’s E-Explorer World Cup.
Honda entered a male-female team into the E-Explorer World Cup, which is a competition for electric off-road bikes, requiring teams to be made up of a male and female racer. The riders are Tosha Schareina (a 28-year-old from Spain, who is also riding rally raids for Honda at the world level, and doing very well) and Italian female motocross champion Francesca Nocera (age 30). These two riders are currently atop the series on the CR Electric.
Back in the winter, when Honda Racing Corporation entered the series, Koji Watanabe, HRC president, said this move was part of the company’s commitment to carbon neutrality, and this would help them develop staff and technology in the EV world: “By taking on the challenge of a new electric motorcycle racing series, HRC will hone its technology in a real-world setting, accumulate know-how and knowledge, and further accelerate development of human resources.”
After the first race, Schareina and Nocera are only a point ahead of second-place INDE Racing, which is piloting Stark motorcycles with Sandra Gomez and Spenser Wilton behind the handlebars. Some readers may recognize Wilton’s name, as he’s a Canuck, with his own YouTube channel showing his adventures around the world (see it here).
You can see the whole series lineup here. The next race is the May 4 weekend in Oslo, Norway, with more rounds to come in France, Switzerland and India this year. We’ll try to keep on top of this series and update you on its progress; the E-Explorer machines are not the equivalent of Supercross bikes, but they seem to be the future of off-road racing; even the Cord now allows these not-quite-full-dirt-bikes into their own class now.
