American racer Skyler Howes has just won one of the most important rallies of the year. The Husqvarna factory rider just took first overall at Rallye du Maroc, aka the Morocco Rally, after a strong performance on the final day moved him to the front of the points.

Howes managed second overall on Stage 5, securing him the points to win. He was a little more than seven minutes ahead of teammate Luciano Benavides. Now, he’s looking past his next event, Sonora (he’s skipping Andalucia, the final FIM rally raid for the year), and on to the start of the 2022 season:

I have to admit it’s the coolest thing of my whole life! Honestly, I’m over the moon. It’s a dream come true to take the win here in Morocco, and the plan is to carry this momentum on to the Dakar Rally.

The victory is Howes’ first-ever World Rally Raid Championship win.

Honda’s Ricky Brabec, also from the US, was 14th on the day, plummeting him down the race standings after some excellent finishes earlier. Brabec seemed to be happy for his result, given the difficulty of opening Stage 5.

The rally was great, overall it was good for the team to get together, do some testing, read some road books. The team did a good job working together. Today it was a bit tricky for us, we had to open the stage and try not to loose a minute. It’s really tough in rally to do that, so it was difficult for us. In the end we’re happy that we are on the podium, we are happy that the team is working great together. We’re looking forward to go to Andalucia and try to improve our speed and navigation.

Oh yeah, and in case you’re wondering how Adrien Van Beveren fared with Honda, where he moved after Yamaha closed its team down last winter? Van Beveren won Stage 5 and like Brabec, finished low in the race’s points, but was happy with his results:

Today it was a goods stage for me, I started in 5th position and that was great to reach the front group soon. The first kilometres were not easy, but I tried to be accurate in the navigation and lost much less time than the group upfront. The feeling was good, the terrain was nice – a lot more technical – and I went really fast. This was my first race with Honda and day after day I felt more comfortable in the bike. I know I am doing all the right steps to reach the next Dakar at the highest level.