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Skyler Howes Joins ZXMoto Rally Team A merican rally racer Skyler Howes has of- ficially joined the ZXMoto Joyride Factory Rally Team as he gears up for the Chinese brand's entry into the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC). Howes previously raced as a privateer in the Dakar Rally before joining Husqvarna Factory Racing and later the Monster Energy Honda HRC factory effort, where he spent the past three seasons. The Utah native is set to make his racing debut on the ZXMoto machine this week at the Rallye du Maroc, which also marks the manufactur- er's first appearance in the W2RC. "Very excited to announce that I've signed with the ZXMoto Joyride factory rally team," Howes said on social media. "This is an awesome opportunity for me to partner with a manufacturer from the beginning and be a part of the development of the bikes and team. I'm really impressed with what the team has been able to accomplish so far and I'm very excited to see what we can do together in the future. Zhang Xue's story is inspiring and I'm happy to partner with such a motivated and passionate company. I've only spent a few hours on the bike so far and we are now going to jump directly into the Rallye du Ma- roc. This will be a great first test in the desert and I'm looking forward to getting to work." "Skyler brings years of racing at the highest level, and together we're taking the ZXMoto 450 Rally to the next level, pushing harder, going faster and developing a machine built to fight at the front," the company said. "We bring our experience, our knowledge of the disci- pline and the structure required to develop the project under real-world testing and racing conditions. The relationship between ZXMoto, its engineers, the riders and Joyride Race Service is very direct. The idea is to work as a single project, where information gathered on track quickly reaches the factory and can be translated into concrete improvements to the bike." The new ZXMoto rally program is led by the Spanish outfit Joyride Race Service. The team includes Armand Monleon, a former rider who moved into car co-driving and finished second in the 2025 FIA W2RC World Championship as a navigator. Sergi Duran Sanchez serves as team manager. This step is part of ZXMoto's broader plan to build its presence in interna- tional competition, which includes current participation in the FIM Supersport World Championship and plans to race in the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP). Howes (RallyGP) and Tobias Ebster (Rally2) are the team's two riders for the Rallye OLA Energy du Maroc 2026, the fourth round of the 2026 World Rally-Raid Championship, sched- uled for September 28 to October 3. CN WIND IN THE P38 Skyler Howes officially joined the newly formed ZXMoto Joyride Factory Rally Team. He'll debut with the team at this week's Rallye du Maroc.