American rally racer Skyler Howes has officially 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 the Husqvarna Factory Racing team and later the Monster Energy Honda HRC factory effort where he recently spent last three seasons. The Utah native is set to make his racing debut on the ZXMoto machine at the upcoming Rallye du Maroc which also marks the manufacturer’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 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 really 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 Maroc. 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 discipline 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 serves as part of ZXMoto’s broader plan to build their presence in international competition which includes current competition in the FIM Supersport World Championship and plans to race the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP).
Skyler Howes (RallyGP) and Tobias Ebster (Rally2) are the teams two riders for the Rallye OLA Energy du Maroc 2026, the fourth round of the 2026 World Rally-Raid Championship, which takes place from September 28 to October 3.
