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Ross BRANCH

(bwa) 1.74m / 79kg

Hobbies

mountain bikes, golf, adventures

Sponsors

Hero Motosports

Vehicle

Brand: Hero Motosports
Model: 450 Rally
Preparator: Hero Motosport Team Rally
Assistance: Hero Motosport Team Rally
Class: RallyGP

Rankings

2022: 13rd

Other rallies
2021: 10th Silk Way Rally
2019 : 2nd Merzouga Rally
3-time South-African cross-country champion
Botswana 1000 Desert Race (7 victories)
Motocross African champion (6 times)

The Ferrari gets a respray

Nicknamed the 'Kalahari Ferrari' by Botswana fans, in a nod to a fast local donkey drawn cart, Ross Branch is a star back home, having won every possible local motocross and cross-country championship. In 2019, for his first Dakar outing, he finished ‘best rookie’ with an impressive 13th place. It is hard to find a more enthusiastic, more positive rider in the bivouac. He’s living the dream and he doesn’t mind who knows it. On the 2020 Dakar he won his first special stage before finishing in 21st place - enough to get himself noticed by the Yamaha factory team. But that 2021 edition, his first as a factory rider, didn’t go according to plan… and three days after making it to the rest day in the Top 5 it ended in tears. A ‘stupid’ crash and a rear sprocket ripped off the hub ended his hopes of finishing the Dakar in style. Last season, in addition to flying at least twice a week as a commercial airline pilot, Branch competed in three rounds of the FIM World Cross Country Championship. The season started perfectly with a win in Kazakhstan, his first international success. Ross followed that up with a 10th place on the Silkway before rounding off the season with a 25th place in Morocco. In January, Ross injured his leg after a big crash on stage 6. The Botswanan started again the next day, even posting the 12th fastest time, before withdrawing from the race, in too much pain to continue. At the end of the Dakar, Yamaha let ‘the Ferrari’ go to join the ranks of Hero Motorsports. There he was reunited with his former teammate Franco Caimi, who has been with Hero since April 2021. The second round of the W2RC was a double first for Branch, who simultaneously discovered both the Abu Dhabi race and his new Indian Hero bike for the first time under race conditions, with a modest 13 th place for his trouble. A transition season for the Botswanan who brings the Hero team numbers up to four, just like their W2RC rivals.

Ranking 2022

Total
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