Branch cruising well in Dakar Rally debut

  • He is the second highest rookie after stage 5

BONGANI MALUNGA

Making his Dakar Rally debut appears to be a thrilling ride for Botswana star Ross Branch as he is currently ranked 18th in stage 5 of the Peru held competition. On Sunday Branch finished in the 18th spot in the motorbike division, as a result he was the second highest ranked rookie in the top 20, the other top performing rookie was Portugal’s Antonio Maio who finished 17th.

Branch is the second best rookie in the category, him and Maio have managed to outshine 32 other newcomers in the competition who are still adapting to the race. On Friday he clocked 4 hours, 43 minutes and 10 seconds to finish 18th.

There are five more stages to go in the competition but so far Branch has managed to keep himself amongst the top 25 racers in the last four stages, he has adapted reasonably well to the gruelling Dakar Rally. In total, there are 105 participants in the bike category but Branch has cemented his place amongst the top 25, as far as his early form is concerned.

Ross’ Dakar Rally progress

In stage 1 Branch finished 37th, in stage 2 he improved by finishing 25th. In stage 3 he produced his best performance to date, he finished 18th but he also recorded his best time of 4 hrs, 4 minutes and 25 seconds.  Last week Thursday, in stage 4, he finished 22nd before finishing 18th again in stage 5 as already mentioned above.