Branch staring at World Championship
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday October 4, 2024 15:51
The local biker will face the last 2, 468km of the World Championship in the Rallye du Maroc, which is the Morocco Rally. Branch currently holds a slim lead in the World Championship rankings. He has accumulated 72 points from the first rounds and is just nine ahead of American racer, Ricky Brabec, who has 63 points whilst Adrien van Beveren of France sits in third place with 56 points. It was a great start for Branch as he finished second in round one of the 2024 W2RC, the Dakar Rally and accumulated 30 points in January. It was his best-ever finish at the world racing's most demanding contest.
The Jwaneng lad went on to secure yet another second-place finish in the second round of the Abu Dhabi Dessert Challenge and bagged 20 points. It was a slower finish at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid in Portugal as he finished fifth and added 11 points. He got a further 11 points with a fifth-place finish at the Desafio Ruta 40 in Argentina to take his season tally to 72 points. Branch has been a constant feature in all four rounds of the World Championship top-five finishes this season. His goal would be to win the Morocco Rally and hope his title rivals falter. The top rider, along with his rivals, will begin with a 74km prologue run before they venture into a 496km distance on day one. A total of 475km will follow in stage two before the longest of the stages on day three with 676km. On stage four, the competitors will race for 373km and they will conclude the World Championship with 374km of the Morocco Rally. Branch had made significant improvement at last year's World Championship as he finished fourth. It was Branch's best season in the W2RC as he jumped nine places from 2022's 13th place finish to fourth this year. Branch had accumulated 58 points in the race as he missed the podium places by 16 points.