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Tag: Ross Branch
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Hero MotoSports’ Ross Branch wins 2nd place: Dakar 2024
Hero MotoSports Team Rally, the motorsport team of the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters – Hero MotoCorp, has created history becoming the first ever Indian manufacturer team to finish on the podium of the legendary Dakar Rally.
Ross Branch finished the Rally at the second place for the team. His consistent performance over the 12 stages saw him at the first and second spots in the overall rankings throughout the Rally. For the Indian manufacturer this is a phenomenal achievement and a solid validation for the many years of effort put into their racing program. The growth curve for the team has also been steep in the last few years – raking up a first Stage Win at Dakar 2022, doubling it to 2 Stage Wins in 2023, and eventually finishing on the podium in this edition. The team achieved two stage wins during this edition.
Hero MotoSports Team Rally was formed in 2016 and it participated in its first Dakar Rally in 2017. Over the years, the team has achieved multiple podiums, wins and stage wins at top rally-raids across the world. This edition of the Rally was extremely grueling and saw three of the four Hero riders drop out of the race during the first week – Joaquim Rodrigues and Sebastian Buhler suffered injuries, while Joan Barreda who displayed a fantastic performance in the first week, exited due to an unfortunate mechanical failure in Stage 6. The pressure on Ross Branch to continue in the race and continue in the top order was tremendous. However, the Botswanan Hero made it look easy – conquering every mile with a broad smile.
Dr. Arun Jaura, Chief Technology Officer, Hero MotoCorp and Team Principal, Hero MotoSports Team Rally: “This is a fantastic result for our young team! Hero MotoSports is truly the flag bearer of Indian motorsport. A few years ago, no one could have imagined that an Indian manufacturer team will be on the podium of Dakar Rally. Huge congratulations to Ross, Waffi and the entire team for this massive achievement. We will continue to build on this result.” Wolfgang Fischer, Team Manager & Head, Hero MotoSports Team Rally: “Truly a sensational result. It’s a big reward to reach the podium today. We started many years ago as small set-up within Hero MotoCorp and building on that every year we have reached here. So, many people have worked hard for us to reach here. We had a tough time in the first week of the Rally losing three of our four riders. However, Rossi carried forward our hopes, keeping a cool head to bring home success in this very difficult Dakar. At the end, by overcoming many obstacles we are on the podium. This 2nd place podium I want to dedicate to Paulo Goncalves, we carry his never-give-up attitude deeply in our team.” In its fifth year at Saudi Arabia, the 2024 edition was undoubtedly the toughest Dakar so far – longer stages, extreme terrains, and confusing navigation right from the start. Two new formats of racing were also introduced by the organizers to add more spice – a marathon stage early on in the race, and a 48H chrono stage during which the competitors were split across several bivouacs – away from their teams, and surviving on bare minimum essentials. As many as one-third of the competitors who started the race retired from the rally across the 14 days of grind. To get to a Dakar podium is no small feat – a thousand things need to be right, and yet, each kilometer of these many thousands can destroy a result with a tiny mistake. 8,000 kilometers at the world’s toughest rally conquered with a top-2 result – Hero has made it clear they’re here to stay.
Dr. Arun Jaura, Chief Technology Officer, Hero MotoCorp and Team Principal, Hero MotoSports Team Rally: “This is a fantastic result for our young team! Hero MotoSports is truly the flag bearer of Indian motorsport. A few years ago, no one could have imagined that an Indian manufacturer team will be on the podium of Dakar Rally. Huge congratulations to Ross, Waffi and the entire team for this massive achievement. We will continue to build on this result.”
Wolfgang Fischer, Team Manager & Head, Hero MotoSports Team Rally: “Truly a sensational result. It’s a big reward to reach the podium today. We started many years ago as small set-up within Hero MotoCorp and building on that every year we have reached here. So, many people have worked hard for us to reach here. We had a tough time in the first week of the Rally losing three of our four riders. However, Rossi carried forward our hopes, keeping a cool head to bring home success in this very difficult Dakar. At the end, by overcoming many obstacles we are on the podium. This 2nd place podium I want to dedicate to Paulo Goncalves, we carry his never-give-up attitude deeply in our team.”
“Many thanks to the Chairman Dr. Munjal, the entire Hero family across the globe and all our fans, supporters and partners. We will continue to build on this success.”
Ross Branch, Team Rider, Hero MotoSports Team Rally: “Finally finished the Dakar!! It was a really tough Dakar 2024, and I’m so thrilled to be here! Finishing on the podium was always the goal, and today it’s a dream come true. I’m really over the moon to achieve this goal for Hero. And a big thank you to the team for developing a highly competitive machine, for the sleepless 3 weeks here, and for everything they’ve sacrificed to reach to this point. I’m really proud of my team. We’ve got some more work to do to be on the next step, so we’ll look forward to that in the next year. A big thank you to everyone for your continued support from all around the world!”
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Pune mariner Ashish Raorane completes Stage 4 in P28
Abu Dhabi, 2 March 2023: Indian star Ashish Raorane, the mariner from Pune, continued his onward march completing one more day with guts and determination braving an injury and finished Stage 4, a noteworthy 28th Overall, in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge on Day 5 on Thursday.
The gutsy rider clocked 5 hours, 37min, 50seconds and was 1hr,50:42sec behind the leaders including a penalty time of nine minutes but his daring feat carrying a painful arm made it all the more sweet. The Indian needs to finish the last stage tomorrow to put one more international rally raid event under his belt.
He finished 15th in Rally2 class today for a cumulative standing of 11th in his class and Overall P28 today and his 28th in the Overall standings remains as it is.
Earlier in the morning, a thick blanket of fog descended upon the penultimate stage, delaying the start of the motorbike race by two hours and shortening the car special to 173 kilometres.
The #34 Xraids Experience rider has encountered a fall on Day 2 and met his worse incident yesterday where he suffered a ruptured bicep muscle but bravely recovered and continued for another about 100Km. Today the disciplined warrior lost a bit of time but successfully conquered the marathon stage.
Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna) claimed his second win in the motorbike category, while Pablo Quintanilla, who started the stage in second place overall, is out of contention after his Honda gave up the ghost 250 km into the special. His teammate Adrien Van Beveren still tops the leader board.
In the cars section, Sébastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) took the car stage. Yazeed Al Rajhi (Overdrive Racing) is more than 10 minutes clear of Martin Prokop (Benzina Orlen Team) and 20 minutes ahead of Denis Krotov (X-raid Mini JCW) in the overall.
FIM: Hero’s Ross Branch third
Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing) grabbed his second stage win after dominating the special from A to Z. Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda), who seized the overall lead two days ago, finished second on the day at 3′22″.
Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports) came in third at 4′06″. Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) finished seventh at 9′01″ after opening the way this morning. Benavides surged up the general standings, where he is now the Frenchman’s closest pursuer at 2′58″.
The Chilean Nacho Cornejo has finally placed his Honda on the provisional podium, 6′14″ behind his teammate. Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports) is fourth at 6′38″. Skyler Howes (Husqvarna Factory Racing) sits in fifth place at 7′16″.
Toby Price slipped down to sixth at 8′35″. Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) is seventh at 8′52″. Less than 9 minutes separate the top 7. Benavides will be starting tomorrow’s stage right before the overall leader —an unenviable position for the Argentinian to find himself in.
However, other riders are in with a shout too, with the next five competitors in the standings a mere 6 to 9 minutes off the pace. The race is still wide open among the top 7, who will settle their differences in a finale stretching for more than 200 kilometres.
In the Rally2 category, Paolo Lucci, the hegemon of the race since Day 1, conceded buckets of time following a crash with 20 kilometres to go. The BAS World KTM Racing rider surrendered the lead to Jean-Loup Lepan (Duust Diverse Racing) and is now almost 11 minutes down.
In the quad race, Abdulaziz Ahli (Abu Dhabi Team) picked up his third victory by over 16 minutes on Laisvydas Kancius (AG Dakar School), padding his overall lead and all but wrapping up his third title in a row.
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Ashish finishes despite fumes in fuel tank and an airbag pop-out!
Qsar Al Sarab (Abu Dhabi), 27 Feb 2023: Pune mariner Ashish Raorane, the lone Indian rider at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge overcame all odds in the first stage to post a creditable time of 1hour, 17min, 44seconds for the 404 km stage of the day between Al Dhannah city and Qasr Al Sarab in the Liwa desert that also included a first liaison of 59 km here on Monday.
The Indian finished Stage 1 in a hard-fought 10th place in his Rally2 class and was 23rd Overall after starting from P24 despite all the hiccups on Day 1 as he completed 242 km of timed run. Meanwhile, the Hero MotoSports Rally team Ross Branch finished overall fourth, a mere three seconds behind Toby Price. Branch finished third but after the route openers bonuses were added, he dropped to fourth.
Starting 24th, Ashish, the fifth Dakar athlete from India, began the day well but after about 100km suffered a jolt when he lost his front petrol tank. due to a broken fuel hose and was forced to slow down with a view to complete the remaining distance of about 140km of competitive run. But at the 192km-mark, the Indian faced another bombarding shock of a hard landing that opened up his airbags. Undaunted, the rally-raid athlete supported by Rynox gears, Dosmoto design, Gaerne and Lazyass Bikers continued his Day 1 sojourn and completed the Stage 1 of 242 km that was timed between Ghiyathi, which included some steep drops amidst the vast and daunting dunes, and the finish was judged near Tal Mor’eb. Later, he had to do a 103-km liaison, to joine the bivouac in the middle of the dunes.
“The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is living up to its name from the word go. The 242km of sand and dunes with some really hard to spot drop-offs saw many riders run out of fuel. The fuel-range anxiety was real today. After I lost my front fuel tank at around 204-km mark, I eased up and made the 192-km refueling mark on fumes in the rear fuel tank. Also the air bag getting deployed during the hard landing was a shocker which I was not expecting. Overall, it was a great physically demanding day on the bike,” said Ashish Raorane, the fifth Indian who gained the Dakar experience. He will be qualifying for the Dakar 2024 with this ADDC.
Tomorrow, the Stage distance would be 257 km and the transport section would be about 108 km.
Ashish Raorane Parters: Spares & Accessories partner: MotoUsher (Insta – @motousher)
Technical partner: Slipstream Performance (Insta – @slipstreamperformance)Key points of the Rally:
· The winners of the prologue in the car and motorbike categories successfully navigated the first stage of the ADDC, held on a never-seen-before course, and stayed in control of the race following the opener.
· Toyota dominated the car stage, with Nasser Al Attiyah preceding Yazeed Al Rajhi and Henk Lategan. Meanwhile, at BRX, Sébastien Loeb failed to finish the special due to a mechanical and Guerlain Chicherit withdrew from the race after falling ill in the dunes.
· Just like yesterday, Pablo Quintanilla prevailed over Adrien Van Beveren in the motorbike stage. The two Honda riders continue to top the leader board, with Toby Price third overall.
FIA: AL ATTIYAH LAYS DOWN A MARKER
Nasser Al Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) was probably braced for a fierce competition with his main rivals for the championship. The overall leader, Sébastien Loeb (Bahrain Raid Xtreme), ground down to a standstill with coolant hose issues a mere 39 kilometres into the race. His subsequent withdrawal from the race spells the end of his ADDC title challenge and echoed his nightmare from last year, when he also had to throw in the towel on day one. However, this time round, his Qatari rival was not kind enough to follow him down the boulevard of broken dreams! Instead, Guerlain Chicherit, the other Prodrive entrant, who had been close behind the factory Hilux at the first checkpoint, also ran into serious trouble. The Frenchman had to stop several times following a bout of “sea sickness”… in a sea of dunes. In the end, he decided to quit the race despite finishing the stage in third place overall. Toyota scored a clean sweep, with the three Hilux drivers, Nasser Al Attiyah, Yazeed Al Rajhi and Henk Lategan, hogging the top 3 in the stage and the general standings. In the T3 category, Seth Quintero (Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA) outgunned his teammate Austin Jones. The world championship leader produced a gutsy ride to take the runner-up’s spot. Although there were valuable points on the line, the American rushed to the aid of his teammate Cristina Gutiérrez (Red Bull Can-Am Factory) without thinking twice after she ran out of fuel. Mattias Ekström, who held second place in the category for much of the stage, shared the Spaniard’s fate. Meanwhile, Rokas Baciuška (Red Bull Can-Am Factory) grabbed the T4 stage. Pau Navarro (FN Speed), who came in just over 5 minutes behind the stage winner and provisional leader, is shaping up to be his arch-rival in this round.
FIM: HONDA TIGHTEN THEIR GRIP
Pablo Quintanilla and his teammate Adrien Van Beveren (Monster Energy Honda), the fastest men in yesterday’s prologue, were untouchable again today. The Chilean bagged the special with two minutes to spare over the Frenchman, with Ross Branch (Hero MotoSports) in third place at 3′14″ down. Another Honda rider, “Nacho” Cornejo, posted the fourth fastest time at 4′16″. Toby Price (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) came in fifth at 4′37″. In the general standings following stage 1, adding the times in today’s special to those in the prologue, which were multiplied by a coefficient of 8 in accordance with the championship rules, Quintanilla is 2′16″ ahead of “VBA” and 5′17″ clear of Price. Branch is fourth, a meagre 3 seconds behind the factory KTM rider. In the Rally2 competition, Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing) took over the reins of the race from Konrad Dąbrowski (Duust Diverse Racing), 5 minutes back today. The Pole is still within 2 minutes of the Italian in the rankings. Jean-Loup Lepan (Duust Diverse Racing) is third in the provisional W2RC standings at 8′35″. Toni Mulec (BAS World KTM Racing) also ran out of petrol before the refuelling station and is now fourth, 35 minutes behind the leader. Abdulaziz Ahli hit the ground running in the quad race, putting over twenty minutes into Rodolfo Guillioli in both the stage and the overall. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Laisvydas Kancius is almost 45 minutes down on the Emirati after screeching to a halt.
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Hero MotoSports team begins with bang; Branch3rd in Prologue: Dakar 2023
Yanbu (Saudi Arabia), 31 Dec 2022: Hero MotoSports Team Rally, began Dakar 2023 on a strong note with all the three riders finishing in the top-8 and Ross Branch clockling a blistering 8min 31sec to take the third spot in the opening Prologue that set the world’s toughest and dangerous rally rolling in the desert sands on Saturday.
Branch finished third behind leader Toby Price and Daniel Sanders, both from Australia. J Rod finished sixth, Sebastian Buhler was 8th and Franco Caimi was 22nd..
Hero MotoSports Team Rally, the motorsport team of Hero MotoCorp, has fielded four riders for the Dakar Rally 2023 marking the team’s seventh consecutive appearance at the Dakar.
At Dakar 2022, Hero MotoSports became the first Indian manufacturer’s team to win a stage at the prestigious rally and now for Dakar 2023, the team will have a rider squad of four members – Franco Caimi, Joaquim Rodrigues, Ross Branch, and Sebastian Buhler – two of them being Dakar stage winners.
Dakar 2023 marks the seventh Dakar for Joaquim Rodrigues (JRod), who won a stage at the Dakar 2022 and is returning to Saudi Arabia with the hopes of rewriting his success. JRod has been with the team since its inception in 2016.
The team spent several months in training and testing around the world. Team riders Caimi and Buhler returned to racing after several months of recovery from their crashes in 2021.
This is the seventh Dakar for Joaquim Rodrigues (JRod), who won a stage at the Dakar 2022. After its inception in 2016, the Hero team started taking part in the Dakar from 2017 with pioneer CS Santosh becoming the first to complete the gruelling Dakar representing Hero.
JRod’s performances at the inaugural season of the World Rally Raid Championship (W2RC) were consistent and he is returning to Saudi Arabia with the hopes of rewriting his success.
It will be the first Dakar for Ross Branch in Hero MotoSports Team Rally colors after coming on board in February 2022. Ross, however, is no stranger to the Dakar, having participated in the Rally on four previous occasions, and achieving a stage win in 2020. His performance in the first year with Hero MotoSports has been great, as he brought several stage wins and stage podiums for the team at various international rallies.
Caimi and Buhler missed the 2022 Dakar owing to unfortunate crashes in the last months preceding the Rally. However, they have recovered well over the year, and have put up highly competitive performances at the last few races of the W2RC 2022.
