It’s no secret that motorsports is an expensive sport to get into. Rally raid is no exception and reigning W2RC bike champion Ross Branch is well aware of this, as he explained in an interview with SportsBoom.

“Unfortunately, the downfall of the sport is that it is very expensive,” he stated. “It’s similar to Formula One and MotoGP; it can be quite costly to get into the sport. To participate in the Dakar Rally can cost around two million rands (USD$105,638) just to be able to go and race there, so it’s very expensive.”

Even after winning the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship and being a factory rider for Hero since 2023, Branch still works part-time as a pilot for Mack Air to make ends meet.

It can be even harder to break into cross-country rally for those in countries where it is not a popular discipline. Defending Dakar Rally bike winner Ricky Brabec told SportsBoom last year that his fellow Americans have struggled to find their footing in the sport save for certain exceptions, mainly because of how scarce factory support is. This trend can extend to American off-road racing in general too, where manufacturer support in short course and desert racing have tapered from their peak in the 1980s and 1990s. Rally raid is more susceptible since it is harder for fans to follow a race in the open desert compared to closed tracks.

Africa, on the other hand, is certainly no stranger. The Dakar Rally began as a race from Europe to Senegal, crossing through a myriad of African countries, while the South African Rally-Raid Championship is considered one of the discipline’s top national series today. The W2RC also has two dates on the continent with the new South African Safari Rally in May and the season-ending Rallye du Maroc in October.

Branch is a three-time SARRC champion, and he’s hopeful that becoming the first African W2RC champ will inspire other Africans to get involved.

“The big thing now is that people realize that it’s possible for Africans to participate in the sport,” Branch continued. “Hopefully from now on it will get a little bit easier, and we can have a few training academies opened up in the near future to train kids and give them the opportunities they deserve.”

Four stages into the 2025 Dakar Rally, Branch sits third overall. He finished second in 2024.

Featured image credit: Bastien Roux / DPPI