Bell 400 – Victory for Ross Branch

THE Botswana rider, Ross Branch (Brother KTM) claimed his first victory in the 2014 National Off-road Championship when he won the motorcycle category of the BELL 400, the third round of the series that took place on May 10, outside Vryheid at Kambula. While Branch won on two wheels, Brian Baragwanath (Team Rhide SA Yamaha) scored a hat trick of victories by winning the quad category for the third time this season and claiming his second consecutive BELL 400 victory.
Branch, who finished second overall and in OR1 (Open Class) at the previous two events, took the lead from the start of the 360 kilometre event held in dry and dusty conditions to beat the defending champion, Kenny Gilbert (Proudly Bidvest Yamaha) by just under two minutes. There was also a first overall podium position for his team-mate, Louw Schmidt, who not only won the OR3 (200cc Class) for the third time this season, but finished third overall. On four wheels Baragwanath was left on his own at the front when defending title holder, Jurie ‘Botter’ Meyer (Yamaha Race Support) caught up from starting seventh, but he had to call it a day just after the halfway mark when he experienced engine problems. André du Plessis (Yamaha) also chased hard and worked his way onto a possible podium when he was forced to retire on the last lap due to engine problems.

There were also problems for Jaco Moller (Extreme ATV Tzaneen Yamaha); Hannes Saaijman (Team Rhide SA Yamaha); Berné Bester (NUTS Racing / Century Civils Suzuki) and the Senior Class championship leader, Stuart Freeman (PS Diamond Trailers Yamaha) who all had to walk away empty handed after a testing BELL 400.

The Bethlehem rider, David Hollis (Yamaha) overcame a variety of issues to claim his second consecutive runner-up result despite finishing more than 20 minutes behind Baragwanath (he was also second in Q1). Hollis finished just over half a minute ahead of Justin Robert (Sign Wonder Racing Suzuki) who won Q2 and claimed his first overall podium position despite experiencing clutch problems. André Park (Yamaha) was fourth with Franco Annandale (Boesman Racing Suzuki) rounding off the top five.

On two wheels Jarryd Coetzee (PrintAfford.com Honda) scored his best result to date by finishing fourth overall (second in OR3) beating Tim Young (Kargo Racing Yamaha) by a mere four seconds after being compensated for assisting a fellow rider who crashed. Young, who finished third behind Gilbert in OR1, was again only seven seconds faster than Juan ‘Bollie’ van Rooyen (Brother KTM) who won the Senior Class for the third time this year.
His closest opposition, defending champion Pieter Holl (Bert Smith All Stars Racing Powered by RAD KTM*) was 17th overall with former champ, Wayne Farmer (KTM) rounding off the Senior Class podium – he finished 24th overall. Another former Senior Class champion, Guy Henley (KTM) was fourth in the class followed by Holl’s team-mate, Bert Smith. The National Off-road Championship will continue on 14 June with the Vryburg Stella 400 that will take place from Stella in the North-West Province. This event will be the fourth and final 360 kilometre race and the championship will be rounded off with two 180 kilometre Sprint Events in August and September.
For more information and complete results of the BELL 400, visit www.dirtracing.co.za / Dirt Racing on Facebook / @DirtRacing (Twitter).