{"id":58555,"date":"2024-10-15T20:42:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T18:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=58555"},"modified":"2024-10-15T20:42:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T18:42:32","slug":"south-africas-brad-cox-crowned-world-rally2-champion-in-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/more-sport\/south-africas-brad-cox-crowned-world-rally2-champion-in-morocco\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s Brad Cox crowned World Rally2 Champion in Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"

After an exemplary year in MotoSports, South African Brad Cox (26) has achieved his goal after being crowned the World Rally2 Champion in the 2024 Rallye Du Maroc, World Rally-Raid Championship last weekend. Brad, who races for BAS World KTM Racing, scored a double whammy by winning the rally and the title in Morocco, snatching the championship from Romain Dumontier (Team Honda) with Konrad D\u0105browski (Duust Rally) coming third.<\/span><\/p>\n

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His exceptional achievement caught the attention of the\u00a0Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture of South Africa, Gayton McKenzie, who took to social media to congratulate the young competitor, saying: \u201c26-year-old South African Bradley Cox has won the World Rally 2 Rally Raid Championship for 2024. This is really fitting because next year we are hosting the big one, W2RC, in SA.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Minister is referencing the fact that South Africa is set to host the third round of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) from 18 to 24 May 2025 in North West and Limpopo. The event will feature diverse terrain, with the race route traversing bushveld plateaus, river crossings, and savannah plains in the areas of Sun City, Thabazimbi, and the agricultural heart of North West.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Excitement is mounting for the event following Brad\u2019s impressive win on his new 2025 KTM 450 Rally Factory Replica – as a privateer rather than a factory rider – which is made even more special by the fact that friend and mentor, Ross Branch (Botswana) won the RallyGP World Championship in Morocco. RallyGP is the top moto class with riders and manufacturers eligible for the World Championship in FIM rankings. This class is only open to the most experienced competitors while Rally2 is available to any rider not yet considered RallyGP. With his recent victory, Brad will now compete in the next Dakar Rally in the RallyGP class.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Speaking after the event, Brad, who shares his passion for the sport with his father, the ex-KTM factory rider, Alfie Cox, said: \u201cComing in I was down eight points and while there was a chance to be champion, really the week had to fall perfectly for me and it did. From the start, I had my goal set and put my head down, knowing that for the next five days I would do whatever it takes to win \u2013 and that\u2019s what happened! Every day I got better and better.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cHaving the title \u2018World Champion\u2019 next to your name is great, and I\u2019m really proud. Proud of the effort it took and the sacrifices to get to this point. It\u2019s not just me, it’s my team, my family, my sponsors\u2026it\u2019s a massive group effort and to have it payoff is amazing. Now we get ready for Dakar. This is a building block and has given me the confidence, and hopefully, Dakar can go as well as this week has!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Commenting on Brad\u2019s performance, Bart van der Velden, the BAS World KTM Racing Team Manager said, \u201cIt was great to see that all the training and hard work he\u2019s put in over the last few years has paid off. In the past year-and-a-half, Brad has taken big steps in his navigation and his training. It\u2019s been a lot of effort so everyone in the team is really happy for him. I\u2019m confident in the upcoming Dakar. Morocco was a test \u2013 the first outing on the new bike \u2013 and we\u2019re all so happy it worked out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Earlier this year, Brad competed in the Dakar Rally, which was described as one of the most challenging races on record, where he put on an impressive performance in the Rally2 category, finishing 13th overall in the Bike Category. He was also the only South African to make it to the Top 20 overall in the contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Brad was able to compete with the help of generous sponsors who were committed to backing his racing dream. These included Toyota Gazoo Racing, ASP international rope access, Bas World KTM Racing Team, Leader Tread, Trollope Mining, Face First Media, PSlaser Racing, KTM South Africa, Airoh Helmets, Gaerne Boots, Shot Racing, TRP Distributors, 100%, USN, USWE, and Red Bull.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Keep updated on Brad Cox\u2019s Rally2 journey by following his social media handles:<\/span><\/p>\n

Instagram: <\/span>@bradcox34<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook: <\/span>Bradley cox #34<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

X: <\/span>@bradleycox34<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After an exemplary year in MotoSports, South African Brad Cox (26) has achieved his goal after being crowned the World Rally2 Champion in the 2024 Rallye Du Maroc, World Rally-Raid Championship last weekend. Brad, who races for BAS World KTM Racing, scored a double whammy by winning the rally and the title in Morocco, snatching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4415],"class_list":["post-58555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-olivia-jones-communications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}