diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/common.sh b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/common.sh
index 5dc71e3438..45d534f16a 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/common.sh
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/.github/workflows/common.sh
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ function prepare_git_repo() {
   # setup overlay repo inside SDK too (be fork friendly)
   git -C "${SDK_OUTER_SRCDIR}/third_party/coreos-overlay" remote add our_remote "${our_remote_url}"
   git -C "${SDK_OUTER_SRCDIR}/third_party/coreos-overlay" fetch our_remote
+  git -C "${SDK_OUTER_SRCDIR}/third_party/coreos-overlay" checkout -B "${BASE_BRANCH}" "our_remote/${BASE_BRANCH}"
 }
 
 # caller needs to set pass a parameter as a branch name to be created.