diff --git a/eng/pipelines/vmr-build-internal.yml b/eng/pipelines/vmr-build-internal.yml
index d4bd11578..62812391e 100644
--- a/eng/pipelines/vmr-build-internal.yml
+++ b/eng/pipelines/vmr-build-internal.yml
@@ -23,14 +23,14 @@ variables:
     value: ${{ replace(parameters.vmrBranch, ' ', '') }}
 - ${{ else }}:
   - name: VmrBranch
-    value: ${{ replace(replace(variables['System.PullRequest.TargetBranch'], 'refs/heads/', ''), 'refs/pull/', '') }}
+    value: release/8.0.1xx-rc1
 
 resources:
   repositories:
   - repository: vmr
     type: git
     name: dotnet-dotnet
-    ref: ${{ variables.VmrBranch }}
+    ref: $(VmrBranch)
 
 stages:
 # You can temporarily disable the VMR Build stage by changing the default of disableVmrBuild
diff --git a/eng/pipelines/vmr-build.yml b/eng/pipelines/vmr-build.yml
index a675aed38..1b122b4f7 100644
--- a/eng/pipelines/vmr-build.yml
+++ b/eng/pipelines/vmr-build.yml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ variables:
     value: ${{ replace(parameters.vmrBranch, ' ', '') }}
 - ${{ else }}:
   - name: VmrBranch
-    value: ${{ replace(replace(variables['System.PullRequest.TargetBranch'], 'refs/heads/', ''), 'refs/pull/', '') }}
+    value: release/8.0.1xx-rc1
 
 resources:
   repositories:
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ resources:
     type: github
     name: dotnet/dotnet
     endpoint: dotnet
-    ref: ${{ variables.VmrBranch }}
+    ref: $(VmrBranch)
 
 stages:
 # You can temporarily disable the VMR Build stage by setting the disableVmrBuild variable