Soft sand and fast flowing stages test competitor endurance

Today was the longest distance travelled for Australasian Safari competitors as they raced in three stages totalling 662 competitive kilometres in a looped course around Laverton in Western Australia’s northern goldfields on the edge of the Great Northern Desert.

It was South Australian Shane Diener’s day, winning all three stages on his Yamaha WR450. Jacob Smith and Todd Smith swapped second place in the stages, with Jacob second fastest in two of the three. Todd Smith is still in the overall moto lead by approximately 10 minutes.

“Today was pretty fast and the navigation wasn’t too tricky. We caught a bit of rain, there were pools of water on the track but this didn’t cause any problems. The bike is going well which helps!” Diener said.

The Smith brothers from country New South Wales both enjoyed the sandy tracks and fast pace and are both enjoying being on the same team this year.

“Another good day up front. Shane Diener pulled some time on me today I think. We definitely did some revving today! You be flat out for 10ks straight, then turn and have the same again and again. The leading three remained fairly close to the finish, but it feels good to be where I want to be.”

Jacob also had a good day. “It was a bit tricky at the start, but after that the navigation was straight forward. It’s heaps better this year being in the same team as my brother Todd as we can help each other out. Todd is in the hot seat and the race is really his to lose now,” he said.

Rod Faggotter is managing to hold onto fourth fastest position despite having a broken hand sustained in Leg 2.

Dakar champion and first-time Safari entrant Cyril Despres is holding onto fifth position overall and is still getting on top of a different style of racing.

“This is not the race I was expecting and I am taking it like a training day – not pushing to ride as fast as possible. I enjoyed the sandy tracks and was able to test the bike a bit,” Despres said.

“There was a nice 80 kilometre or so section of twisty sandy track early on this morning that was fun to ride, and then after that I took it easy again. Very unusually here it actually rained quite hard, which caught everybody by surprise. Naturally I wasn’t really equipped for those kinds of conditions and got soaked to the skin. Back in the bivouac I can feel a cold coming on nicely!”

The Smith brothers are currently leading the Safari Overall. If you want more information on their Safari efforts then check out their daily blog.

Overall Results after Leg 4

1. Todd Smith
2. Jake Smith
3. Shane Diener
4. Rod Faggotter
5. Cyril Despres
6. Damien Grabham
7. Ben William
8. David Schwarz
9. David Geeves
10. Russell Scoble