Leg 7. Final stages!

Well, it’s the final day! Today was an all sand day! The competitors set off on a 22KM loop around Pink Lake just west of Esperance. These dunes are notoriously soft and reports came quickly of officials and the course “Double 0” car getting stuck before the riders and drivers had even got there.

After the 22 km the competitors would transport from the Pink Lake area over to the east side of town to the Bandy Creek side. There, a 5KM course had been logged on the road book and because of a local Aboriginal group claiming some BS that had gone to court the Safari had to run this twice rather than the original 40KM section laid out.
Rather than go on and on I will simply throw some pictures up.
Right now I don’t have access to the final results, or even the tentative ones, because our WiFi has been moved to a different location till later tonight. Besides that, it’s time for the presentation dinner and beers.

Kenny Scott finished 6th Overall in the 2010 Australasian Safari

Annie Seel had a slow speed tip over here. Amazing she swears in PERFECT english.....

Victoria's Glenn Brown got the big Aprilia 550 to the finish in 17th Overall.

Darrin Appleby from WA went down here. Then............

His mate Josh Petrig from Bunbury WA followed suit

Heath Young from WA crests one of the many sand dunes from today.

German Media correspondent slept here last night. His bed remained un touched about 6 feet from here.

Shane Diener jumps into the dune section on Leg 7. He would end up 32nd after having a bad day on Leg 4.

John Maragozidis blows out a berm on his Quad

Phil Penalurick finished 21st

Graham Grant muscled the 1983 BMW GS R65 home in 30th!!!

Look for some big news about the Safari to come soon. I hope you have enjoyed the blog and again, you can find more info here: http://www.marathonrally.com/ , http://www.bikesales.com.au/ and please check out my foundation and help us in the fight against breast cancer by clicking "like" on our face book page from the foundation home page: http://www.maleyfoundation.com/

Leg 6, Norseman to Esperance

Well, not too much to report today. The Safari left Norseman this morning and had an 8 kilometer transport stage before getting right into the nitty gritty. This year the organizers really have thrown everything in there arsenal at the riders. The day started out fast and then got really tight in the Salmon Gums of the area before heading out around some fast dry lake beds and across some big fields, then back into the tight stuff.
Two Stages were run with the first in the shire of Dundas and the second crossing into the Shire of Esperance. Esperance is one of Australia’s most beautiful towns and is well worth checking out here: http://www.visitesperance.com/

Esperance. View from the look out.

The stages were short today and although I am the US Ambassador for this event I feel this needs to be addressed. Safari’s and rally’s should be just that. Long and challenging. This years event has definitely had the long and challenging but I agree with a lot of the riders in thinking that many of the legs (days) seem like too much of a sprint.

Well, enough of my whining, here are some results. Ben Grabham has extended his lead during the two stages run today and now sits on an overall time of 24.14.36 with a 18+ minute lead over Todd Smith 24.33.28. Matthew Fish is creeping up and taking advantage of some of the riders that have DNF’d so far. He is 25.18.28 overall. David Schwarz and David Beavis. Unfortunately Rod Faggotter decided not to start this morning after suffering a broken hand yesterday. Faggotter finished yesterdays leg with the injury which was 166 Kilometers after it occurred. Annie Seel has been slowly creeping up the leader board and currently sits in 15^th, down just under 5 minutes from Western Australia’s Steve Cooney who sits in 14th.

Ben Grabham at the start of todays leg. About 15 Kilometres out of Norseman

Jose Rorigues Filho "Pastry" has been going fast the last couple of days. He sits 18th now after losing time the second day.

Like I said at the start, there is not much to report so far. No drama yet and everyone seems to have made it through the leg so far. If I hear anything news worthy I will be sure to post it.
For those that do not know yet but are interested, my foundation “The Maley Foundation” is doing a Breast Cancer Fund Raiser in February next year. We are doing a ride across America on Scooters. Starting in Oceanside California we will traverse the country and finishing at the Daytona Supercross on March 6^th having covered only 61 miles of freeway, with the rest of the ride being back roads. You can find out more about the event by visiting my foundation here: http://www.maleyfoundation.com/
Be sure to check http://www.transmoto.com.au/ , http://www.bikesales.com.au/ and http://www.marathonrally.com/ for more Safari information and coverage! Visit http://www.australasiansafari.com.au/ for all the official Safari information and drop me an email if you are interested in riding next year at: mxmaley51@gmail.com

I have been working on an idea to make the 2011 edition of the Safari a big thing for all the international riders and look to have brokered a deal to keep costs down. Stay tuned as i will iron things out in the coming weeks and will issue you ALL a challenge!

Leg 5 Encore

So here is the deal on this update. I walked around and took some pics today. Here they are:
Short and sweet.

Latest Results at bottom.

Lake Cowen near Norseman WA

Norseman bivouac

Jose Filho "Pastries" front wheel after hammering through todays stages.

Old school

Camping in an Aussie RV

Overall as they sit right now:

1st Ben Grabham 20.28.54
2nd Todd SMith 20.40.17
3rd Rod Faggotter 21.12.27
4th Matthew Fish 21.19.59
5th David Schwarz 23.07.06

Leg 5. Out of Norseman, Gateway to the West, and back again.

Today will see the competitors leave Norseman and ride a loop covering approximately 410 + kilometers. Norseman is the major center for the Shire of Dundas which covers an area of 92,725 square kilometers. Surrounded by beautiful and unique to the area eucalypt woodlands it is ideal for 4 wheel drive enthusiasts to explore and offers tranquil walks for nature lovers amongst the area’s natural flora and fauna. Visit http://www.norseman.info/ for more info on Norseman.

Today, I have been “Flat out like a lizard drinkin’”! Running around trying to secure people for Rallyradio and getting my ducks all in a row before the last 2 days of the event and then having to fly back to California at 5am on Monday. So far we have had some tough luck with camera’s and the media guys and I decided that Kalgoorlie’s Warren Strange is now banned from wearing a camera. So far this week he wore my EPIC Wide helmet camera for Prologue which was fine during the test and then inexplicably came back with 40 minutes of footage that was blank…… The next day he wore a separate HD helmet cam that didn’t make it to the finish line for the day. Same scenario followed on the next day. Yesterday he had on screwed to the front fender when the section was cancelled so we have some awesome footage of the asphalt road. Today Warren went down hard and unfortunately airlifted out. He is ok but we have not seen the condition of the camera yet.

As I have said, I am not a Rally guy, yet, but I am amazed by how quickly these guys get onto getting a rider out of the bush. The GPS locators they all have work fantastically and the helicopter pilot and crew are there in minutes. This really is one of the safest races I have been to.

This morning was SS11 which has been named the “Woodline” stage as it goes out through the old wooded area that was used to feed the mines around the area. Years ago workers would lay a railway line out to these parts of the shire and use the tree they cut down to support the tunnels in the gold mines and feed the boilers. The course will be littered with old stumps hidden by new growth. This was one of the reason the riders decided against running SS10 yesterday. Riding into the sunset with these hidden stumps could turn deadly very quickly.

As the results stand right now for this mornings section Ben Grabham won it in a time of 3.17.05, team mate Todd Smith was second at 3.17. 58, followed by Rod Faggotter 3.34.01 and Jose Rodrigues Filho 3.37.01. Annie Seel came through that section with a time of 4.14.10 which put her 19^th. I will update the overall later today.

I am listening to the radio and the officials are try to convince one of the Chinese teams not to continue after they wrecked their Quang Qi Chang Fen CFA2-31C into a tree. Yes, that is it’s name…….. The back and forth with the Chinese guys yelling half English half Chinese is pretty impressive.
As always you can join me on twitter @maley51, follow my FaceBook updates: http://www.facebook.com/justin.maley, go to the official Safari site at: http://www.australasiansafari.com.au/ and check out http://www.marathonrally.com/ or http://www.bikesales.com.au/ if you still can't get enough.
I will be doing another call into Rally Radio shortly too.
Every rider here has joined in and is helping support my breast cancer fund raiser and if you would like to do the same and get a sticker the same as what the riders are wearing then go to http://www.maleyfoundation.com/ and get one for yourself. Get a shirt too.

Leg 4. Coolgardie to Norseman

Norseman will host the Safari Village, all the competitors and support staff for the end of Leg 4 and 5. Norseman is at the end of the infamous Nullarbor crossing for travelers heading west. It’s the gateway to the west! The small town was discovered in July 1894 by Lawrence Sinclair and his horse “Norseman” for which he named the area.
The big news today is that defending champion Jacob Smith went down down hard in SS9. SS8 was the first section the riders completed after leaving Coolgardie and Jacob came through there 2^nd, 46 seconds behind current overall leader Ben Grabham. Midway into SS9 he came un glued from his machine and was rendered assistance by the next group of riders.
Again, the heli team were fast on the scene and had Jacob transported off to the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital.
As I type this the riders are collecting at their time in point at the Norseman oval for 20 minutes of servicing before heading out to compete in SS10 this after noon.

Overall Ben Grabham leads, after Selective Section 8 with a total time of 13.17.58 from Jacob Smith (out) 13.24.26 and then brother Todd Smith 13.27.57.
I have been asked for more pictures of Annie Seel so here she is leaving one of the checks today.

LEG 3 ends early after KTM Team rider crashes hard.

All of the competitors got underway to head out of the Parc Ferme this morning on a challenging 3^rd day headed for Selective Sections 6 and 7 respectively. The course headed south/west out of Leonora down toward Coolgardie via some rocky outcrops and tight tree lined roads it was broken up by sandy hills and even some dry lake crossings, so a leg filled with variety.

The riders came through SS6 in the following order: 1^st Todd Smith 2.10.18, 2^nd Ben Grabham 2.11.32, 3^rd Matthew Fish 2.14.14 4^th Warren Strange 2.14.34 and to round out the top 5, Rod Faggotter 2.14.49 Annie Seel has been creeping up the leader board and went from 21^st yesterday to 18^th overall today after coming through SS6 in a time of 2.32.34 Crowd and Safari village favorite Graham Grant finished SS6 in 39^th on his 1983 BMW GS. Look for a short video interview I did with the builder of his bike today. As soon as it is edited I will have it up loaded.

Team CPW KTM rider Ivan Erceg took a tumble in SS6 and the helicopter had to land on the track to transport him to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital. It was reported that after the crash "Crazy Ivan" actually got back up and kept going for another 10 KM’s before having to stop and get help from a fellow competitor.

With a short day due to the crash some of the competitors tactics of cruising through yesterdays marathon day to conserve bikes and tires for today’s marathon day backfired. Right when they would have been making the most of the extra traction, energy and general bike conservation the stage was abandoned.
We did a short call into Rally Radio today and featured Husaberg Australia’s David Schwarz, BMW Guy Graham Grant and Mark Fattore. Be sure to listen to it when they get it up loaded here http://www.rallyraidio.net/
There is not too much else to report except if you want more to read, head off to http://www.bikesales.com.au/ and for Auto stuff go over to my guys at http://www.marathonrally.com/
As always i will throw some pictures from today up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mxmaley51/ my Face Book has updates and more photo's http://www.facebook.com/justin.maley and my Twitter has updates during the day @maley51

　
　
　
　
　
　

Leg 2. Marathon Stage

Again the first bikes headed off the line at 7am again this morning. Not as chilly as it has been but still a crisp Aussie Outback morning. Todd Smith headed off first followed by the rest of the field at 1 minute intervals.
Today was a marathon stage. The course was 483.37kms, and 422.76kms of this is competitive stages, so there’s no easy transports, and competitors should be traveling a bit more cautiously today because they cannot afford to have any mechanical failures.

The only servicing on vehicles allowed is a 30-minute session in the Park Ferme at the end of the second competitive stage at the local “Footy“ oval in Leonora, Western Australia. Service crews can only provide bike covers, EZ Ups, enviro mats, fuel, air filters, oil & oil filters. All other tools have to be carried by the rider or driver. For autos, all the spares had to be carried in the car. “The limited servicing rule means that the mechanical skills of the drivers and riders are really tested.” says Clerk of Course Ron Rigby

My day was a bit of a bust and I have to find the guy that informed us there was a “jump” at Media Option 5 and educate him on the difference between a jump and a 6 inch mound…….. The old adage that “your first idea is always the best” came true as my trusty co-journo Mark Fattore from and I had originally decided to head to Media Option 4. We heard about the rumored “jump” and headed that way instead. As soon as we arrived we climbed from the Pajero and both asked where the jump was. After having it pointed out I yelled some expletives, some starting with “Mother” some beginning with “SON OF A……..”!
Thinking someone was pulling our leg with the info Mark and I hiked off into the sunrise for 30 minutes or so looking for the elusive jump. All to no avail. To ad insult to injury the first bikes wouldn’t be through for another hour and the first cars were 3 hours away.

Tentative results have come in and as it looks right now KTM’s Todd Smith holds just under a minute lead over teammate Ben Grabham who leads Rod Faggotter by almost 3 minutes. For all current results click this link: http://www.rallyresults.com.au/safari2010/default.asp
Michael Vroom went down hard and dislocated his shoulder pretty badly. Unfortunately it looks like he is done with this years Safari. Fan favorite and South African hope Graham Grant also DNF’d today’s leg when the 1983 BMW R80 GS he is riding had an electrical issue. Look for a video interview with him tomorrow. I put it off till then as by the time he got back to the village today it was dark and he and his crew were busy fixing the big Beemer!

All the bike riders are wearing their S4H stickers with pride and many of them have donated to the cause. For more information on that visit: http://www.maleyfoundation.com/

Jacob Smith is a big supporter of S4H, an event run by The Maley Foundation

Also, don’t forget to drop into my media partners if you just cant get enough at: http://www.bikesales.com.au/ or http://www.marathonrally.com/
For more pictures from today check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mxmaley51/
and as always you can follow my Twit Twit Twitter @maley51 or even look for more Australasian Safari stuff on my face book: http://www.facebook.com/justin.maley
There is also video available at: http://www.youtube.com/user/AustralasianSafari