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