Despres out of Australasian Safari on Leg 6

Despres joins ten other riders, including Ben Grabham, who have retired from the Asia Pacific's toughest motorsport event.

The Safari course for leg 6 took competitors west of Leonora, in and around old mine sites, salt lakes and areas damaged by water erosion over 377 competitive kilometres. Some of the tracks had not been used for several years. The course also included rough, rocky and overgrown sections and finished in deep sand and a final fast section.

Shane Diener bounced back from his mechanical dramas on leg 5 to post the fastest time on leg 6, but the margin between him and the leading Smith brothers, thanks to the time penalty incurred by his DNF on leg 5, is now too great to make up.

Todd Smith has been 'Mr Consistency' throughout the race, and recorded another top three finish on leg 6, ahead of his brother Jacob. With victory all but assured, the Honda-mounted brothers are riding steadily and avoiding risks. Despute this, Todd Smith said leg 6 was still hard.
"It was a tough day. The track was tight and overgrown, it was rocky and on some parts there was no track to follow. It's better for me to go fast, because if I go slow my concentration lapses. All I have to do tomorrow is look after the bike and see it home," he said.

Jacob Smith is ahead by almost 40 minutes to nearest rival Rod Faggotter, who has held on despite riding with a broken hand.
"Navigation was tough today," Jacob said.
"It's hard to stay focused this close to the end. I decided to go easy on the first stage today. There's no point pushing, I have a big lead over Rod so I'm not going to take risks."

With the retirement of Despres, and a string of problems for Italy's Manuel Lucchese, Sweden's Annie Seel, the only female moto competitor, is now the leading international entrant. She said it had been a long week.
"This morning and yesterday also I was in cruise mode, which isn't too good. I let a couple of guys pass me and then I switched on and started to push. Today we had very good stages. I broke my thumb two years ago and it's sore again now, and of course I'm tired! I was thinking about it, and it really is a tough seven days," she said.

Todd Smith is still the overall moto division leader with one stage left to run. Jacob Smith is second overall ahead of Rod faggotter (Yamaha), Damien Grabham (Husaberg) and privateer Ben Williams (Honda) in fifth. Diener, David Schwarz (Husaberg), Russell Scoble (Honda), William Coole (Husaberg) and David Geeves (Honda) complet the top ten.

In the Quads, Colin Lawson won both stages, besting overall leader John Maragozidis by an impressive 15 minutes. For his part, Maragozidis said the overgrown and rugged leg 6 track was brutal.
"It was a game of survival and pick your way through. I had three flat tyres to deal with in the first and my exhaust broke off in the second," he said.
"The track opened up after the midday service, and I really enjoyed it."

Maragozidis still leads the overall quad standings, from Lawson and Neville Yeatman.

Today is the final leg of Australasian Safari, taking off from Leonora to Kalgoorlie and finishing with the final section and the finish line at the new Kalgoorlie Golf Course. There is a spectator point at the golf course and the public are invited to come along and watch the action and the official podium finish.

For full results and further details, visit www.australasiansafari.com.au.