Ballard’s Wellard Yamaha racer, Stefan Merriman has continued to extend his lead in both the provisional Outright and E2 class at the 2010 Yamaha Australian Four Day Enduro (A4DE) in Portland, NSW.

The five time World Champion rode smoothly and mistake-free on the mix of grass and bush special tests and now enjoys a substantial 27 second lead over Motorex KTM’s Toby Price in second.

“Everything went well and it was a close battle with Toby, he and I have been fighting it out by two or three seconds in each special test,” said Merriman. “It’s a long race and the biggest fear is having a crash and throwing away 10 or 15 seconds – which neither of us can afford to do. This Four Day is better than any race I’ve ever done in Australia – the conditions make it.”

Price although happy with today’s performance is hoping the cards will swing his way.” One little tip over is all that it takes to lose a lot of time and that’s all part of racing but I am always having fun and there still two more days of racing to go.”

Defending Four Day Outright champion Jarrod Bewley has slipped to 1:05 minutes behind his KTM teammate Price, but still holds a commanding lead in the E1 class over Tasmanian young gun Matt Phillips and Ballard’s Wellard Yamaha’s Ben Burrell in second and third respectively.

Meanwhile holding down the lead in the E3 class (and fourth Outright) is Motorex KTM’s Ben Grabham, 35 seconds ahead of Husaberg’s Geoff Braico in second.

The Kiwi contingent of Coastal KTM’s Jason Davis and Yamaha’s Rory Mead are firmly entrenched within the Outright top ten in seventh and eighth position.

With one more day of hard-fought enduro before the final motocross showdown on day four, there’s still plenty of racing and anything can happen.

Click here for detailed results