Yamaha's Faggotter leads Australasian Safari after leg two
Yamaha Desert Racing's Rod Faggotter has emerged from the first two legs of the Australasian Safari with a narrow 27-second lead from GHR Honda's Todd Smith.
Yamaha rider Rod Faggotter has close to a half-minute lead after the second leg of the Australasian Safari.
Yamaha Desert Racing’s Rod Faggotter has emerged from the first two legs of the Australasian Safari with a narrow 27-second lead from GHR Honda’s Todd Smith.
Saturday’s first competitive leg saw early leader, GHR Honda’s Jacob Smith take the first two stage wins before being effectively struck out of contention with an engine failure to round out the day.
YDR’s Faggotter claimed the lead at the end of the opening day and was matched for pace over the gruelling 667 kilometre second leg by Todd Smith, who was surprised with the pace of his Yamaha rival.
“I rode my ass off in the last stage today and only beat Rod by one second,” said Smith. “We made adjustments to my bike overnight to cater for the softer sand which might have slowed me down a bit.
“There were lots of twists, turns and crests in the last stage. I’m feeling good for tomorrow.”
Faggotter was pleased with a smooth and trouble-free run over the first two stages which see him hold close to half a minute buffer from his closest rival.
“There was lots of moisture this morning, making the sand heavy and testing out the bikes,” said Faggotter. “Bikes and riders were working hard in the first stage.
“I enjoyed the last stage more. The bike’s going well, nothing’s broken and the mechanics will just do a routine check tonight.”
Positions three through five for the second leg are representative of the outright placings, with KTM’s Matt Fish running around five minutes clear of Yamaha’s Shane Diener who is 17 minutes ahead of KTM’s Lee Stephens.
Scottish rally ace Alister McRae was sixth in Sunday’s three-stage hitout but sits seventh on the road behind the Honda of Russell Scoble.
Riders will tackle two stages of competition which consists of around 425 kilometres for today’s third leg from Gascoyne to Bidgemia.
2013 Australasian Safari
Moto class outright (after leg two of seven):
1. FAGGOTTER Rodney 07h08m58
2. SMITH Todd 07h09m25
3. FISH Matt 07h21m20
4. DIENER Shane 07h26m27
5. STEPHENS Lee 07h43m02
6. SCOBLE Russell 07h50m18
7. MCRAE Alister 07h50m24
8. STRANGE Warren 07h56m58
9. INGRAM Ryan 08h01m17
10. O’CONNOR Troy 08h03m57
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