MOTORSPORT: Australasian Safari Leg Six

After battling the heated harshness of the inland West Australian desert, Leg Six of the Australasian Safari saw competitors trade hard-baked land for the coastal sand dunes of Ningaloo Reef.

With three stages covering around 330km it was the last full day of Safari competition, and the battle up front showed no sign of dissipating.

Long-time leaders Steve Riley and John Doble, aboard their modified VF Ute, lost their lead to the flying Toyota Tacoma of David McShane and Bill Hayes. After taking a fraught first stage by a scant 1min 31sec, McShane then gave best to Riley on the second test, the Holden driver consolidating an overall lead of more than 15 minutes.

But it was the final 72.05km of Quobba – a baby, relatively speaking – that lifted the instensity to boiling point. McShane took the stage win with a time of 46min 8sec, ahead of the fast Ford Ranger of John Purshouse and Murray Hynes. Riley languished down in sixth place, 5min 48sec behind, meaning his Auto lead was now under ten minutes. Meanwhile, the consistent Greg Scanlon and Liam Nunns Patrol retains the final podium position.
"Car is on fire," said Riley of his VF Holden ute. "Today we had to change a tyre so lost a little bit time there [on the last stage].

"[I've] been in this position before and you've just got to go and get it done."

Despite closing the gap, McShane had worries of his own: "I had a good first stage and got some time back, but then heard a horrendous bang in the second stage. We stopped to check the car and spannered a few things. We haven't found the knocking sound in the back. It just developed suddenly and not gradually which is a little unnerving."

Over in the Safari Challenge class for standard four-wheel drives, motoring.com.au's own Matt Brogan and Julia Barkley consolidated their lead, heading Jeep Wrangler Rubicon X team-mates Matt Raudonikis and Ian Wheeler by over eight hours at the end of Leg Six.

In a wonderful story of persistence, Jarrett and Clint Streathfield in their 2006 Jeep Wrangler won the opening stage, Cardabia, after missing much of the event.  They backed this up with another stage win on the second test, before Raudonikis claimed the final stage of the day.

As ever, it is perhaps a story of working within problems, as Brogan explained to motoring.com.au: "Electronic issues have placed the Wrangler into limp mode for the past few days. It also means we can't disable the stability control or engage the rear diff lock which is slowing our progress in the sand considerably.

"We also managed to puncture two tyres in as many minutes on the previous day, meaning the final two stages were tackled at a snail's pace to ensure we reached the finish. Otherwise the Jeep is proving a tough competitor. The conditions we've faced for Safari so far are tough for any machine, especially at the pace we are driving," said Brogan.

Crews tackle a 300km transport section before the last-ever Safari's last-ever stage, the 154.69km Murchison Mega Finale before celebrations begin at Kalbarri.