Diener and Lowndes sweep day four

The 2011 Australasian Safari turned into a test of high speed skill and daring today, with Shane Diener and Craig Lowndes putting on a master class by winning all three moto and auto stages respectively.

Diener, from South Australia, became the first multiple stage winner in the moto division on his Yamaha WR450F, closing the gap on the two leaders – Honda CRF450X pairing Todd Smith and Jacob Smith.

Diener is now just 29 seconds behind second-placed Jacob and just over 10 minutes in arrears of pacesetter Todd, with eight major stages remaining over the next three days ahead of the September 29 finale in Kalgoorlie.

“To win this event, I’m going to have to ride well and have a clean run over the remaining days of competition,” Diener said. “Today was just what me and the team was looking for and I was able to take three minutes back off the leader. But I have to continue to do that for the remainder of the event to be any chance of an overall win.”

Both the Smith siblings enjoyed the fast pace of today’s course, especially Jacob.

"I really couldn't have done that second stage any quicker today,” said Jacob. “I was picking the corners early and just nailing them all the way round.

“Today was seriously fun -- the sections with the bends just had incredible grip because of the rains recently. Dead set, if riders didn't enjoy today they really shouldn't be riding a bike.

“It's Todd's race to lose now but we're going to keep working together and we'll see how Shane goes with some pressure from us behind while he's leading."

Todd and Jacob shared the second and third placings in the three stages, with Matthew Fish (KTM 505SXF) the next best with consistent 4-4-5 finishes.

But a disastrous day three ruined Fish’s outright Safari aspirations for 2011, and Rod Faggotter (WR450F) remains in fourth overall, ahead of Frenchman Cyril Despres (KTM 450RR), who moved up one spot today at the expense of Damien Grabham (Husaberg FE570).

But Despres still remains a little bewildered about the whole Safari experience, in what is his first visit to Australia.

“This is not the race I was expecting and I am taking it like a training day – not pushing to ride as fast as possible,” said Despres. “I enjoyed the sandy tracks and was able to test the bike a bit.”

The tempo of today’s racing increased with every competitive stage, and in the final one Diener completed the 241.21km journey at a whopping average speed of 113.965km/h – by far the fastest so far in 2011.

To put that pace into context, Lowndes could only push out an average speed of 105.64km/h in the same stage, as he continues to scythe through the event in his Holden Colorado.

Other than a few scratches on his Colorado after rubbing shoulders with some local flora, Lowndes is yet to really blot his copybook in this year’s Safari, and today he increased his lead to 19 minutes over Steve Reilly/John Doble (Mitsubishi Pajero).

Terry Connor/Jodi Connor remain third in their Nissan.

“I had a good day. The first stage was challenging navigationally and a bit rough, but not as rough as leg one,” Lowndes said. “The second stage was good, nice sandy tracks that opened up and were fast.

“There were some rutted out areas from all the recent rains, which created some obstacles. The car is running great and we are limiting our mistakes, which is only helping.”

John Maragozidis (Interceptor 850) owned the quad class today, winning all three stages and describing the conditions as “God’s gifts to quads”.

"We had fantastic conditions and awesome tracks. I made a small navigational error that only cost a couple of minutes. I need to keep having days like today,” he said.

Meanwhile, former race leader Colin Lawson (Can-Am Renegade) blew a clutch and kept chewing through drive belts.

But at least Lawson faired better than his teammate Adrian Hermsen, who was flown to Kalgoorlie for surgery to remove a spear-shaped stick which had impaled in his calf.

Tomorrow the Australasian Safari travels south to Leonora for leg five, the second last stop in the seven-day endurance race.