With this year's Australasian Safari to be contested in Western Australia from September 21-29, the heavy hitters of the Moto division are gearing up for glory with some cutting-edge hardware and a deep pool of rally racing talent.
Yamaha Motor Australia will be entering a two-man team comprising Queensland Yamaha dealer Rod Faggotter and South Australia's Shane Diener, the pair representing a wealth of long-range enduro experience.
Faggotter, who owns Longreach Yamaha dealership Centretune Motorcycles, placed third in last year's Safari, depite having to ride with a broken hand for five days. He also launched his inaugural Dakar Rally campaign last January, and was running in 25th position outright when he was sidelined with mechanical issues. Faggotter has contested the last four Safaris, but is yet to take a win -- something he will be trying very had to rectify next month.
Faggotter's teammate, Diener, has also raced in the last four Safaris. He was a major force last year, winning eight of the event's 17 stages, before a starter clutch failure put an end to his podium hopes.
"For the first couple of Safaris, as a privateer, I didn't understand what was required of the bikes," he said. "Last year, however, it was just bad luck -- a bearing failed in the starter clutch, which is a very rare event," he added.
The pair will each be riding a WR450F, and Ray Howard, head of Yamaha Motor Australia's motorsports division, says the race bikes require little in the way of modifications.
"Apart from those required by the event organisers, and for map reading, only simple changes are required to be made to the bikes that roll out under Faggotter and Diener," he said. "The major change is the addition of a 30-litre fuel tank for the long hauls, and as a result of that the tank's positioning on the bike also needs to be altered."
Attempting the thwart the Yamaha campaign is GHR Honda, which has assembled a cast of former Safari champions in the form of brothers Todd and Jake Smith, and quad ace Paul Smith.
Todd piloted his Honda CRF450X to victory in the moto class in last year's Safari with Jake next to him on the podium in second. The pair's performance was reversed in 2009, with Jake first and Todd second, while Paul took out the quad-bike class in 2010.
Also in the GHR camp is Warren Strange, Brett Cummings, Glen Grundy and Guy Henley. According to team owner Glenn Hoffmann, it's a strong line-up but that doesn't by any stretch guarantee victory in such a gruelling and long event as the Australasian Safari.
"Jake, Todd and Paul are more than capable of podiums again but in racing that's by no means a given," he said. "They are still going to have to ride their butts off. We don't take anything for granted and I don't worry about who turns up at Safari from Australia or from around the world. We must focus on doing our own thing as a team," he added.
Hoffmann said preparation of the team's CRF450X race bikes and TRX700XX quad was well underway. "Our guys will be on a new 450X bike this year that you can basically ride anywhere," he said. "We've added a lot of new parts and fuel tanks and they're well set up for the event. It's a specific Safari bike and it's very similar to our Dakar bike, but with some fundamental differences. We've also done a lot of development on the Honda TRX700XX Paul raced last year. It's got a lot of new parts and it's coming together really well -- it's great to have him as a part of the team," he added.
While GHR Honda is focussed on Safari success, the event will also serve as an excellent precursor to next year's Dakar Rally. At this stage, Paul, Brett, Glenn and Warren will be heading to South America, along with at least one of the Smith brothers.
The 27th Australasian Safari will kick off from Perth, WA, on Friday, September 21, before tracing a new coastal route north to Geraldton, then following a circuit taking in Carnarvon, the Gascoyne region and the edge of the Kennedy Ranges, before returning to Geraldton on Sunday, September 29. For more information visit www.australasiansafari.com.au. 
