Jacob Smith moves into safari lead

Honda duo Jacob Smith and AJ Roberts have moved into a dominant position in the 2009 Australian Safari, with competitors moving from Mt Magnet to Leonara on day three of the marathon.

Smith holds a narrow 10-second lead over Roberts, with the initial pacesetter Todd Smith (KTM) having fallen back to third, nearly 17 minutes behind the leaders, after running into some problems.

However, Todd’s tumult was nothing compared tom fellow KTM rider Damien Grabham, who crashed and broke both his legs.

Riders have now been through eight of the 19 times stages in the safari, with four days of competition still remaining before the event ends in Kalgoorlie on Saturday.

Day three saw four competitive stages -- the longest 173km – with Jacob Smith moving his way into lead with sheer consistency.

“It was tough being out front today, because I had to make all the calls on finding the right track,” Jacob Smith said. “AJ (Roberts) was behind me most of the time, but the bike was good and I had no problems, so it was generally a good day.”

Roberts endured a tough time following Smith.

“I pulled some good time on Jake (Smith), but I ate his dust all day,” Roberts said. “You had to travel pretty fast and I’ve never had to hold a bike so fast for so long. The bike has been fantastic, but the course was very easy to stuff up and the navigation was critical.”

Defending champion Ben Grabham (KTM) continued his fightback after Monday’s tyre problems and moved up 11 spots into fifth place, albeit still nearly an hour off the lead.

Local rider Ivan Erceg (KTM)) is nearly six minutes ahead of Grabham in fourth.

Multiple Dakar Rally winner, Josef Machacek from the Czech Republic, has taken the lead in the quad bike category after overnight leader, Paul Smith (Can-Am), struck trouble and lost nearly an hour.

Last year’s quad winner, South Australian John Maragozidis, lost any chance of a repeat victory on the first stage of the day when he dropped over 90 minutes.

Today sees the Australasian Safari head north-east from Leonora to Laverton over three stages and 301 competitive kilometres. Western Australia’s spectacular outback scenery plays a prominent role tomorrow with some magnificent views, although riders and drivers will have little time to take their eyes off the road.

CURRENT STANDINGS AFTER DAY THREE

MOTO
1 Jacob Smith (NSW), Honda 9:21.40
2 AJ Roberts (NSW), Honda +0:00.10
3 Todd Smith (NSW), KTM +16:46
4 Ivan Erceg (WA), KTM +47:30
5 Ben Grabham, KTM +53:13

QUADS
1 Josef Machacek (CZ), Yamaha 10:51:49
2 Martin Plechaty (CZ), Borile Bory +40:01
3 Paul Smith (VIC), Can-Am 800 +40:50
4 Heath Young (WA), KTM +45:48