The extreme highs and lows

Since I was a young lad, closed-circuit racing has always been my preferred motorsport stream. Cars, bikes, trucks – it doesn’t matter. And everything is fairly straightforward at those events: you can’t get lost for one thing, and GPS co-ordinates are surplus to requirements.

This week, I’ve left the ‘glamour’ and high intensity of that scene behind for the rough and tumble of off-road desert racing in the 2010 Australasian Safari, based out of Western Australia.

And what a seismic shift it has been – a path to something fresh and invigorating. Desert racing plays to an entirely different beat than closed-circuit racing, and I think I’ve already fallen for its charms. It’s an adventure and holiday combo all wrapped in one.

It’s like a roving scout jamboree, as a conga line of trucks, support vehicles, media, caterers, officials and spectators follow the event as it traverses its way through the state.

There’s a basic script to the Australasian Safari -- the maps are handed out to competitors each morning -- and then what happens after that is anyone’s guess.

And it’s that capricious ingredient which is the bedrock of the annual event, whether it’s competitors battling the elements, themselves or their vehicles. And occasionally officials if they believe a penalty is unjust…

A journo mate of mine managed to embed himself in a 3.5 tonne Hummer for the Safari, and on day two the behemoth (you should have seen it trying to get down some of the overgrown tracks and around tight bends!) split a radiator early on in the piece.

The three occupants then had to forfeit the water in their Camelbaks to keep the Hummer ticking along, and then it was a case of scrounging for more liquid nourishment along the rest of the route.

They eventually limped over the line into Leonora around midnight, tired, thirsty, irritable and hungry. And then the repairs began....

And on another stage the Hummer blew a rear tyre, and the team literally fell across the line on the rim – which had seemingly dropped a couple of inches in size with all the abuse.

That impressed a teenager in Leonora, who said that Chuck Norris in his bad-arse heyday couldn’t have managed such a gnarly feat.

I’ve never seen people get by on less shut eye (and eat so much bacon at breakfast), but seemingly still function at such a high level. I reckon they’ll fall into a heap once they get home, so there’s an early warning for their respective spouses.

And what about the luckless AJ Roberts? The Queenslander was just starting to wind up in the moto class on day one when he had a head-on crash with fellow top gun Todd Smith.

Smith was retracing his errant steps after a navigational error (as you have to) and collided with AJ, which left the latter with a badly scarred CRF450X and a broken wrist.

Kalgoorlie Hospital was Roberts’ home for a few days, but we reckon he will be back again for another attempt in 2011 – once you’re on the Safari orbit it’s hard to leave. And that also applies to Roberts’ contemporaries who have also been badly injured so far this year: Ivan Erceg and defending champion Jacob Smith. Amazingly, Erceg still wants to make the Safari after-party, nine broken ribs and all...

Just look at the great John Hederics as an example of the Safari drawing power. As soon as he was finished dominating the moto class in Safari, he simply made the seamless transition to auto and continued on his winning ways.

Funnily enough, there is a ‘ceremonial’ start and finish to bookend the Australasian Safari, but what happens in between is unceremonious for so many. And if drivers and riders manage a storybook run through the event, it’s the equivalent to winning first prize in the lottery. The odds are that it just won’t happen.

I’ve already touched on a number of travails, but that’s just the thin end of the wedge.

Other competitors have been caught up in loose wire, smashed into trees, made major navigational bloopers, run out of fuel, lost their navigational maps, forgot to ring their mums before going out, etc. That old motorsport truism about “not being over until the chequered flag comes out” is what the Australasian Safari is all about and what makes it so unique.

The bonhomie on the Safari is something to behold, and that’s probably because everyone has to do their bit. Lazy sods are not welcome, and even V8 Supercar champ Craig Lowndes had to show some mechanical aptitude during the ‘marathon’ legs, where limited servicing was only performed by the driver and co-driver – with the ‘real’ spannermen barking instructions from the perimeter fence. That was variety entertainment in itself – emblematic of the whole event.

Check out the official Australasian Safari site for more information on the event.

And click on the following link to read a blog from the Safari by expatriate Aussie Justin Maley.