Todd Smith leads Finke after day one
The Honda pilot leads the 400-strong motorcycle field after the opening day, ahead of sibling and teammate Jacob Smith, with Yamaha's Josh Green thirdHonda’s Todd Smith will take nearly a three-minute lead into day two of the 2013 Finke Desert Race in the Northern Territory after a brilliant performance in today’s opening 230km leg of the off-road showpiece.
Smith, who was third in last year’s event, completed the ride to Finke in two hours and 23 seconds (2:00.23) to finish well ahead of brother and teammate Jacob (2:03.25), followed by Josh Green (Yamaha, 2:04.04), Jarrod Bewley (Husaberg), 2:05.49) and Ivan Long (KTM, 2:07.23).
Jacob held the lead from Todd at the first checkpoint (68km) before the roles were reversed by the second at 98km – and Todd increased his lead from that point.
Four-time race winner winner Ben Grabham (KTM) was 11th fastest (2:12.46) into Finke today, one spot ahead of Rod Faggotter (Yamaha, 2:15.58). Both riders were top 15 finishers in the 2013 Dakar Rally.
Among the day one retirements were Ryan Branford (KTM), AJ Roberts (Yamaha) and Mark Sladek (Husaberg), while local star and last year’s second place finisher David Walsh (Honda) was a non-starter after crashing in Saturday’s prologue.
After camping overnight the field will leave Finke tomorrow morning for the run home to Alice Springs, with the first bikes expected to arrive at approximately 1:30pm local time.
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