OZ ATV :: The Australian ATV Forum

[hustleratv.com.au]

***CONGRATULATIONS TO JOHN FOR COMING 1ST ***

AT LAST IT'S OVER AND THEY HAVE TO RETURN TO NORMAL LIFE LIKE THE REST OF US.


THE FINISH LINE


A PROUD JOHN TAKING 1ST POSITION ON THE PODIUM


CHAMPAGNE CELEBRATIONS


JOHN SPEAKING TO THE MEDIA


****FINAL RESULTS****

_________________
hustleratv.com.au 0407 797 780
Importer of OMF performance product / wheels
Maxxis Tyres
Boundless Suspention
Bad Boy Power Drinks

[yogie]

All the best guys, great effort, to those that didnt finish you still done a great job and won just by being there.
_________________
2005 KFX700
With a few bells and whistles
and the twin yoshi's
American Star A-arms, tie rods
elka stickers
Shorty Shifter
I have a Waco
rossco gave me a flexx sticker
honda thumb
Great at climbing trees
durablue stickers

[v8toy]

update on vicus and viv for yas
vicus has broken his right leg just above his knee he told us he got up and another rider went and got his bike for him as he thought he just had a really bad corked leg so all was fine when he got back on bike apart from some pain he then proceeded to ride 40km's until the next gate when he went to get off his leg colappsed underneath him and folded forward OUCH!!!!!
he cant have surgery until wednesday maybe cause of him riding further as it wore a hole in his bone and filled up with blood and has to wait for this to dissappear as well as the swelling.
i actually helped him into the toilet today at the hospital and while i was waiting the nurse walked in u should have seen her face when she see he wasnt in bed man did he get his arse kicked lol.
he has been told he will be in hospital for at least another 4-6 weeks then who knows b4 he gets to fly home.

viv is ok just really bruised and sore, evertime i drive over a bump she nearly screams but some more good drugs and shes all good again lol.
its ok viv just another 3500kms to go of bumpy highway lol.

but congrats to maggots on the first place and the other boys for 2nd and 3rd and too all that raced was a good adventure from my drivers seat.
so whos doin it next year im gonna try give it a crack.
_________________
go hard or go home

[47industries]

Well done all.
Congrats on a well earned win Maggots.
I must say, Dom had his stuff together in the service department. Nice work.
Vicas got taken out by a kangaroo, or by a Big Rabbit as he calls them. Hope you are feeling better soon mate. Same with you Viv.
Nice work Bullet and Smitty on both getting on the podium. Bullet made up a heap of time on the last day, passing Maggots and getting into Perth an hour ahead of him, but it was just not enough to catch him outright.
Great event, but let's not do that again for, say, a year!
Mick@47
_________________
The way to this man's heart is through his esky

Last edited by 47industries on Mon Sep 01, 2008 3:25 pm; edited 1 time in total

[froggy]

congratulations guys. Great job Maggots and all the hustler team, also well done to bullet and smitty and can am for getting behind them.

[dangerman4]

mick maybe you can answer this?
how does aus safari compare to thumb pump?
obviously its a lot longer, but im just curious to the type of riding?
is it mainly hi speed flat sand, or is it full of the nasty woops from tp300?
cheers and well done to u all

[yogie]

dangerman4 wrote:

mick maybe you can answer this? how does aus safari compare to thumb pump? obviously its a lot longer, but im just curious to the type of riding? is it mainly hi speed flat sand, or is it full of the nasty woops from tp300? cheers and well done to u all

you thinking about doing it...
_________________
2005 KFX700
With a few bells and whistles
and the twin yoshi's
American Star A-arms, tie rods
elka stickers
Shorty Shifter
I have a Waco
rossco gave me a flexx sticker
honda thumb
Great at climbing trees
durablue stickers

[dangerman4]

yep.

thats if i get my new bike built in time for the 09 season so i can do some R & D on it before hand.
in a ideal world i would like to do TP300 , Finke, and the Safari in 09

[47industries]

Not so much whoops, but you will have to talk to the riders about it. We only saw the camps and fuel stops.
Mick@47
_________________
The way to this man's heart is through his esky

[bullet]

dangerman4 wrote:

mick maybe you can answer this? how does aus safari compare to thumb pump? obviously its a lot longer, but im just curious to the type of riding? is it mainly hi speed flat sand, or is it full of the nasty woops from tp300? cheers and well done to u all

Bugger all whoops.
Lots of really high speed stuff and a lot of it in wobbly sand tracks 1 foot from a fence line.
The RAR's and dry creak crossings are the biggest dangers.
RAR's are Ruts Across Road or Ruts Along Road.
They get big and ugly and pop up unpredictably.

The challenge is pushing out so much high speed stuff, while keeping your eyes peeled for Roos, rocks and tree stumps as well as staring at your handlebars trying to navigate.

Best thing for you Dangerman... You're allowed to build a one off quad
_________________
Can-Am X Team
Bullet #Y12. MrsB #Y18.

[dangerman4]

awesome news thanks bullet

[Linc]

Well I'm home and alive.......that was my number one goal.
Second was to finish; I did that.......just.

Third was to do well.

Can't really qualify that one. I won my class (under 500cc) but I was the only guy stupid enough to enter a 450cc.

I'm happy with my performance, no one (including me) really expected me to finish. Some thought I wasn't upto the task; some thought my 4 year old quad was just too flogged out to finish 4000+ km......it did better than anyone expected.

Details, stories, thank you's tomorrow.......I'm going to bed.

Linc

[bushpig]

Aaaaaaaayyy Linc, glad 2 hear u made it TOP STUFF, lasting th distance woz th name of th game...
_________________
BETA 2 BURNOUT THAN FADE AWAY

[Linc]

DAY 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt0ohH3gTEM

Day 1 was a crack-up, none of us really knew what we were doing. Navigation wasn't too hard , you just had to concentrate or miss a turn-off. It wasn't that bad out on track because you could get an idea from wheel tracks but getting to the competitive sections on the road meant you had to navigate through traffic. Everyone missed turns on road sections.

About 20km in to the first competitive section I found Maggots and Bullet comming out of the bush waving me down to see where I was on the road map. I headed through the section and found the right track.......they followed me and then flew past me within about 5km.

Some time on Day 1 I got a rear punchure, I was running TireBalls so I didn't stop; in fact we didn't fix the punchure untill the start of Day 3. That punchure was the only one I got for the whole event.......Shameless Plug....ITP Holeshot GNCC tyres are awesome; I did the whole Safari on one set. Thanks Andrew and the crew from AUSTRACO.

The first day was a short one at 450km. When I finished I really thought that I had bitten off more than I could chew; I was completly spent. Thats the thing about the Safari; you ride till your stuffed, then go a bit further. You go to bed, get up, then do it again.......day 2 was 800+km.

In the YouTube vid you see me and Smitty on the morning stage of Day 1.

Linc

[Linc]

DAY 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcOBMI_CguA

At 800km day 2 was nearly twice as long as the first. This was the stage I always thought would be the hardest, there are other long stages but I thought if I could get this one under my belt I would have really acheived something......1200km's in 2 days is pretty good going.

Just to make it easy on myself I was dealing with a roaring case of the flu. I was a bag of snot and I had lost my voice.

My plan was to not think about the distance, just ride 1km at a time, don't stop and eventually I will get there.......just don't stop.

The day went fine with lots of high speed stages. I was incedent free but I passed my fair share of broken bikes and cars. On a transport section I was stopped for 15min by a train; what are the odds of that.......expect anything on the safari.

Well at about 5:45 in the afternoon the sun was getting low and I still had 80km of a rough stage to go followed by a 150km road stage back to camp. It got dark just after 6:00 and I was not looking forward to navigating in the desert at night.

Just as I convinced myself I could do it an official popped out of the bush on to the track and waved me down.

"It will take you another hour to complete this and we can't let you race at night, we've been directed to pull you out of stage and direct you straight out to the highway".......few!........"you're the last guy in stage, we didn't let the 5 guys behind you start"........."they'll just give you a derived stage time"

The 150km road stage became 180km and by the time I hit the highway it was dark and getting cold. Luckily I came across some officials at a petrol station and they offered to drive in front of me for the last 150km as my lights were crap........I later found out my lights wern't crap just adjusted to point straight up.........

With 80km to go I was tired and really cold, road trains we're wizzing past and it just wasn't fun......out the corner of my eye I see a bare ass. Mick from 47 was hanging out of the Winnabago giving me his own brand of one eyed encouragement. Great timing, it really pepped me up. 80km to go; easy.

I got in just after 8:00PM and although I missed out on about 80km of the days last stage, I felt pretty good. I was tired and everything hurt but I felt like I had acheived something......like I said I felt good.

About an hour later.......not so good. The flu hit hard. I dumped everything and left it where it fell and went straight to bed.

In the vid you see the fast days stages with a great shot of Bullet from the chopper.

Linc

[Linc]

DAY 3.

In the vid you get a great on board shot of Smitty on his Renegade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prPQtw3i6ac

I woke for day 3 feeling like crap; I was exhausted, the flu wasn't getting better. I felt that it would never go away.

The day before I was told that you could mis a day; you just fill out a form in the back of your daily route book and they give you a time penalty. The same goes if you crash out or break down on one day. You can fix the bike/car/rider and join in the next day.

I took this chance to rest and hopefully heal myself enough to carry on the next day. I spent most of the day sleeping in the back of the F250.

When I wasn't sleeping I got a good chance to see exactly what the crew did during the day......they didn't get to rest. The service guys (Pete & Colin) worked on bikes at night (2:00AM on a few nights) then spent the day rushing between service and refuel sites along the route. Supermen; all of them.

We arrived at Meekatharra not too long before the riders. No rest for the wicked, the service crew did there thing.

Linc

[John Mags]

Hi Guys, thanks heaps for the congrats.

We got home yesterday arvo and I just got through all my e mails.

I had the easy job. All I did was ride! Dominic from Hustler ATV and Anthony from Just Muscle cars did all the hard work. Dominic would have that thing ready to roll every morning and Anthony would have the paperwork sorted. Having said that we were in high spirits all the way and constantly cracking jokes. I could not have asked for a better crew. Even the parts Dominic supplied worked awesome. I ran the front MAXXIS RAZRII tyres that I used at Finke and rode them to Perth! NO BLOW OUTS! I also used the same RAZZR II rears that I used at Finke and changed them half way through. Again, no blow outs. If it were'nt for the tar sections I think I could have finished the event with one set.

We almost DNF on the last day with the exhaust blowing out and melting the thermo fan and then I almost drowned it at the water crossing (I stepped off of it and she floated to the surface so I rafted it across like a boat!) but luck was on our side.

Well done to all that entered and had a go and hard luck to those that did not finish. Special shout out goes to Viv (what a tough lady) and Vicus (I told you about those big bloody rabbits) and Shane (more big rabbit issues).

I hope to see everyone back next year with many extra riders.

Thanks to everyone that helped make this possible.

If you need quad parts, see Dominic at Hustler ATV.
If you want a tough Muscle car, see Anthony at Just Muscle Cars.
If you want a great Quad, see Dave at Scootaround.
What else could a bloke ask for.

Cheers.

John Maragozidis.
_________________
When I'm racing I'm living..... everything else is just waiting.

[Linc]

On'ya Maggots.......well done again.

DAY 4.

In the vid you see me riding behind KTM mounted Guy Thompson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmT8EJrsW2Q

I woke feeling much better for my rest and keen to get riding. This day was the first in a 2 day marathon stage. Tonight they will lock the quads, bikes and cars away in a section they call the "parc ferme". You will have a 30min window to service your vehicle - only the important things get done - and this took some planning from our crew.

It was an early start and I headed off through Meekathaurra on a short road section for the first competitive section.

About 5km in to the first competitive I realised something was wrong with my roadbook (map); sometimes it didn't roll, and sometimes when I looked down it was creeping forward and was completly out of sync with where I was. Luckily the tracks were pretty defined and what could I do but push on.

I cought a XR650 rider who was clearly having problems riding in the sand and I thought about just hanging back and following him but he was just too slow, soon after that in a tight twisty section I came across Guy on his KTM450EXC. He was moving at a good pace so I stuck on him for a while; he waved me past but I stopped to explain. There was about 250km to the service area and I rode in his dust all the way.

The section was either flat out down sand tracks that were far too close to fence lines or rough as buggery and strewn with deep ruts or rocks; lots of broken bikes and riders but we made it.

We got in to service to see something I hadn't seen before. The whole service area was full. Usually by the time I got to service the top teams had packed up and moved on. The afternoons competitive was another 250km looping back to the same service area; none of the bikes or cars had returned yet.......they start 2hr's before me in the morning; and of course they are much faster so they should be through, something is wrong here.

I rode the start of the stage to see Ben Grabham (fast bike guy) checking in from the other side. As I hand over my time sheet an official steps up and asks to speak to myself and my riding buddy Guy.

"Thats Ben Grabham he's just come out of stage, he's 1 and a half hours over maximum time for that stage and the Helicopter pilot says it's carnage in there. I going to call the Clerk of the Course and see if we should even let you head in there".........

The answer comes swiftly "Sorry guys the Clerk says no go as they feel that both sweepers were full with broken bikes out on stage as well as the Paramedics already having there hands full".

We both protested as we wanted to ride the stage and didn't want to be timed out for the day.......Our official guy got back on the horn and we were told to wait.

2 hours later only 10 bikes or cars had came through and we still had no answer to what we were supposed to do. Eventually we cornered the Moto Director and he said we wouldn't be timed out, we would get a penalty and that we should head down a dirt road out to the highway for the 200km back to Meekathourra.....Smitty and Bullet stillhad not been seen.

......I got in after dark.

Being a Marathon day and our second night a Meeka the crew were set up for the up-coming 30min service; I got Colin to do mine before the Renegades came in who knows what state they would be in.

Bullet came in shortly followed by Smitty. The team managed to time it so they wern't both in service at the same time. Everything went smooth.

Linc

[Linc]

DAY 5.

We woke up to light rain and looked forward to a long day; hopefully with little dust. I felt good and knew we were on the stretch home. After 5 days we all knew what we were doing, navigation had became second nature and the days seemed shorter. 700km didn't seem like such a big thing........The race had already chucked everything at us and we were still there.

The days ride went so fast for me; suddenly I was heading in to the last competitive section of the day with a few cars and bikes in front and behind me; I felt good.

As I lined up for my start I was told that there was an incident at about 50km and people would direct us around it. They showed me the point road book and I headded off in to stage.

So I said the race had already chucked everything at us......wrong. 10km in to stage the skyes opened and it just chucked down with rain. All tracks were washed away and I was really navigating.....I dont know how the guys at the front do it.

About 30km in to stage I came over a hill to see 2 bikes and a Pajero sitting there having a pow-wow, I rode up and said hi. It seems they were all lost and unable to find the track. The Pajero had tryed so many directions they had churned up the place and they couldn't even find where they came in.

I didn't hesitate to ignore the map stand on the seat of my TRX and find the track by sight; I saw a track heading away from us about 100m throught the bush. I shouted and pointed at the trio of lost racers and proceded through the scrub untill I hit the track.

At the 50km mark - where the official directing us was supposed to be - I realised I wasn't on the right track; I was lost. Panic.......just a bit, it's going to be dark soon. Stuff the map, I knew Mount Magnet was west so I just headed west.

Skill.........Luck meant I found the Control and I asked if they had seen the bikes or the Pajero "No". I left them over an hour ago and they hadn't been seen or heard.

Control pointed me out of stage and back to camp but it was getting cold and night was comming on fast. It was 80km back to Mt Magnet, I was on a dirt road and it was chucking it down with rain.

I was soaked through, freezing cold and a bit scared. I already had more than one close call with a roo and even with my crappy lighting I could see heaps of them on the side of the road.

The road lit up from behind me and before I realised the lost Pajero and 3 bikes came wizzing past; I did everything I could to stay on there ass. I didn't know it but we were only 15km from camp.

When I got in it was still pelting with rain and our site was all make shift tarps and hang up lights. Smitty and Bullet had been in for an hour and were entertaining the team with what had happened that day. I walked in soaked through and shivering; I must have looked pretty bad as they all stopped, pointed and laughed then they helped me out of my riding gear.

Later while talking with an official he suggested that DAY 6 would be canceled, he thought that the tracks would get too cut up and the sweep and medicos wouldn't be able to get through.

That was confirmed by the Clerk of the Course later that night. Everyone was dissapointed but understood.

Linc

[Runt84]

has any one heard if quads will be invited to join the next safari?
_________________
suicide bombers, if there were more people like them, there would be less people like them...

[Linc]

DAY 6.

Day 6 started early like any other day but instead of riding we had to load up and drive the quads to Geralton. For the last 6 days loading up the X-Team trailer, Winnabago and F250 had been a pain but at least they didn't have to load up the quads as well.

We couldn't take our time as all competitors were required to stop at Yalgoo for a community lunch. The organisers said the lunch time service was supposed to be there and the locals had put on a BBQ for us; we couldn't just ignore their effort.........and we want to come back next year.

Arriving at Geralton early meant we had time to spare. That afternoon was spent entertaining the local Can-Am dealer and the steady procession of bike and car team members who wanted to go and have a chat with "the quad guys".

Sometime between visits Pete decided to give my bike the once over. He and Colin had been busy with the Can-Am's all week and so far I had the oil changed once (Motul-300V), the filters changed every night and one punchure fixed for the entire race. I didn't have any issues but there was still 500km to go........anything could go wrong.

A short once over turned in to an oil change and 2 hours of tightning bolts. Everything was loose, the axle, hubs, wheels, sub-frame, a-arms.....you get the picture. I wouldn't have made it more than another 50km.

That night the catering tent was the best place in town; it was buzzing with stories of past days and the nervous antisipation of tomorrows final stage. In front of us was an 80km all sand special stage and 420km of road including a run in to the centre of Perth.

For the first time I went to bed feeling confident. I knew I could do 500km and if I finished I would be the under 500cc class winner......OK, I was the only guy in the 500cc class but my ultimate goal was to be classed as a finisher. If I could do that I knew I would have really acheived something.

For me the Safari was a dream; something you only experienced through waching on TV. There I was one day from Perth..........500km to go.

Linc

[Oz Safari/Safari Oz]

We have to say we are knackered too, what a wonderful week we had as being part of the Australasian Safari. Hope you enjoyed the last stage, this was through 3 of our favourite swamps!! On the day we set this, with an exceptionally good friend of ours we giggled a lot........ Hope, this was an enjoyable event for all of you, we all had a ball.

Any comments you have positive or negative will all be taken on board, obviously positive is more appreciated.... Any photos or video footage of the last stage would be more than welcome, because we were on start and only got to hear about them over the radio.

Final question: do you want it tougher or more navigationally challenging, or was it just right?

Can't wait to see you all next year.

Well done to everyone who entered, and a big thank you to all who assisted.




The Enthusiastic Yorkshireman and wifey (currently looking for interesting swamps!!)
_________________
The Enthusiastic Yorkshire Man and his to'ther half!!

[John Mags]

Tougher and more challenging would be nice. Minimise the fence tracks and roads and she will be perfect. I think the roads should have more time and a 90km/hr speed limit for safety and looks better for the public. But that's just my opinion.
_________________
When I'm racing I'm living..... everything else is just waiting.

[cowchaser]

Hey guys thanks for you effots thoughout the Safari. I'm with John make it even more tougher and more demanding although this course was better than I expected.
_________________
Smitty

[Linc]

I think the high and low speed mix was about right.

I do agree with John that some of the road sections had target times that didn't really reflect reality.......

Linc