2012 AUSTRALASIAN SAFARI - LEG 6 - JUST 4X4S

2012 Australasian Safari - Leg 6

Winners on Leg 6 were Geoff Olholm/Gordon Trigg in the Cairns Coconut Resort Mitsubishi Pajero, followed by the Mitsubishi Challenger of Gerald Schofield and Dean George. Olholm/Trigg won two of the day's three stages, with the third going to the Venezuelan pair of Nunzio Coffaro and Daniel Meneses (Toyota Hilux). The result for Schofield/George on Leg 6 was their best of the Safari to date, and moves the NSW pair into the top ten overall.

The penultimate leg, which wound its way through 429kms of cattle country around the Murchison River area, provided a mixture of open scrubland, rocky trails, sand dunes and tight tracks bordered by trees that called for precision driving. The day finished at Murchison House near the Kalbarri National Park. Despite the varying terrain, which provided challenges for the tired crews, Olholm said he enjoyed the leg's final kilometres through the sand.

"It was high speed and sandy flowing stages that required high concentration because of ruts and drifts," Olholm explained. "We were sliding around hitting 200km, it was a lot of fun. We left first and we were in first - it was brilliant."

Despite winning a stage, Coffaro said their prototype Hilux had a hard time in the rocky areas on Leg 6.
"It was hard for the car and the stages were very close to the trees - just millimetres. We punctured two tyres, lost our mirrors and our front grille. But otherwise the car is running great!"

The Adrian DiLallo/Robert Masi Isuzu D-Max was third on Leg 6, followed by the overall leaders in the Auto Division, John Hederics and Kees Weel in the Holden Colorado. With the Safari win theirs to lose, Hederics could afford to take it easy.

"We had a really good run today," Hederics said. "The last 40km was beautiful, the car's going fine and we're consolidating now, not pushing hard and preserving our lead."

Still holding second place overall, Rob Herridge and Sam Hill in the production class Subaru Forester are also in a relatively comfortable position, with a lead of over one and half hours over the third placed Toyota Hilux of Wayne Park/Myles Newbon.

"I'm between the devil and the deep blue sea - we're nursing our position at the moment, we don't want to be too foolhardy, we want to go fast but we can't," Herridge explained. "For tomorrow we're crossing our fingers, crossing our T's and dotting our I's. We're wrapped to be doing what we're doing," he said.

While first and second overall are relatively assured with one day left, third place is still up for grabs. The Park/Newbon Hilux nudged into third place overall after today's leg, but the gap is barely three and a half minutes to the Nissan Patrol of Reg Owen and Russel Cairns.

"The first few days we were just cruising around waiting for people to drop out, but now we're trying harder and hoping for third," Park said.

The final leg of the 2012 Australasian Safari will comprise two short stages that will bring competitors 'home' to Geraldton. The final stages will see competitors drop into the beach, blasting south to the finish line. The official finish and podium presentations will take place at Geraldton Senior College from approximately 1:00pm. Full details are available on the spectator page at www.australasiansafari.com.au.

Upon conclusion, entrants who have run the full course will have completed over 3,500kms of driving through the mid-west of Western Australia. For more information on the 2012 Australasian Safari and the latest results, visit www.australasiansafari.com.au.