Lowndes' Aust Safari campaign rolls over on leg 5

Today was a 'Marathon Day', meaning that no vehicle servicing was allowed by support crew. Any repairs to vehicles had to be done by the competitors themselves with the tools they carried. Despite Lowndes and Panozzo both having solid mechanical knowledge they were not able to get the car back on track.

With help from car 177 competitors Adrian Dilallo and Rob Masi, they got the vehicle got back on four wheels, but couldn't get it started, so were forced to have the car towed to the end of the stage by Murray Young and Paul McBean in car 127.

Prior to this leg, Lowndes and navigator John Panozzo had a 20-minute lead over Steve Riley and John Doble in the Mitsubishi Pajero, but the incident meant they took 10+ hours to complete the stage, dropping them to the back of the field. Organisers will apply a penalty to Lowndes for failing to complete the first stage within the control time, and being a non-starter for the second. This has yet to be determined, but will severely dent the V8 Supercar champ's chances of recording a back-to-back Safari win.

At the end of leg 5, Lowndes/Panozzo sat almost 5 hours behind the leading pair of Riley/Doble. Despite this, Lowndes was still positive about their chances for the Friday finish.
"It's certainly not over yet, our team will get the car back on the road tomorrow. It was a soft sandy turn so we weren't hurt," he said.
"We were going around a left hand corner in second gear, just clipped a tree and ricocheted off it and the left hand rear rim dug in and the car just slid onto its side.
"It's disappointing we damaged the car but we'll see where we are situated tomorrow after the time penalty has been awarded."

Leg 5 went the way of Purshouse/McShane (09 Mitsubishi Triton) from DiLallo/Masi and Conner/Conner (95 Nissan Patrol). Lowndes's accident moves Riley/Doble into the overall lead, from the Conners and Purshouse/McShane. Dilallo/Masi and Young/McBean (02 Mitsubishi Pajero) complete the top five.

Leg 6, the penultimate leg of the Safari, will see two competitive stages around Leonora totaling 377 competitive kilometres.