EIGHT days braving the Western Australian outback earned Mepunga rider Paul Smith a top-10 finish in the Australasian Safari.
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Moto competitor Smith, riding a KTM690 enduro bike, completed the 15-stage, 2300-kilometre rally in 30 hours, 47 minutes and 58 seconds.
He was as low as 15th after day two but rose to 10th as the week progressed, finishing more than six hours behind overall winner Rod Faggotter.
Smith, a former quad-bike competitor who won a stage at the 2013 Dakar Rally, said he was pleased with his efforts in the moto class.
“I had a ball on the two-wheeler,” he said in a video diary entry on the Safari’s official Facebook page.
Warrnambool pair Reg Owen and Russell Cairns were 13th in the auto section competing in an Isuzu MUX four-wheel-drive. The veteran competitors, in the field for the 19th time, clocked 41.05.28, almost 15 hours behind Western Australians Dave McShane and Bill Hayes.
The Australasian Safari, from September 20 to 27, asked competitors to complete stages encompassing a variety of terrains, including coastal and inland.