The finish line celebrations on Kalbarri Foreshore in Western Australia were a mixture of happiness, relief and sadness for Australasian Safari competitors and organisers.

The group of 127 competitors are likely to be the last entrants to race the iconic motorsport event, a few of whom such as Bruce Garland, Steve Riley and Jim Cairns were also entrants in the first Safari in 1985.

The navigational rally took the cars, bikes, and side by side buggies through their paces in a variety of terrain, from the harsh red desert of Western Australia’s Mid-West and Pilbara, to the sandy dunes and coastal scrub of the Coral Coast. The 2014 route was a true test of endurance, with competitors and event officials travelling over 3,500 kilometres in seven days.

Dubbed the Murchison Mega Finale, Leg 7 was 155 kilometres of mettle testing terrain – the final test of resilience for both car and competitor. Those final kilometres subjected competitors to the lot – from twists and turns, to fast straights, solid rock, sand, pindan, mud and corrugated tracks. Those who reached the flying finish were rewarded with breathtaking views of the Murchison River.

From Leg 1, it was a tight and highly competitive race for the Auto category, with the vehicles of Steve Riley and John Doble, Dave McShane and Bill Hayes, Greg Scanlon and Liam Nunns and John Purshouse and Murray Hynes all exchanging top three places at some point.

Defending champion Rod Faggotter has held the Moto outright lead throughout the seven days, winning eleven of the fifteen stages. American Baja champion Quinn Cody has never been far behind, consistently posting a top four time in each stage.

Dakar Challenge entrant, Ian Blythe, had a successful first navigational rally, continuously keeping a good buffer of time between himself and his fellow challenge contenders.

Auto
Nail biting to the finish, only 45 seconds separated Steve Riley and Dave McShane when they went into the final leg today. Just under half way through the stage, only a minute still separated the pair when Steve Riley and John Doble’s Riley Motorsports VF Holden Commodore Ute slid off the track at high speed and became bogged in mud.

“I said at the beginning it would end in tears and those tears are mine,” said Riley. “We were all driving way too hard.”

The off, caused the team who had been leading for most of the week, to end up with third place on the podium. “We tried all week to get in a position where we could play our poker hand, but sadly it wasn’t to be,” said Riley.

“We are very proud of the car we have built at home in the back shed with some mates. We’d love to take this very Australian vehicle overseas to compete in Dakar one day.”
Second place was secured by Greg Scanlon and Liam Nunns in the ARB Bendigo Nissan Patrol by just ten minutes over third place Riley Motorsports.

SxS
West Australians Robert Williams and Michael Hawkins of Team Titan won the title of outright side-by-side champions by a comfortable three hours. In second place was Dylan Minear and Steve Syson, from War Motorsports also from Western Australia. It was Dylan’s second rally, having only competed in the Forest Rally previous. Simon Clifford in the Polaris XP 900 came third.

Crossing the finish line was a special moment for side-by-side pilot Jim Cairns. Jim had competed in the first Australasian Safari in 1985 as a moto rider, but was unable to finish the event due to an incident which made him a paraplegic. This year, he came back to finish what he started all those years ago.

Moto
It was back to back outright moto titles for Queensland Yamaha rider Rod Faggotter. Rod’s dream run continued today, with no navigation errors and no issues from his bike. “”Really good run today. A lot of competitors got lost but I got through it, and ended up five to six minutes quicker,” said Faggotter.

“The Yamaha has been awesome. No mechanical issues all week. It has been a dream run really. Always good when you don’t crash, that’s a good event!”

Riders from CPW occupied the second and third podium spots. Californian Quinn Cody made sure Rod watched over his shoulder all week, but in the end was 36 minutes short. “Last leg was a little scary because I had a herd of sheep follow after me at the sixty kilometre mark. I then punctured the front fuel tank with a stick which caused the bike to surge,” said Quinn.

Quad
West Australian Heath Young from Legends Quad Services managed to recover from his injuries in time to start the final leg and finish the event in third place.
It was John Maragozidis day though, taking out top podium position in the Quad category, after just missing out last year. “Last year I was fast, but not spot on. This year I was slower but spot on, and it paid off,” said Maragozidis.

“The quad is a beast. She could do another Safari I reckon. I built it for Dakar, but they changed the rules and she no longer qualifies.”

VIDEO: Final Day wrap