Yesterday I was tired and cold so I didn’t write anything to update the blog. But nothing big happened where I was hanging. We got to Leonora around half past eleven and then we put up our tents and unloaded the truck.

Damien’s motor broke down so Magnus and Richie had to fix it while I got on tire and massage duty.

Annie’s hands were really sore and Damien’s neck was still stiff after his fall three days ago.

Richie and Magnus, happy they fixed Damien's motor

Magnus taking a nap after today's breakfast

Today, since we will stay in Leonora for two nights, me, Megan, Tony, Eppis and Graham went out to see the riders in action. That was a cool and fun experience, except for the fly’s… I will NEVER complain about the swedish fly’s again, here you get them everywhere, in your mouth, eyes, ears, clothes… really everywhere. At least the swedish fly’s are well-behaved and respect you, sort of .

Megan waiting for the riders to come

Rider number two, show off

Damien in action

Garry had a bad fall of today, he broke his shoulder-blade and some ribs, so unfortunately he’s out of the competition now. Damien got a wooden stick in his leg, he was in pain but now after visiting the doctor he seems fine again and will still ride tomorrow in the final.

Megan's hand holding the flowers we found today (and her apple)

Tomorrow we’ll pack up all our stuff again and head for our final destination in the race, Kalgoorlie.

The sunset and a helicopter

12:00

4 of us are kicking back in the camp today, Magnus, Murph, Kelvin and Andrew. Agnes, Tony Eppis and Megan has gone out to the track to get a view of the action out there.

As we are the biggest team in the race the officials walk by with info regarding the race and so far today this has happened:

Sam’s clutch has stopped working so he is out of todays stage. Damien has injured his leg or foot by a wooden stick, he is still riding though. Cyril Despres has a broken ankle so I believe this is it for him in this race…

At about 2 pm our riders begun to drop in, and today we lost 3 of them.

Garry, broken shoulder and a popped lung. Manuel was pulled off track by the medic as Manuel was somewhat “disillusioned” at the service stop and, as mentioned before, Sam had a broken clutch.

 
Service vise for me this night was light, just a general check (oil and filters) and a bent navigation tower and I was done.
Tonight is the last service we do on the bike and tomorrow we move on to Kalgoorlie. Load up and head back to Perth on Saturday morning after the presentation dinner Friday night. 

Damien and Magnus after finishing the last evening of servicing Damien's bike

This is possibly my last update on this race as I am not sure if I will have time tomorrow so thanks for following it. 

I also would like to thank Damien for letting me work on his bike, this was the first time I have worked with a rider at Damien’s level.

Special thanks to Garry who asked me to come yet again and for accepting Agnes on the team.

Laverton to Leonora.

Only a fuel stop today. The first stage up to the fuel stop where Richie, Murph, Kelvin, Andrew and me went turned out to be a carnage. At the fuel stop we can only assist the riders with food and fuel no service on the bikes are allowed.

Sam was first to this stop. His navigation tower had cracked all the way through on one side so it was flapping back and fwd as he rode the bike. He did a quick fix with cable ties which turned out to last him the day, none of us believed it would .

Sams cracked navigation tower at the fuel stop today

We received reports that Manuel had a big crash and he was heli lifted out of the stage.

As Damien came up to the position where Manuel crashed Manuel was basically knocked out and the blood was running from his nose so Damien called for a helicopter. Manuel turned out to be quite ok given the circumstances and he will be riding tomorrow again…

Manuel's crashed bike, front view

Manuel's crashed bike rear view

Then Ben got in to the fuel stop. Ben had problems with a motor that was leaking cooling liquid, as we could not touch the bike (race rules) we could only give him advice, more water and a good luck.

Garry had a fall at the exact same spot as Manuel and broke his navigation tower so he had to find another rider to follow back to the finish.

Garry's crashed bike. the navigation tower all bent

When we got back to the camp round 3 pm a few of our bikes was already there and the work had begun as we arrived. I got the news that Damien’s motor broke down at the end of the stage. Mick stopped and towed him back and the motor needed to be replaced.

Ritchie and me working on removing Damien's motor

Working on removing Damien's motor

Still working on Removing Damien's motor

 

Damien's motor removed

Big day for the team but I believe we will have all our riders back on the track tomorrow.

Agnes:

Agnes sends her regards and saying that she’s to tired this evening to write anything, but she’ll be back tomorrow  … so to be continued.

Our riders had a loop to do today, Laverton to Laverton.

Two crews had to go out. One fuel stop crew had to drive 80 km at 6 am in order to be on time. The second crew was the service crew, they had to cover the double distance 160 km one way.

I was on the service crew and we came to the service place 2 mins before the riders.

In the morning outfit, not pretty but warm...

David ready to race

 

Our riders dropped in one by one! Damien, Manuel, Sam, David, Mick, Annie, Ben and Garry.

 

The service crew have found their designated task on the service stop so handling up to 3 bikes at the same time is going well. Damien got in, he was clearly in pain after his fall yesterday all the others had minor or no issues.

 

Damien and me at todays service stop

The temporary repair of the smashed rear window

Ray giving Manuel some advice at the fuel stop today

 

Eppis on the fuel stop

Agnes:

Since I didn’t have to put up the tents today I followed the mechanic crew (fuel and service) out to help the riders on their way. I couldn’t go with any of our crews because there wasnt any seat left for me so Damien’s friends let me go with them.

Damien ready to race on day 4... Maybe

Sarah and her father, Damien's friends. They took me with them out on both fuel stop and service stop

 

So I went to both fuel stop and service stop because they only had one crew and one rider. We had a fun time counting abandoned cars along the way, we got to 56!

 

The riders that came in looked really tired, they got what they came for and left.

 

The Yamaha crew filling someones tank with fuel

 

Magnus the Arab, someone don't like the fly's

 

Tomorrow we’ll leave for Leonora and I belive we will stay there for another two nights. Today Annie showed me how she highlight the information in her road book, and I will get it when she’s done with it. Then I will have two different road books (Damien’s and Annie’s) for my school project.

 

Now, finally, we have updated  Team Husaberg 2011  with pictures of all the team members!

 

Big drive for the service crews, our four vehicles had three different destinations.

1. 120 Km drive to the Service stop
2. 300 Km drive to the fuel stop
3. The direct drive to this stop, Leonora

I went to the first service stop and when all bikes was through we had another 250 km drive…

The service crew waiting for work after todays first stage

The service crew working on David Swartz bike, as usual he brings it in good condition

At the service stop the riders had a 20 min service opportunity. Damien did the fastest overall time so far to this stop and it showed on his rear tire. The tire was basically totally finished, he got a new one fitted. unfortunately Damien’s electric road book broke after the service stop so he had to wind the pages by hand which in turn made him crash at about 100 Km/hour.

The service crew got in about 20 min to Leonora before Damien and he was beat…

I got the problems on the road book sorted, a wire that had vibrated loose was the cause of the problem.

I wish that all electrical problems was this easy to isolate, this is the broken wire that indirectly caused Damien's crash today

Agnes posing in her new Aaustralasian safari jacket

 

Today I got up and put all the tents together and then we left for Liverton where we will stay for two nights (thank heaven I don’t have to fix with the tents tomorrow!!). So tomorrow I will follow the mechanics out to the fuel stop to see what that’s all about.

Agnes on tent duty in the morning

Agnes is getting an instruction from Damien on how he highlights the information in the road book

Agnes back on tire duty this time with the wheel already fitted

 

 

Magnus:

A big day for most of the mechanics, after loosing 2 riders during day one. Sam that hit a kangaroo and had a bad fall was stopped by the medics to continue after the service. Manuel’s rear tire basically exploded and had to ride on his rim for a number of Km. Manuel are back in the track today, however his chances of getting a good position are slim.

Manuels blown out tire after day 1

Magnus troubleshooting the fuel leak on Damien's bike

 

Agnes on tire duty

 

Agnes on tire duty, adding some groves in Damiens rear tire

 

 Agnes:

Magnus taught me how to put together the pop-up tents, so now I’m in charge of all the tents here .

Here you can see all the tents in the background

 When Magnus left with the service crew I went in the support truck with Tony and Megan Hill, we had a great time. They told me a lot about Australia and pointed out things along the way and explained what it was.

When I said a kangaroo was probably the thing I wanted to see the most we tried to find some, and we did…. three dead ones along the road . I talked to Sam later about the kangaroos and he said he wished the one he met had been dead too (the one that hit him).

Agnes doing her homework for school

 

Agnes working the blog

 

 

We set up the camp and it is the largest Husaberg team so far in the safari. We have 4 main riders to look after, Damien Grabham, Dave Swartz, Sam Sunderland and Mick Huchen. Then we have Manuel Luccese, Annie Seel, Garry Connell, Ben Young and Ben O’Brien. Today is the prologue that will determine the start in order for stage one tomorrow.

The whole team is putting everything up for today

Due to computer problem we have not been able to upload all the pictures for today, hopefully it is just a temporary problem…

After about 20 hours of traveling we’ve finally reached Australia. Tony came to pick me, Magnus and Rikard “Eppis” up at the airport and after an hour drive we met the team.

Me and Eppis at the function

Preparations

2011/09/22

Full action in the garage, Annie and her bike

 Right now everyone doing preparations for the race which starts tomorrow! We will leave Perth around 6 in the morning, drive for 5 hours to Geraldton because it’s a prologue there, so we will spend the first night at the race there.

 

Annie, me and Richie in the morning (Thursday)

 

Me and Damien's bike at the function

 

I was checking for spiders in my fleeze after Richie’s stories about spiders in Australia (Magnus laughed a lot)

 

Annie is ready for the ceremonial start in Perth

 

Interview with Sam (the youngest rider in our team) in the ceremonial start escorted by a Husaberg-girl-mascot.

 

Our italiano Manuel brought all mascot-girls with him

 

Then it was time for preperations of the bikes and of leaving Perth tomorrow (Eppis, Annie and her bike)

 

I wrote some commercial about the race and painted Husabergs logo in a restaurant because they didnt know what the rally was.

 

When we got back from the ceremonial start we bought some pizza. (Annie, Eppis and me)

 

It is time for my third Australasian Safari.

On this page you can follow me and my step daughter Agnes on the safari 2011.

Earlier this year I asked her if she would be interested in coming to a race with me to get to see firsthand what it is that I do on these occasions, she said yes without a second of hesitation.

It is my third safari and it is Agnes first. Today we leave our loved ones behind for two weeks and take our bags to the airport for the 20 hour-long trip to Perth.

Me and Agnes at Arlanda airport, saying goodbye to Jonatan (Agnes boyfriend).

This page of this blog will be somewhat different from the other pages you can find, I will focus on photos rather than the volumes of text that I have done before. If someone out there wonder about something, do not hesitate to post a comment or a question, then we will try’n answer the best we can.

Agnes settled in her seat on the 10 hour flight to Bangkok, then another 8 hours to Perth Australia...