It was a long, hard and eventful day on leg two of Australasian Safari with 491km of competitive stages through coastal station country from Kalbarri to Carnarvon, where competing to finish the day and not for a fast time was the order of the day.

Honda’s Jake Smith on a CRF450X finished fastest in the motos for the second day in a row. He also took the cautious approach, putting him nearly 16 minutes ahead of nearest rivals Matt Fish on a KTM 500EXC and Rod Faggotter on his Yamaha WR450F.

“I had a good day, I was making sure I was looking after myself and the bike. Despite the long day I feel good and fresh,” Smith said.

The day wasn’t so smooth for others including Fish, who lost time in the first stage.

“I had a really rough day, I had a crash early in the first leg and lost a bit of time and am a bit sore but ready and raring to go tomorrow,” Fish said.

Sunday’s second fastest rider Shane Diener is out with a knee injury and Warren Strange dropped a few places after stopping to help Diener after he crashed.

Brother Vern Strange continues to hold the lead in the Dakar Challenge with Michael Johnson and Brett Cummings in pursuit.

“I had a great day today it was like a dream, the bike is all good,” he said. “I started today in seventh and finished in fourth so I’m looking forward to tomorrow because it’s similar country to the Gascoyne Dash which I’ve won four times.”

Fellow Dakar Challenge competitor Glenn Grundy enjoyed the day’s riding.

“It was a lot of work for a Monday!” he said. “There were a lot of interesting features, lots of gates, nice ocean views and long sandy drags.”

Today will see competitors tackling three stages and 410km of what is tipped to be the most spectacular stage of the event in one of Western Australia’s most extraordinary locations.

The trek will take competitors through a number of stations including coastal Quobba and Gnaraloo Stations and to the tip of the Ningaloo Reef where there will be river crossings, stunning beach runs, sand dunes and twisting station tracks.