Page 75 - Australian Motorcycle News (January 2020)

WHAT

WYNN’S

BECAME

Not once, but twice!

WHAT BEGAN AS the
Wynn’s Safari became the
Australian Safari in 1989
and then the Australasian
Safari, an event I competed
in both 2002 and 2003. I
regard each of those events
as among the dumbest
things I have ever done,
right on par with the Macau
GP. Why? Because in that
many kilometres, at that
speed, things happen that
you have zero ability to fix.
The hard-as-nails
attitude of the Wynn’s
Safari carried over to
the Australasian event,
3
brilliantly run as it was
by Octagon Motorsports
when I competed. Long
700km days in the saddle
off-road – leaving before
first light and, if you ran into
trouble, arriving in the dark
– are hard yakka. I loved
it, though, and each event
made for so many stories
I could have filled AMCN
with just a re-cap.
I once hit the same
kangaroo twice at twilight
on the run into Parc Ferme
and somehow stayed
upright – the team didn’t
believe me until they found
Kangaroo fur wedged in the
radiator guard. The poor
thing hopped in front of me
when I was doing 70km/h,
knocking me into an epic
tankslapper. It must have
been rolling in between the
wheels as I somehow got
back on the seat, before
the rear wheel kicked
skywards after hitting it
again. Lucky.
5 Watching Andy
Caldecott ride from the
back of the field at full noise,
hearing Alfie Cox complain
about Aussie farm gates,
which you had to open
and close mid-competitive
section, seeing Andy
Haydon bellow in pain as
they tried to ‘re-locate’ a
knee which turned out to
be broken… I’ll never forget
those two races, or stop
mourning the end of the
iconic event in Australia,
when it wound up after the
2014 race.
7 8 SAM MACLACHLAN

amcn.com.au 75
amcn.com.au
75