08 – Day 3 Friday Preview – Sunraysia Safari 2025

Uh good morning. Welcome. It's a fairly brisk early start for us on day three of the 2025 Sunra Safari Rally. The competitors have a lot of ground to cover today, so we've got to get underway nice and early. We've had to unfortunately cancel our first stage of the day due to that heavy rain we experienced a couple of days ago. Uh some of that claybased surface is still not safe to travel on. So unfortunately the competitors have got a fair old hike right out to uh Spring Hill Station this morning which is about oh 200 kilometers on the motorbike or in the car. I know which one I'd prefer to be on. Um lovely little stage 130 km through Spring Hill and Wilcara. Um and again Wilc's one of our favorite properties of the Sunraes Safari. Then we'll come all the way back a quick little lunch in Pune Kerry before heading home. And on the way home, we just stop in at cabin and run a nice little 101, sorry, 121 km stage, which will bring us back this afternoon. It was lovely to finally get a proper safari stage in yesterday after the wet and treacherous conditions of the first day. And one competitor that particularly enjoyed yesterday's conditions is Scotty Huggin, and he joins me this morning. Now, Scotty, you had a bit of a rough start on day one, but yesterday was better for you. Yeah, I kind of tried to take it easy on day one just in that really wet conditions. I mean, we've got four days of racing. Um, and you can't win it in the first day. No, we found that. Now, there was a couple of riders, uh, you were unfortunately one of them that, uh, maybe became a little bit too close to the ground on day one. Um, interestingly, you're a big advocate of wearing the the safety airbag u for moto riders, and it's something that we've been very keen to explore. Um just what a difference does that actually make you know as far as your mindset as a rider? Do you do you feel just a little bit more confident that if there is an issue that you'll be a bit more protected? Yeah, definitely. I uh I uh come into a corner a bit too hot on uh day one and just had a little slide out and uh deployed the airbag. Um I probably didn't need it on that particular crash, but other people like Trent on the BMW, he really needed it. You can see how big his crash was and it just would have protected him so much more than if you fall with nothing, you know. Um, hard body armor doesn't really work. You really need the airbag. And the airbag saved me so many times in huge crashes that I should be really injured from, and I've just walked away from them. So, in some ways, it gives you the confidence to uh take a few more little risks, but also I'm always thinking about the $200 it cost you every time you uh deploy it. I think I'll stick with my roll cage and my heated seats and my lovely warm car. Um, now you obviously had a great day yesterday which has brought you back up the field. What's the plans for today? >> Yeah, so um I'm just taking each day as it comes and I'm kind of trying to um run my own race. Like I'm racing against myself and I'm racing against the road book. I'm not going to get involved in any tussles with anyone. I'm just trying to hit every note and navigate well and that seems to be working for me. So, good luck for today. Hope it runs smoothly.