Nissan Racers Finish 2nd And 4th At Australasian Safari...

A Dakar event in style, the annual Australasian Safari event runs in Western (what else?) Australia and is 3600 kms long (2000+ miles). Growing quickly in the past few years and managed by one of the top sports marketing companies (Octagon, who handles Michael Phelps, Chris Paul and others) the AS is gaining more international competitors as time goes on. Given how well it has run the past few years, it would not surprise me to see the real Dakar move to Australia for a year or two after its stint in South America is over.

Nissan vehicles ran strong in the event finishing 2nd and 4th some 15 minutes and 1 hour 36 minutes out of the win. The 4th place winner was in a Nissan Patrol but the 2nd place

winner was in a Nissan GQ Ute--which I have no idea what it is though it looks more like a truck than a "Ute" which my American brain translates into a "Utility Vehicle" or something

more like an SUV...Second place driver/co-driver was Terry and Jodi Conner and 4th place driver/co-driver was Reg Owen and Russell Cairns, all of who are Australia natives.

The big American entry Josh Hall and his H2 SUT finished 12th after having some problems getting stuck/unstuck. The entire Hall family has a long standing habit of racing around the world and whatever is going/is happening with Hummer as a corporate entity I hope they continue to do so...