Ok, so if you have not already heard over on the Adventure Rider forum (look here for the most up to date commentary or here at the horses mouth for facts and figures) yesterdays special section 2 brought a fault in the Rooney teams ignition control unit (possibly related to an earlier crash where a plug lead was damaged) only 2.5km from the stage finish.
Consequently the final stage of day 3 was missed, stealing a 100% stage completion goal away from the team as well as giving them a 12hr penalty. But before it did Ross Briggs snapped this picture of Jason lazing around on the beach!
It was a pretty hard stage for everybody and at the end of it the casualty list looked like this:
| Auto 108 Olham/Trigg – Mitsubishi Pajero – Mechanical |
| Auto 138 McCormack/Humfrey – 1975 Datsun 260Z – Rolled |
| Moto 38 Jason Adams – 1983 BMW R65 – Mechanical |
| Auto 112 Lata/Kanchanarat – Isuzu D-Max V-Cross – Bogged |
| Auto 109 Trairat/Sombutwong – Isuzu D-Max V-Cross – Bogged |
The longest casualty list from any stage so far. Far from being deterred our intrepid hero plans to ride hard (rather then hard push) todays sections. Paul and Ken have the bike back up and running and Jason has pulled himself off the beach, stretched his legs, pulled the bugs from his teeth and wiped the sand from his eyes. A whole new day!
Picture above courtesy Australasian Safari.
Day four is two sections:
Special Section 9 through ‘Coorayala’ Station is 155.7km
Special Section 10 ‘Kennedy Ranges‘ is 132.3km
How tired must these guys be already?!
GO team Rooney! Go Jason you bloody beach bum!
(ok just to show Jason is not at all a beach bum here he is playing in the dirt. Images by and courtesy of Tony Young)
Rooney Cycle 
Push Jason PUSH!