The Australasian Safari was an off-road

motor sport ''Motor Sport'' is a monthly motor racing magazine, founded in the United Kingdom in 1924 as the ''Brooklands Gazette''. The name was changed to ''Motor Sport'' for the August 1925 issue. The magazine covers motor sport in general, although from ...

racing event held in Australia between 1985 and 2014.

History

The Australasian Safari was first run in 1985 and held under the International Sporting Code of

FIM FIM may refer to: Organizations and companies * Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the International Motorcycling Federation * Flint Institute of Music, in Michigan, United States * Fox Interactive Media, now News Corp. Digital Media * ...

and from 1999, the General Competition Rules of

Motorcycling Australia Motorcycling Australia is the governing body for motorcycle racing in Australia, covering road racing, motocross, trials, supercross, dirt track, supermoto and speedway. Motorcycling Australia is affiliated with the international governing ...

. It was usually held around the end of August, in the Australian winter, and covered approximately 5,500 kilometres, mostly through the Outback in just over a week. Like the

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal ...

, the vehicle classes involved were motorcycles and cars, however there were no truck class. From 2008, a quad class was introduced. The event grew in size and scope for the first few years. In 1988, Australia's Bicentennial year, the event was tagged "The Big One" and was expanded to cover 10,000 km in 15 days, with a start in Alice Springs and traveling across the

Tanami Desert The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a rocky terrain with small hills, and cacti. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored b ...

, through the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts ...

into Darwin, across the Gulf Country of far northwest

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

and an eventual finish in Sydney. Out of 196 starting vehicles, only 96 finished the race. Initially known as the

Wynn's Illinois Tool Works Inc. or ITW is an American Fortune 500, Fortune 200 company that produces engineered Fastener, fasteners and components, equipment and consumable systems, and specialty products. It was founded in 1912 by Byron L. Smith and h ...

Safari for commercial reasons, the event was renamed in 1989 to the Australian Safari, and to the Australasian Safari in 2008. From 2007 the event was hosted in Western Australia. Between 1994 and 1997 the event was included in the

FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup The FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies was a rally raid series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver, co-driver, and team; with additional trophies awarded to T2 and T3 drivers & teams. Starting with the 2011 season, the p ...

. It was last held in 2014 after

Tourism Western Australia Tourism Western Australia is the statutory authority responsible for promoting Western Australia as a tourist destination. Its earlier predecessors included The Department of Tourism and the Tourism Commission. See also * Tourism Australia * ...

withdrew its funding for the event.Western Australia to pull plug on safari
''

Speedcafe Speedcafe.com is an Australian-based motorsport news website that launched on 23 October 2009. The site had over 50 million page views in 2020. Speedcafe.com is a source of news and race reports for the Supercars Championship, Formula One, and oth ...

'' 25 June 2014

Results

References

{{reflist

External links

Australasian Safari HomepageDetailed Report of 2002 Event - Off-Road.com
Motorcycle races Rally raid races Recurring sporting events established in 1985 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2014 1985 establishments in Australia 2014 disestablishments in Australia Motorsport in the Northern Territory Motorsport in Western Australia Motorcycle racing in Australia