Grabham makes his mark in first Hattah attempt

The best desert racers from all over the country were in attendance for the four hour Honda sponsored Hattah Desert Enduro “sandfest” last weekend held 40 kms south of Mildura.

Glenn Hoffmann Honda (GHR) Honda riders Ben Grabham and Shannon Lewry mounted CRF450R’s for the occasion, along with Desert Edge Honda rider and recent Finke winner Ryan Branford who was also on his race winning machine.

Saturday’s prologue gave riders a sighting lap of the 10km prologue track with Grabham qualifying in second behind Brad Williscroft by a mere two seconds.

Grabham was closely followed by his team mate Lewry in third and Branford in fourth.

Past Finke winner Jason Hill was originally scheduled to ride for Honda at the event but unfortunately twisted his knee at work and had to bow out. That gave Shannon – who is normally 250cc mounted - a well received chance to have a ride on a 450.

“Man it was like I was an ant on the back of a fighter plane. That bike is awesome!” he said after his first sighting lap.

With the drop of the gates from the wheat paddock start line, Williscroft (Wonka) took off followed by Grabham, Lewry and Branford. As the first lap progressed, the top three put a gap on the rest of the field as Ryan unfortunately put himself through a fence and out of contention.

According to Team Manager Glenn Hoffmann, Shannon was on a different fuel strategy from the other leaders, and decided to pass the other two for an early dash.

“He lead from the front but it proved difficult. Neither Ben nor Shannon had ever seen any of the 40km loop.”

As they came back into the scoring chicane it was Wonka, Grabbo and Shannon all nose to tail exactly as they started 30 minutes earlier.

At the start of lap two, Ben went to the front of the pack and started his charge but it was short lived as he unfortunately holed a radiator on an ‘invisible’ stick.

Ben limped back to the pits and the team changed the radiator. He rejoined the race nearly last and 20 minutes down on first place.

Meanwhile Shannon was still playing tag with Wonka finishing lap two and three right on his back wheel.

His charge was slowed though as he misjudged a dune and also suffered radiator damage. Shannon re-mounted and charged on, but the bike suffered mechanically later on.

“Ben was on a mission in the background,” Hoffmann said.

“The constant light rain gave him a dust free run and he worked his way back past almost the entire field. With three laps to go, we calculated that he could finish second outright and first in class if he kept up his current pace.”

Ben took on the challenge and as he came through the start finish area for the last time, he had progressed to fifth outright and had a visual sighting on fourth placed Ben Kearney.

“In the last pit stop, our crew did a faster stop then Kearney, and Ben left on his last lap in fourth outright,” Hoffman explained.

By the time he crossed the finish line, Ben had passed Matt Fish in third and second outright Jehi Willis to claim second for himself.

“That was an incredible ride for second place,” Hoffmann said.

“Ben was twenty minutes behind Wonka after the repairs and seven minutes behind at the finish. We came to this event not knowing anything about setup, gearing or fuel strategy and realistically, I think we could have won it.”

“Both the crew and riders now have so much confidence and data that either rider could take out the event at our next attempt. Our team will definitely be back to try and add this event to our collection,” he added.