Crossing the Australian Continent by Raptor

Day Ten - The Gunbarrel Highway

With still over 2000km to Steep Point the crew was up before daylight to cover as many kilometres as possible before dark. About 10km from the previous nights camp Ross drifted wide on a rutted corner spearing a stick through the oil reservoir on his Raptor. The look on Ross's face was priceless when he saw the Raptor was parked in a pool of oil. 'Johnie - We can fix it' leaped into action to get the Raptor mobile again using 3 year needit to bung up the hole. A quick dry with the blow torch to speed up the curing process and it was back on the road. The rest of the day was spent with an average speed of 40 - 50Km per hour on the unmaintained Gunbarrel. It was just on dark when Matt radioed through to the support vehicle to say that he had found a campsite. It turned out that the balljoint on Ross's Raptor had separated allowing the front suspension to collapse and dig into the sand sending Ross over the hangers as the Raptor made its own path through the scrub. The picture shows the crash zone. Ross jumped up and apart from a twisted thumb was unhurt. After two mishaps in the one day Ross was happy to make camp for the night while ''Johnnie - We can fix it' again spent time on the tired Raptor. Over a few drinks it was determined that the ball joint had been damaged in the previous altercation with the tree and the corrugations on the Gunbarrel had finally taken its toll on the damaged component.

Day Eleven - West of Wiluna

Another pre daylight start saw the group arrive at Mt Beadell on the Gunbarrel Highway. Mt Beadell was a great opportunity to get a good look at the countryside and provided some excellent photo opportunities. West of Carnegie the Gunbarrel Highway is maintained and it was time to open the throttle and reduce the kilometres to Steep Point but as fate would have it the F 250 blew out a tyre costing time and daylight. A quick tyre change and it was on with the trip to catch the Raptors. As part of the Guinness World Record attempt the crew had to have Police from each town sign an official register verifying that Matt and Ross were infact riding the complete trip. The Wiluna Police were the only ones that gave any grief greeting Matt with "I hope your not riding that thing on the road". After showing the folders full of permits he changed his attitude and was happy to have a chat. This was the only place across Australia that wanted to see the permits and overall the police help on the trip was excellent. The damaged oil reservoir on Ross's Raptor continued to be a problem but with the end in sight and a late night repair from 'Johnnie - We can fix it' it should make it to Steep Point. Matts Raptor was still running faultlessly with nothing but a holed sidewall that was easily repaired. For a couple of ATV's straight out of the crate the Raptors were proving to be the ultimate in performance and reliability. The Kenda Tyres were showing signs of wear but with more then 4000km already completed they should easily last the remaining 1000 plus kilometres to Steep Point. Even the road crew was showing signs of exhaustion. Stumbling out of the air conditioned F truck to refill the Raptors every 100km was taking its toll. The riders just glared and bared the support crews comments and got on with the job.

Day Twelve - Steep point

With 800km of unpaved country roads to Steep Point the final day was going to be a fitting end to a marathon trip. It should be the last day for getting up in the dark and putting on two week old riding gear. It had been five days since any one had showered so everyone smelt the same. Rolling into Meekatharra (the famous town in Kevin Bloody Wilson's song - Living next door to Alan) the support crew come up with a new song about a worn out white F truck. From Meekatharra the adventure continued across station roads which as a welcome surprise for the riders were very well maintained. The boys made a quick stop at the remains of the old Mt Gould lockup for some happy snaps before continuing onto the Overlander Roadhouse. The last 180km to Steep Point seemed to take ages but with the final 30km on tight sandy tracks it made for a great race to the finish. The final photo's were taken as whales swam past and the sun went down over Steep Point. It would be the final night sleeping in swags and the location could not be more perfect. Steep Point is a beautiful location and well worth a visit. Camping is available on the beach and the Rangers could not be friendlier. It cannot be expressed in words how well the new 700 fuel injected Raptors performed. Both Raptors were unmodified except for the Kenda tyres and RTA requirements. Matt's Raptor was run in on the first leg of the adventure and never missed a beat across the entire 5000km plus trip. Ross's Raptor was one of the Australian pre-production models which had been crashed and repaired prior to the trip, it twice crashed through tree's, it's oil reservoir was split open on a stick but it still managed to finish the entire trip. The Kenda Tyres fitted to both Raptors made the entire 5000km plus trip with out a change. They tackled some of the harshest terrain in Australia from the Stony, Simpson and Gibson deserts to the bitumen and dirt roads across the country. Between the two Raptors they travelled more then 10,000km and with only one flat tyre that is impressive! Other sponsors that made the Yamaha Coast to Coast Raptor 700 World Record possible include Pro Yamaha, Pirelli, Whiteman's Motorcycles, Telstra, North Coast Jetski's, Ledger Financial Services, Aussie Pooch Mobile, Geraldton Tyre Power, MJB Corporation, Matt Murphy from Ficeda and Steve Embelton from Major Events Queensland Police. The New World record longest ever ATV ride has now been set by Matt Brown at 5710 kilometers.

Ross Ledger rode 5526 kilometers with Matt to allow him to achieve the World Record.