Known to his friends as “Smitty” and to the many ATV forum users as “Cowchaser” (nothing sinister there, he is a dairy farmer), Can-am Australia’s Paul Smith is one of Australia’s top ATV Cross Country and Pro Motocross Racers and one of the sports strongest supporters.

Winning the quad class in the infamous Finke Desert Race in 2007, only to win again in 2008 aboard a Can-am DS450X, he proved his flexibility by then placing 3rd in the 2008 Australasian Safari on his Can-am Renegade 800x. Smitty is now focusing on his off road career and backing away from Pro level motocross, only attending major State and National MX events for 09, giving him the time to compete in all of the major ATV off road events, like the Condo 750, Thumb Pump ATV Offroad Series, Finke Desert Race and the Australasian Safari.

Scroll down for his regularly updated reports, or if you want to get in touch with him drop him an email.

Smitty ties the knot

14th February, 2009

Well we didn’t think he would ever find someone brave enough to do it, but the lovely Nicole Clarke somehow managed to pluck up the courage and get hitched to our star offroad racer, Paul “Smitty” Smith. Almost the entire X-Team (apart from Michael Roycroft, who was on his own honeymoon at the time) ventured down to the sunny coastal town of Warrnambool in western Victoria to make sure they went through with it. Considering the ridiculously hot weather we had been suffering in the weeks leading up to the event, it was a perfect mid 20’s day, with hardly a cloud in the sky.

The wedding was beautiful, with the bridal party turning up to the gardens in 3 black F-250’s, each with Can-am quads in the tray. Classy!

As you can see from the pic’s below, both Smitty and Nicole couldn’t pass up an opportunity for a ride, even if they were in their wedding attire. The reception was certainly ticking along by the time we got the bride and groom back from the photo shoot out on Smitty’s farm, but it didn’t take long for Smitty to catch up to the rest of the party goers. In typical Smitty style, he made sure everyone knew he was there. The happy couple left 3 days after completing their nuptials for an exciting honeymoon in Africa. Smitty’s last words to me were “OK Mick, I promise, if they have elephant balls on the menu, I’ll give-em a go”.

All the best for your new life together kid’s.

Mick@47

RALLYE GREMLIN STRIKES AGAIN AT THE CONDO 750

 

Easter weekend has long been known as Condo 750 weekend in mid NSW and rider’s drivers and Rallye fans from all over Australia turned up in their droves to the little farming community of Condobolin for Australia’s second biggest navigational race. This year was the 21^st running of the popular event and for the first time quads were invited to compete. The Can-am X Team rolled up for a 3 pronged attack at the title with 08 Safari place getters Darrell (Bullet) Knight and Paul Smith, also Atherton Can-Am dealer Colin Lawson was welcomed for his first race as part of the X Team.

Off road specialist Paul Smith entered his full Rallye spec Renegade X 800R prepared by Pete Wilhelms, complete with Safari long range tanks and front faring ready to iron out any bugs for Safari in August.

Stage 1 was a big wake up call for most of the quad competitors, as all but Smith, Knight and John Liddell had never used map scrolls to race before. But even Liddell and Smith got lost on Stage 1 as Nav was very tough, at one stage Smith, Lawson, Clissold, Young and Liddell along with some two wheeler guys were all stopped in the one spot trying to figure out just where they were. Once they were under way again and on the right track Smith’s quad started to cough and come to a stop. The first thoughts that came to his head were of his fuel dramas at Safari. Lawson and Clissold stopped to help but they could do nothing and finished the stage, Smith got restarted and managed to limp to service at the end of the stage. Once at service Pete was out with the tools and quickly found a poorly run breather hose cut it loose and hey presto problem solved. After being informed that he was about 25 mins behind Bullet, Smith put in a flawless run for the next 2 stages making up all his lost time, by the mid way point of the last stage of the day Smith had managed to pass nearly the whole quad field and with Bullet in his sights it was not long before he managed to take the lead from his team mate. With Bullet and Smith going toe to toe and nearing the end of the first days racing disaster stuck Smith’s transmission blew and his quad ground to a halt. Smith had to withdraw from the event but got to see just how hard his service crew worked as he joined them to help out the other X Team members on Sunday.

Everyone seemed to have their problems on Saturday, Liddell bent an axle, Lawson had some flats, Young stripped a rear sprocket, Clissold was hit with penalties, Chris Bullen’s crew filled his LTR with diesel, Doug Manwaring and Smith DNFed.

Bullet lead the quads away on Sunday with team mate Lawson quickly improving and learning to navigate well enough to be a threat. With recent rains dust wasn’t a problem and it was a 400km drag race to the end. By the lunch break Lawson had passed Bullet as he had hit a drain too fast and cart wheeled his Renegade knocking the tire off the rim. It was all down to the last competitive section to see who would prevail. The X Team service crew were biting their nails at the finish line but it was the new guy Lawson beating home Knight by 2 mins after about 800km of racing with John Liddell on his Raptor bringing home 3^rd.

Smith said after the Rallye “This is the 2^nd Nav Rally that we have done and we are learning more all the time I came here to push the bike as hard as I could to try and find problems for Safari. Our biggest problems after Safari were tires and dirty fuel I ran the new KENDA Bounty Hunter tires and they performed better than expected also the fuel problem we had was not related to dirty fuel, just a poorly run hose. So if you look at it like that I have had an extremely positive weekend, the transmission was just one of those things I suppose.” There are strong rumours that there could be up to 10 international riders coming out for Safari including this year’s Dakar winner of the quad class so we are going to have to have our stuff sorted.

SMITH GOES FOR A FINKE THREEPEAT

 

   After a disappointing end to Can-am off road specialist Paul Smith’s Thumb Pump 300 campaign with a broken rear sprocket he was hungry to make amends with a special win in the Finke Desert Race for the Third year in a row. Smiths race quad builder Pete Wilhelms had the DS 450 XMX in pristine condition for the race and is no stranger to prepping a Finke wining race quad.

   This would be the 9^th time Smith has made the trip from the chilly winter of Warrnambool to the red centre of Australia for the long weekend in June. For this year’s event there would be a little something missing though with the passing of long time rival and friend Ed Hargrave a few weeks prior to the event.

   With another fully subscribed field of 500 bike and quad competitors, with the quad scoring a record nearly 60 riders the heat was on. Can-am had a huge presence in Alice with 7 riders from the X-Team. These riders were last year’s winner Paul Smith, Rick Beer, Darrell ‘Bullet’ Knight, Lisa Hoyle, Michael Roycroft, Colin Lawson and Chris Howard. Chelsea Deboo from SA also made the trip with the X-Team on board Smith’s DS450X from last year. Along with factory teams from Polaris and KTM this year’s quad class had the hottest field of all time.

   Smith attracted a lot of media interest this year having to do sit down interviews with the DVD crew, TV News, the local press and www.atvpod.com.au , all wanting to know if he thought if he could get 3 in a row.

   After Fridays night’s scrutineering Saturday’s prologue came and went and after the dust settled KTM’s Chris Brenton held top spot by 3 seconds over Aaron Ovens and Mat Stone with Smith 1 second behind them.

   Smith got off to a good start on Sunday for the first day of the race he started on the line with Ovens and Stone and 1 min behind Brenton. Smitty’s Can-am got away from the other 2 quads early and by the time he got to his 1^st fuel stop he was still only one min behind Brenton. This is where Smith’s race plan went out the window he could smell blood and tried to catch Brenton but wore himself out in the process. Ovens managed to get by him just before Bundooma and after that Smith decided to conserve energy and just get it into Finke.    

   Once times had been corrected Smith was to start day 2 in 4^th place 5 min behind 2^nd place and 16mins behind 1^st. Smith’s plan was to try and get away from his starting group and then ride his own race and just see what happens. All went to plan and Smith got into a good rhythm. Coming through Rodinga Mick Roycroft passed Smith but he got him back again and held his position all the way home. Thinking he crossed the line in 4^th and a little disappointed Smith was surprised to see his old mate Luke Beechey as the only other quad at the finish. Luke informed him that the other two had not made it and they were 1^st and 2^nd with Roycroft coming across the line in 3^rd. Smith said “I don’t know what to say? I clearly didn’t have the pace this year but I guess it’s an endurance event and you have to finish to get a result. My DS450 ran like a clock and the Fox shox will take anything you can throw at them. That’s my 6^th podium from 9 starts up here on two and four wheels, and I want to do something special for my 10^th”.

Smitty takes on Dakar champ

 

Can-Am X team rider Paul Smith and his trusted mechanic Pete Wilhelms crossed the Nullarbor from Warrnambool to Perth to take on the Australasian Safari again last week, keen to improve on last year’s third place result. The Quad class was bolstered by four internationals this year including 5 times Dakar Quad Class Champ Josef Machacek from the Czech Republic, and last year’s Safari winner John Maragozidis, along with fast local Heath Young.

   On Arrival in Perth they meet up with long time friend Kim Howard who would run the refuels for the week. They got all the paperwork out of the way and prepared for prologue.

   Wilhelms had prepared a fantastic Rallye Renegade for the 7 days of torture it was about to receive. Not only would it have to put up with Smith flogging it for 7 days but it had to cope with 3700km of the Western Australian outback as well. A lot of lessons were learnt from last year’s race and with help from top US Can-Am GNCC racer and bike builder Mike Swift they not only had a fast but a reliable package to take whatever the race could throw at them.

   After qualifying 2^nd in the quads Smith had an awesome leg 1 it was only a short day but with tough nav in coastal sand it was hard work. Leg 2 was another good day for Smith again on top of his maps his confidence was at a high leading the quad field by nearly 10 mins after two days of racing. Leg 3 started well but just after the 1^st refuel he pushed a little too hard through a rocky section and sliced a sidewall open on a rear tire. With his tire unrepairable he had to limp another 200kms on a bare rim before he got to his next service. Smith was relegated back to 4^th place about an hour behind the leader Machacek. Smith had a good run on day 5 only but stopped about four times to pump up a rear tire because of a leaky valve he lost a little ground to Machacek but moved to 2nd position after Young and Czech rider Martin Plechaty had problems of their own. Leg 6 was going awesome for Smith; the long 250km stage around the lake was perfect for the big Renegade he had made up nearly 10mins on the Dakar champ when it all came to a grinding halt. The gearbox on the big Can-Am had given up. 6 days of torture behind a highly modified 800cc V Twin it was too much and Smith had to DNF the last stage of the day, luckily the last stage was only a short one and the penalty for not completing it was not to severe. Pete and team Manager Mick Andrewartha (who had only flown in that afternoon) were up till 3am replacing it after it arrived back at bivouac. The leader board before the last 210km stage of Safari read Machacek with a near 3 hour lead and Smith with an hour gap back to Plechaty. The last leg was a mere formality with the podium set in stone as long as the riders crossed the line without having a major issue, it was a 210km loop around Kalgoorlie finishing in town for the podium celebrations.

   On the top of the podium after 3700km of racing was the best quad Rallye rider in the world Josef Machacek followed by Paul Smith and taking third was another Czech rider Martin Plechaty. The Two Czech boys ganged up and gave Smith a drowning with champagne, other finishers were WA local Heath Young in 4^th, Tomas Kubiena 5^th. John Maragozidis and Jaroslav Chytil had to withdraw from the event with mechanical problems.

   A champagne soaked Smith said after getting off the podium. “This is awesome!! One of the highlights of my career to come 2^nd to a guy like Machacek is fine by me and to give him a run for his money for most of the race is pretty cool too. I have so many people to thank you can’t do an event like this without support and I have had lots, like the good people from BRP Australia for the big Can-Am Renegade it was awesome all week. My long time sponsors like Kenda tires, Hardiman ATV, AXO gear, 47 Industries, and the new guys that helped out this year like Staintune, Leigh Giblin Motorsports, Tireballs. Special mention to Mike Swift in the States a Can-Am GNCC champion who gave me so much advice in building this Renegade. Kim Howard A good mate from over here in WA who took a week out of his time to run my fuel for me, big thanks mate. Mick our Team Manager for doing all his Mick stuff, and of course Pete Wilhelms who not only builds these bikes for me but he is always by my side spinning spanners and I’d be up the creek without a paddle if it was not for him.

 

For more pics and info, check out Smitty’s 09 Safari diary at www.47industries.com/09safari.htm