Bucket List: a list of things a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.

Australia’s Greatest Desert Race, The Tatts Finke Desert Race was on mine. When I got a call from Australia-based and former NZ off road competitor, Jack Tabot, to co-drive with him as a volunteer sweep for this year’s event, I jumped at it.

After flying into Sydney and getting a night’s sleep, we had a 2,794kms drive to Alice Springs over two days. Our car for this epic trip was Jack’s trusty Nissan Navara, which we would use to sweep our section of the racetrack. Too easy.

Originally a bike race, first held in 1976, the 460km round trip from Alice Springs to the small outback town of Aputula on the banks of the Finke river is raced over Australia’s Kings Birthday Weekend.

In 1988, cars were introduced to race with the bikes, creating a fierce rivalry between riders and drivers to claim the outright King of the Desert crown. It took a decade for a car to beat a bike.

Bikes and cars shared the spoils over the next four years.

In 2005, two King of the Desert titles were created, one each for the cars and bikes. But that hasn’t stopped the intense rivalry between the cars and bikes competitors and fans alike to see who gets back to Alice fastest.

The race would feature as the second stop of the 2024 BFGoodrich Australia Off Road Championship. With 10 classes, from Extreme 2WD Trophy Trucks to buggies to side by sides, there was plenty of competition within the field for class honours as well as the overall King of the Desert title.

It was an early start on Saturday to see the cars line up to run the 8.6km long Prologue track to determine the running order for the first leg to Finke the next day. After an all-in “look” lap, it was down to business with each competitor starting with a one minute gap. One of the early morning starters was Mike “Shippo” Shipton in his Class 5 Performance 2WD. Leading Class 5 in the AORC Championship, he finished first in his class.

The prologue saw plenty of action with a couple of competitors rolling over on the tight sections of the course. At the pointy end of the field the competition was between the Pro Buggy class and Extreme 2WD, with Trophy Truck driver Beau Robinson taking the win at an average speed of 100kph over the Pro Buggy of Carl Haby at 99kph, just 2.6 seconds slower over the course.

One of the most talked about rivalries was between returning 2023 Production 4WD Class Winners Brad and Byam Lovell in their Ford Ranger Raptor and Supercars Legend Craig Lowndes, competing in his first Finke Desert Race along with his co-driver Dale Moscatt in a factory Chevrolet Silverado. Lowndes claimed the honours in the Prologue, beating Lovell by 3.468 seconds, meaning he would be on track first in class to Aputula the next day.

In the bikes, KTM riders filled the first three spots of the prologue, with less than five seconds covering them. Liam Walsh was quickest.

Jack and I were charged with sweeping the second 30km stage from Alice down to the Deep Well Station check point. We drove down to Deep Well on the access road next to the race track on Saturday afternoon to set up our camp for the night. Our track section was wide with some serious whoop sections and few hills to launch over for those brave and strong enough. There had been some rain the previous week, making the track firm, meaning the section would be fast and furious.

Spectators lined the track with their rugged off-road caravans and camps set up. As well as bringing some colour to the event, the spectators play a critical role in keeping race control advised of any competitor incidents via the publicly accessible radio channels. Event Director Antony Yoffa told me that the spectators report more than 90 percent of race incidents and are a key part of running the race as safely as possible for the competitors.

Race day one saw the leading trophy trucks and buggies reach Deep Well in less than 20 minutes. Jack and I drove back up the access road by the track towards our 30km start point for the sweep. On the way up we saw a lot of vehicles on the side of the track. Some were out of the race; other crews were working desperately to get back on track and get to Aputula. In total we had some fifteen vehicles off the track on our sweep section.

Barely had we finished our car sweep than the first of the bikes headed out of Alice. Unlike the cars, we had no bikes down to report or recover on our second sweep of the day.

Back at Deep Well, we spent more time with our fellow volunteers around the campfire. The team was responsible for Starlink comms, checking off the competitors, managing the bike transponders, other track sweepers, and the bike recovery team for our section of the track.

Up at daybreak to a cool, clear Kings Birthday, we all got ready for the cars to make their return run to Alice Springs. Of the 121 cars that started the day before, 37 did not make it to Aputula.

Robinson and Hutt had led the cars into Aputula the day before in one hour and 41 minutes. They left Aputula at 8am with the Geddes/Comiskey Trophy Truck in hot pursuit trying to close a one minute, 22 second gap. By the time they reached us at Deep Creek, 60kms from the finish line, Robinson was still pushing hard, eventually taking out the win in an overall time of three hours, 28 minutes, just over four minutes ahead of Geddes, with James Cook a further five minutes back in the his Pro Buggy. Further down the field, others were taking the track more cautiously, just wanting to finish, with the last car finishing in six hours and 56 minutes.

Another 12 cars would DNF on the return leg, meaning only 72 of the 121 completed the race. The Lowndes piloted Chevrolet Silverado fell victim to the tough track. After beating Lovell’s Ranger Raptor into Aputula by just under four minutes the day before, the Chev suffered terminal ball joint failure just 39kms out of Finke. The Ranger Raptor made it back Alice to take the Production 4WD class win in just under six hours.

Of the 10 car classes, the Can Am-dominated SXS Pro was the biggest, with 28 crossing the finish line at Alice from a total of 40 that started the race. Jeff McNiven in a CanAm Maverick X3 finished a very creditable 14th overall and first in class, in just over four hours, averaging more than 100kph.

Unlike our frantic sweep of the cars the day before, there were no cars for us to report. Just a little bit of track signage maintenance and some friendly banter with the spectators lining the track. Then it was back to Deep Creek and wait for the bikes to come through in the afternoon.

Based on the number of riders who made it into Aputula, unlike the cars, the bikes gave the track much more respect, with 302 of the 321 starters made it for the overnight stop. Going for a record-equalling fifth win in a row, David Walsh overtook his brother Liam and Callum Norton to lead the bikes into Aputula on day one with a time of one hour 47 minutes, just six minutes behind Robinson in his Trophy Truck earlier in the day.

In the end, Walsh made it across the finish line in Alice for the win, making it five victories in a row for the Alice Springs local, in a total time of three hours, 38 minutes, 10 minutes behind Robinson’s Trophy Truck.

All 302 bikes that left Aputula, all would make it back to Alice, albeit with a five-hour difference in overall time between Walsh in first place and the last rider.

Jack and I had another pleasantly uneventful final sweep of the track as the sun came down. Back at Race HQ, we shared a few cold ones with fellow volunteers, reflecting on another successful running of Australia’s Greatest Desert Race. I can’t wait to go back.
 

Images and words by Mike Peffers