Finke Desert Race
| File:Finke desert race logo.gif | |
| Category | Off Road Rally |
|---|---|
| Country | Northern Territory, Australia |
| Inaugural event | 1974 |
| winning car | Honda CRF450R |
| Official Website | http://www.finkedesertrace.com.au/ |
The Tatts Finke Desert Race is an off road, multi-terrain two-day race in Northern Territory, Australia through desert country from Alice Springs to Aputula Community. The race crosses the Finke River, believed to be the oldest river in the world. The race is held each year on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend (second weekend in June).[1]
The Track
Encompassing about 229 km each way the Finke Desert Race is a gruelling and tough event. Travelling through many Properties on its way to end up crossing the Finke river just north of Aputula. The Track is divided into 5 sections:
- Start/Finish Line to Deep Well (61 km)
- Deep Well to Rodinga (31 km)
- Rodinga to Bundooma (43 km)
- Bundooma to Mt Squires (45 km)
- Mt Squires to Finke (49 km)
History
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The concept of an endurance event that would test the ability of riders and the reliability of their machines was mooted on several occasions by people with an interest in such an event and the logical destination was to the Finke River and back.
In 1974 the defunct Alice Springs Motor Cycle Club was hi-jacked by a small group of people with an interest in resurrecting the club and conducting motor cycle events under that club's banner.
The group included Ralph Tice, an American from the space base at Pine Gap, and locals Barry Taylor, Peter Kittle and Peter Gunner.
The club began conducting events aimed at giving the ordinary bike owner who had achieved some skill with his machine the chance to compete and win.
A meeting was held to discuss the possibility of a long-proposed endurance race to Finke and back. This meeting was held at night in the kitchen of Peter Gunner's home, all the committee were present as was Mr Viv Johnston, who had been invited along to convey to us the reasons that had stopped his own motorcycle group from going ahead with a similar event; money was the main reason, the argument being that aerial searches for lost contestants could involve sums as high as twenty thousand dollars.
A Suzuki four-wheel drive was borrowed from Paul Delahunty along with a car trailer and with it hooked behind a Falcon utility, Barry Taylor, Peter Gunner and Benny Gunner as well as several hundred triangular flags cut from builders orange plastic sheeting, a staple gun, crow bar and shovel set out via Kulgera to Finke to mark the course.
We unloaded the Suzuki and drove up the track to where the proposed course first became a challenge to follow, the railway was still in operation and the fettlers still inhabited the camps that had not fallen into ruin.
Over forty years of operating a rail service had given the Commonwealth a vast area of desert in which to deposit sleepers, lengths of rail and other surplus equipment. There was no recognised road and what did exist was prone to unexplained deviations and turnoffs.
The one stable feature was the overland telegraph line, so we festooned poles and sleepers with stapled orange flags all the way to the Finke River and the course was born.
This was a deadly serious endurance event in which the possibility of severe injury was high, the course as a pre-raced track was non existent and as was conveyed to the entrants at the first pre race meeting they were totally responsible for everything to do with their own welfare, a recommendation was made that they carry every basic need including water, to be decent fellows and check on any riders they found sprawled along the way. The pre-race inspection performed had one aim only, to determine whether the machine looked capable of taking its rider safely there and back.
See Also
Australian Off Road Championship
