Sun 8th June – Day 29: Finke Desert Race

After drizzle most of the night we woke to cloudless skies and the smell of the famous Big 4 Sunday Pancake breakfast just outside and discovered friends from Uluru - Grant, Cathy & kids were in line first – Grant works for Honda and was here to watch the ‘Finke’.
Fortified with good food we headed out towards the airport to see some petrol-heads in action. The Finke attracts some 500-race entries including cars, quad bikes and motorbikes in a normally dusty & dangerous return race from Alice Springs to the aboriginal town of Finke some 248km away.
Now we came up the main dirt road from Finke a week ago and the sand and corrugations made going slow – we barely managed 40km/hr on some sections. These racers average 140km/hr with a top speed of 220km/hr – that is some serious driving. The rain from yesterday had played havoc with the speed trials yesterday and the mud caked support vehicles played testament to this.
Arriving at midday we saw the start of the bikes & quad bikes (the cars having left earlier that morning) – the front runners were doing some serious speeds and we saw a few crashes early on as pre-race nerves caused many of the less experienced racers to stall at the start. We saw ‘ ‘ a local boy and paraplegic strapped to his bike only to have the air filter catch fire and his seat and legs catch fire - quick repairs and he too was underway.
With the smell of 2-stroke in our nostrils we headed back to the park and watched as those who had failed to finish for whatever reason limped back into camp – their hopes shattered for this year at least. We later found out the rain had helped settle the dust and most riders had a great time, but with 1 death today, this race this one is not for the faint hearted.
One of the unlucky ones was ‘John’ (a diesel mechanic at a Mn mine on the small island of ‘Groote‘ in the Gulf of Carpentaria, 40km across Warwick Channel off the northeast coast of N.T.) whose quad bike had seized about 50km in. Arriving back at the park he had his race leathers and helmet, while everything else including wallet, mobile, change of clothes etc were on their way to Finke with his support crew. We gave him a beer, some sandwiches and the promise of a towel for a hot shower if he didn’t find any mates to help him out.
We spent the rest of the afternoon pulling everything out of the car and re-packing in an effort to get rid of some of the red dust that has permeated absolutely everything. Even the rear seatbelts (which have never been used) were brick red.
Got invited to drinks which quickly turned into dinner with Grant & Cathy (Rhys 10 & Jarrod 7) at their Dove as it was their last night in Alice before they headed north and we drank far too much wine to be sensible. Luckily the kids played on the jumping pillows until way after dark, and then holed up with a video and all was well.
MacDonnell Range Holiday Park (Big4)