Finke Desert Race, A Year Like No Other
Australia’s Iconic Desert Race in Jeopardy?
Australia’s Iconic Desert Race in Jeopardy?
The Tatts Finke Desert Race is well known as Australia’s greatest off road, multi terrain two-day race for bikes, cars & buggies through desert country from Alice Springs to the small Aputula (Finke) community. Historically it’s held on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June. “Finke” is one of the biggest annual sporting events in the Northern Territory and has the reputation of being one of the most hard core, challenging offroad courses, yet is situated in one of the most remote and beautiful places in the world (next to Queensland’s channel country of course!). This race, which we all know and love and/or aspire to achieve is now experiencing it seems, a year of hardship due to the changes in rules.
Stringent Rules Around Registration for Finke
If you were across the event unfolding last year, it ended in nothing short of tragedy with the loss of a spectator’s life. As a result, more stringent rules around the race have been implemented to ‘protect’ the community involved. While this is so, it has impacted on the numbers battling it out at the keyboard to register online. History would, reveal that the nominations closed within minutes of opening, but not in 2022, there are still places available for riders with the essential competencies of a ‘special licence criteria’ required for registration being already achieved.
We are on board with protecting the community, minimising risk and ensuring everyone gets home safely. But could this be the end of one of the most iconic Australian Desert races? We hope not!!
Desert Gateway Dirt Bike Tours can’t beat a Finke experience, but we sure can bring the Desert Dirt Bike experience!
Dirt lovin’ friends, if you’re at a loss this year, feel free to drop us a line and build your endurance riding capacity by trekking with Desert Gateway Dirt Bike Tours in preparation for your preliminary requirements of the Tatts Finke Desert Race in the future!
Sending traffic your way Finke. Find the registration at https://finkedesertrace.com.au/
Both Craig and I have both participated in Finke and unfortunately, our experiences were independent of each other due to, life circumstances, ya know the arrival of new born family members and such; but we can both vouch that it was one of the best milestones we have both experienced and achieved (with the exception of our collective 5 children of course!)
Until we meet again Finke, we will continue to ride the desert in our back yard with the spirit of the almighty race at heart!