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Diary:
Thursday June 10:
Sometime after 20 something hours sitting in a car driving from Victoria Northward you hit Alice Springs. Due to the dullness of such activities I’ll fill you in on how Finke runs from about the time we arrived in Alice. After quickly signing in early Thursday afternoon we head to our accommodation. Like all the other places in town at this time in the week, the Desert Palms Holiday Resort is packed with buggy and bike teams. Most crew’s will be relaxing and hanging out for the weekend to get into full swing however others are tending to last minute mechanical issues. As we pull into the resort Pete Wilhelms is once again busy playing with Smithy’s toys. As we know, when Smithy has a practice ride, he really tests the machine, the mornings ride was no different. Pete’s work had the bike up and running early the next day. At Finke mechanical reliability is highly important, so a huge cheers should go out to all the mechanics that really have their work cut out for them.
Friday June 11:
Friday is scrutineering. However this doesn’t start until about 5PM so again there is another day of calm. There is a lot of waiting around at Finke, I suppose such a large event involves a lot of organization time. So we are off for a game of golf with a few of the riders, nobody said Finke was all about riding. Sadly, my golf game is not one of my strong points, however I must point out that I outdrove my dad on nearly every hole, before I completed several laps around the green trying to get my ball in the hole.
When scrutineering does kick off, it is one of the most impressive show and shine sessions you will ever see. The bigger bike teams all put on displays with their team bikes whilst all the other race machines file through careful inspection. With hundreds of bikes passing through, it can take over an hour to get your bike all-cleared. As well as the bikes and quads, another massive shed is filled with all the car entrants. Millions of dollars of highly polished high performance machinery sit in this shed waiting to attack the Finke course. All riders and drivers as well as the public are free to wonder around and check out all the machines that have entered the race up close.
Saturday June 12:
Prologue day. Sitting around for a few days now, everyone is itching to ride and this is the first chance. It’s only a quick 8-9km dash but it is extremely full on. The most nerves of the whole weekend probably appear before this session. Everyone wants a good time to make sure they get as far toward the front of the start of the race as possible. The further towards the front you are the less dust you battle with in the actual race, so prologue is generally considered quite important. After the top 20 place getters of last year have there session, the quads are up early due to our high numbers. Prologue starts at number 999 and works its way down. First quads off were Rick and Chloe Beer (I’m pleased to inform you that Chloe got the jump on Rick and lead him to the first corner). So on it goes until everyone has prologued.
The prologue circuit is fast and technical at the same time. According to most frequent Finkers, the key factor in prologue is to keep it smooth. This means carefully choosing brake markers to get the smoothest line through the corner. One misjudged blown out corner will cost you quite a bit of time if you’re technique is just to ride flat out. Aaron Ovens came in with the fastest prologue time for a quad; he said his session was “smooth and conservative”, that’s all it takes.
Sunday June 13:
Race day one. The big trip down the track is about to begin. The nerves are not as high on this day because you know you have a long way to go, 230km. All the bikes (quads and dirtbikes) are lined up in prologue time order. The first 10 riders take off in pairs, and for the rest there are lines of 8, taking off at one-minute intervals. Everyone will tell you to take it easy heading out the first section of the track, in fact I would even tell you that. It’s dusty, tight, and technical, there are crowds and you haven’t had a lot of time to settle on the bike (no warm-up). However I did not listen to my own advice, you get caught up in the race as soon as the green light flashes. As soon as it was go our wave was off like it was a motocross race. I was in a line-up with Chad Mackay and we were dicing with the bikes for positions when dust caught me out and I saw myself sailing over a banked corner ending in a very early cartwheel session. I’ve been told it was rather impressive but I still can’t believe it happened. So I have this advice for prospective Finke entrants, this is not a motocross race, take your time, make sure you can see and then ride hard. Wasting precious minutes fixing my bike (mmm cable ties) I watched about 8-10 waves of bikes head past. I got back on to finish in what I thought was still a respectable 2 hours 55 minutes. The track had changed slightly from last year and I found it to be a lot more comfortable ride than last year. Aaron had a very reasonable run down to Finke and headed into day 2 with around 10 minutes of fresh air.
At the Finke end of the track whilst being dusty, quite stiff and hungry you have to set up camp for the night. Pit crews travel in along the road (takes them about 2 hours longer than the riders) in a massive train of dust. The camp is quite impressive, there are tents scattered everywhere throughout the rocks and sand. Nearly everyone has some sort of work to complete on his or her bikes before the trip back the next day. Others sit around having a few drinks, fireworks are set off and discussion of the days riding is always informative (interesting to see how others found it).
Monday June 14:
Race day two. It’s about 4.30 in the morning when the first buggies fire up to move toward the start line. With the amount of volume pouring out the exhausts of these machines it pretty much means it’s time to get out of bed. Camps are packed up before we remount and head to the start line. At sign in everyone is given a start time, dependant on the previous days finishing order, and we once again lineup at 11.30AM. Aaron is at the head of the quad battalion in the 5th row after the first 20 minutes of riders. The first 20 minutes of riders head off on corrected time, this means the leader leaves right on 11.30. Anyone who finished within 20 minutes of the leader starts at that time they finished behind the leader.
Once my grid was underway it was obvious that dust was going to serious play with the results today. Those with experience in dust were at a serious advantage. I started on a grid with Smithy (yes, it is rather daunting), he got the early jump on me and I sat in his dust for about the first 20km before making a move on him through the whoops. I do congratulate him for getting through the whoops on such a heavy machine; he said it was quite a task on the 700. I raced off in pursuit of the next quad; trying to make up the time I had lost lying on the ground the previous day. At about 50 km I ran into the dust of another quad soon I was sitting right behind Chad Mackay. I think I startled him when I pulled alongside him, he took off very quickly and I didn’t see him again. After pushing through a very quick first fuel stop I was soon in more quad dust. I was struggling to see who it was but 10kms or so later I was alongside Aaron who seemed to have some kind of issue. He pointed downward, I assumed it was his bike but found out more at the finish line. The race seemed to be quite uneventful after this point for me, until the bull dust. They claimed that there had been many truckloads of water poured onto this section but I couldn’t see a drop of it. It had gotten very deep by the second day and vision was nearly non-existent. This soon brought be undone again, I came to a dead stop after smashing into a bogged dirt bike. I only saw him once he was about 2 meters in front of me, too late. Back up and going again, then Smithy powers past on his tractor. Obviously he has masses of experience in these conditions and/or no fear. The bull dust was sucking up a lot of my power and I really couldn’t have a hope of chasing Smithy down. The 2nd fuel stop came and went (a bit of duct tape and quick work from Bullet reattached some loose pieces on my bars) and then I was on the home straight.
I crossed the line without seeing another quad and found myself to come in 5th. Aaron came in about 15 minutes later and told us of his rather large tumble before we had to take him off to the hospital. Top job for finishing mate, would have been a huge effort considering how he looked afterward.
A few glitches with the timing system had our results looking a little strange for a while but after the final presentation I congratulate Luke Beechey (Beechley??) on his flawless race.
I would like to thank all my sponsors for helping me get to the end; Cheers to Vortex Ignitions, Motul Oils, Kenda Tires, Colac Motorcycles, No Fear Clothing, Sidi Boots and my dad for his time and support.
Results:
Luke Beechey…1st
Chad Macaky…2nd
Michael Roycroft…3rd
Paul Smith…4th
Cameron Wade…5th
Thursday June 10:
Sometime after 20 something hours sitting in a car driving from Victoria Northward you hit Alice Springs. Due to the dullness of such activities I’ll fill you in on how Finke runs from about the time we arrived in Alice. After quickly signing in early Thursday afternoon we head to our accommodation. Like all the other places in town at this time in the week, the Desert Palms Holiday Resort is packed with buggy and bike teams. Most crew’s will be relaxing and hanging out for the weekend to get into full swing however others are tending to last minute mechanical issues. As we pull into the resort Pete Wilhelms is once again busy playing with Smithy’s toys. As we know, when Smithy has a practice ride, he really tests the machine, the mornings ride was no different. Pete’s work had the bike up and running early the next day. At Finke mechanical reliability is highly important, so a huge cheers should go out to all the mechanics that really have their work cut out for them.
Friday June 11:
Friday is scrutineering. However this doesn’t start until about 5PM so again there is another day of calm. There is a lot of waiting around at Finke, I suppose such a large event involves a lot of organization time. So we are off for a game of golf with a few of the riders, nobody said Finke was all about riding. Sadly, my golf game is not one of my strong points, however I must point out that I outdrove my dad on nearly every hole, before I completed several laps around the green trying to get my ball in the hole.
When scrutineering does kick off, it is one of the most impressive show and shine sessions you will ever see. The bigger bike teams all put on displays with their team bikes whilst all the other race machines file through careful inspection. With hundreds of bikes passing through, it can take over an hour to get your bike all-cleared. As well as the bikes and quads, another massive shed is filled with all the car entrants. Millions of dollars of highly polished high performance machinery sit in this shed waiting to attack the Finke course. All riders and drivers as well as the public are free to wonder around and check out all the machines that have entered the race up close.
Saturday June 12:
Prologue day. Sitting around for a few days now, everyone is itching to ride and this is the first chance. It’s only a quick 8-9km dash but it is extremely full on. The most nerves of the whole weekend probably appear before this session. Everyone wants a good time to make sure they get as far toward the front of the start of the race as possible. The further towards the front you are the less dust you battle with in the actual race, so prologue is generally considered quite important. After the top 20 place getters of last year have there session, the quads are up early due to our high numbers. Prologue starts at number 999 and works its way down. First quads off were Rick and Chloe Beer (I’m pleased to inform you that Chloe got the jump on Rick and lead him to the first corner). So on it goes until everyone has prologued.
The prologue circuit is fast and technical at the same time. According to most frequent Finkers, the key factor in prologue is to keep it smooth. This means carefully choosing brake markers to get the smoothest line through the corner. One misjudged blown out corner will cost you quite a bit of time if you’re technique is just to ride flat out. Aaron Ovens came in with the fastest prologue time for a quad; he said his session was “smooth and conservative”, that’s all it takes.
Sunday June 13:
Race day one. The big trip down the track is about to begin. The nerves are not as high on this day because you know you have a long way to go, 230km. All the bikes (quads and dirtbikes) are lined up in prologue time order. The first 10 riders take off in pairs, and for the rest there are lines of 8, taking off at one-minute intervals. Everyone will tell you to take it easy heading out the first section of the track, in fact I would even tell you that. It’s dusty, tight, and technical, there are crowds and you haven’t had a lot of time to settle on the bike (no warm-up). However I did not listen to my own advice, you get caught up in the race as soon as the green light flashes. As soon as it was go our wave was off like it was a motocross race. I was in a line-up with Chad Mackay and we were dicing with the bikes for positions when dust caught me out and I saw myself sailing over a banked corner ending in a very early cartwheel session. I’ve been told it was rather impressive but I still can’t believe it happened. So I have this advice for prospective Finke entrants, this is not a motocross race, take your time, make sure you can see and then ride hard. Wasting precious minutes fixing my bike (mmm cable ties) I watched about 8-10 waves of bikes head past. I got back on to finish in what I thought was still a respectable 2 hours 55 minutes. The track had changed slightly from last year and I found it to be a lot more comfortable ride than last year. Aaron had a very reasonable run down to Finke and headed into day 2 with around 10 minutes of fresh air.
At the Finke end of the track whilst being dusty, quite stiff and hungry you have to set up camp for the night. Pit crews travel in along the road (takes them about 2 hours longer than the riders) in a massive train of dust. The camp is quite impressive, there are tents scattered everywhere throughout the rocks and sand. Nearly everyone has some sort of work to complete on his or her bikes before the trip back the next day. Others sit around having a few drinks, fireworks are set off and discussion of the days riding is always informative (interesting to see how others found it).
Monday June 14:
Race day two. It’s about 4.30 in the morning when the first buggies fire up to move toward the start line. With the amount of volume pouring out the exhausts of these machines it pretty much means it’s time to get out of bed. Camps are packed up before we remount and head to the start line. At sign in everyone is given a start time, dependant on the previous days finishing order, and we once again lineup at 11.30AM. Aaron is at the head of the quad battalion in the 5th row after the first 20 minutes of riders. The first 20 minutes of riders head off on corrected time, this means the leader leaves right on 11.30. Anyone who finished within 20 minutes of the leader starts at that time they finished behind the leader.
Once my grid was underway it was obvious that dust was going to serious play with the results today. Those with experience in dust were at a serious advantage. I started on a grid with Smithy (yes, it is rather daunting), he got the early jump on me and I sat in his dust for about the first 20km before making a move on him through the whoops. I do congratulate him for getting through the whoops on such a heavy machine; he said it was quite a task on the 700. I raced off in pursuit of the next quad; trying to make up the time I had lost lying on the ground the previous day. At about 50 km I ran into the dust of another quad soon I was sitting right behind Chad Mackay. I think I startled him when I pulled alongside him, he took off very quickly and I didn’t see him again. After pushing through a very quick first fuel stop I was soon in more quad dust. I was struggling to see who it was but 10kms or so later I was alongside Aaron who seemed to have some kind of issue. He pointed downward, I assumed it was his bike but found out more at the finish line. The race seemed to be quite uneventful after this point for me, until the bull dust. They claimed that there had been many truckloads of water poured onto this section but I couldn’t see a drop of it. It had gotten very deep by the second day and vision was nearly non-existent. This soon brought be undone again, I came to a dead stop after smashing into a bogged dirt bike. I only saw him once he was about 2 meters in front of me, too late. Back up and going again, then Smithy powers past on his tractor. Obviously he has masses of experience in these conditions and/or no fear. The bull dust was sucking up a lot of my power and I really couldn’t have a hope of chasing Smithy down. The 2nd fuel stop came and went (a bit of duct tape and quick work from Bullet reattached some loose pieces on my bars) and then I was on the home straight.
I crossed the line without seeing another quad and found myself to come in 5th. Aaron came in about 15 minutes later and told us of his rather large tumble before we had to take him off to the hospital. Top job for finishing mate, would have been a huge effort considering how he looked afterward.
A few glitches with the timing system had our results looking a little strange for a while but after the final presentation I congratulate Luke Beechey (Beechley??) on his flawless race.
I would like to thank all my sponsors for helping me get to the end; Cheers to Vortex Ignitions, Motul Oils, Kenda Tires, Colac Motorcycles, No Fear Clothing, Sidi Boots and my dad for his time and support.
Results:
Luke Beechey…1st
Chad Macaky…2nd
Michael Roycroft…3rd
Paul Smith…4th
Cameron Wade…5th
Finke Desert Race 2010
WAQuadMX.com asked Cameron Wade to report on his Finke Desert Race experience this year, read on.....
WAQuadMX.com asked Cameron Wade to report on his Finke Desert Race experience this year, read on.....