2009 Tattersall's Finke Desert Race

Dave Fellows and Andrew Kittle have driven their radical Toyota-engined buggy to victory in the 2009 Tattersall's Finke Desert Race and Ben Grabham has taken top spot in the two-wheeled category.

The race is named for Finke -- these days an Aboriginal outpost called Apatula -- approximately 250km south of Alice Springs, near the northern edge of the Simpson Desert.

In the past, Finke was a stop along the route plied by the Ghan, the train that runs from Adelaide to Darwin. Abandoned rail sidings are now check points for the event, which runs in June -- and has done so for the past 34 years. 

It's an all out blast over 460 kilometres from Alice Springs to Finke and return on a route that generally follows the old railway alignment and it's far tougher than you can ever imagine.

With a capacity field of 500 motorcycles and close to 80 cars the 2009 "Finke" can lay claim to the biggest motorsport race in the country and it's one of Australia's oldest continuous motorsport events as well.

If the level of competition doesn't blow you away, the terrain and sheer number of spectators surely will. Imagine a roller coaster ride with bumps the locals call "whoops" so deep you loose sight of half the car, rocks as sharp as cut glass and bull dust that penetrates every orifice imaginable.

Couple this with a wet start to winter in the Red Centre, resulting in thick vegetation in places where normally just Spinifex struggles to survive and you have the mother of all desert races and don't the locals know it... They line the route in their thousands, camping all they way down the track.

The bike category attracts the cream of the factory teams from both KTM and Honda, but the majority of 500 riders are just regular guys out for "The Finke" experience. The definition of the car category is somewhat looser. In fact almost anything with four wheels is considered a "car", except the quad bikes.

Fresh from their outstanding Dakar result, Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki entered the 4x4 category in their race prepared Isuzu D-Max, diesel ute, aiming to take on the regulars of the Australian Off Road Championship, Geoff Pickering from Townsville in his Mitsubishi Pajero and Colin Hunter from PNG in a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

At the opposite end of the spectrum there are the $300,000+ purpose built racing buggies with more than 650hp, six speed sequential gearboxes made by Albins Engineering in Ballarat, Kevlar-reinforced BF Goodrich tyres, and capable of topping well over 200kph. They're tailor made by a couple of specialist companies in the USA with unusual names like Jimco and Chenowth.

Current AORC champion, Shannon and Ian Rentsch headed the entry, closely followed by the Peter Kittle Toyota Motorsport car of Fellows and Kittle -- these are the real racers of this desert classic.

Fellows and Kittle were the first to arrive in Finke after a trouble free run from "The Alice" which saw them pass the burnt-out wreckage of Bradley Prout, an investment banker from Sydney who had led the field away from the start.

The return run 24 hours later was heart stopping for team owner, Peter Kittle, who shadows his crew from a helicopter all the way. Holding a slender 10-second margin when leaving Finke, Fellows snapped a throttle cable, relegating him to second when Chris Coulthard and Rob Hawker slipped past into the lead. Quick work by the crew to hook up a spare cable had them going again, passing Coulthard five kilometres from Deep Well with a broken axle -- such is the cruel nature of this sport.

By the finish, it was Mark Burrows and Colin Hodge from Burrumbeet in Victoria that took second with the West Australian team of Beau Robinson and Roy Lukies in third.

Fellows took his fifth title, his second on the trot, Ben Grabham won the bike category on his KTM to lift his third King of the Desert crown in a row.

As for the rest? Well there are many sore bodies around Alice Springs today, all say they'll be back again next year, such is the lure of the Tattersall's Finke Desert Race.

The event, which is held every June long weekend, is heavily supported by the NT government -- and it certainly shows. Get your entry in early for 2010 if you think you're up to it; the huge field was oversubscribed again this year with a long waiting list.

Former AFL star goal kicker, Tony Lockett, has been bitten by the bug, as have a number of celebrities over the years. Accommodation in Alice Springs can be tight and rental cars are quickly sold out so it pays to book early. Contact your local car or motorcycle club for a competition licence. Everything you need to know is on the event website more here.

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