Bumper field primed for Finke

The legendary Finke Desert Race has witnessed a spike in interest this year, the auto field alone growing by more than 15 per cent. In total, 99 buggies, trucks and 4WDs are prepped and ready to race the challenging desert course which tracks from Alice Springs to Finke and back.

Following the old Ghan railway route, competitors will torture their suspension and their wits as they fight to maintain pace over endless red sand hills.

Reigning champions David Fellows and Mark Bergamin will lead the charge in their Peter Kittle Motorsports prepared twin-turbocharged V6 Jimco. If successful, Fellows will celebrate his fourth consecutive "King of the Desert" title at this year's event.

The duo will be closely contended by similar spec'ed vehicles of Shannon Rentsch and Dan Auricht, along with a fleet of high-powered machinery including the Robinson brothers, Buddy Crowe, Hayden Bentley and former Australian Safari winner, John Hederics, to name just a few.

Last year's second place winner Brad Gallard will again tackle the Extreme 2WD category, his Monster Energy Chevy Trophy Truck ready to vie for outright honours, challenging the Mickey Thompson truck of Chris Western, the Ford TT of Greg Gartner, and Danny Browns brand new twin turbo V6 Nissan.

A high level of competition too is expected in the Extreme 4WD class with the battle between reinging class champ Colin Hunter and Production 4WD young gun Clayton Chapman. 

Elsewhere in the field Production 4WD class' Geoff Pickering will be unleashing his Pajero against the swag of Nissans and Jeeps entered, and in the 3500cc Prolite class Aaron James will maintain the rage against local hotshot Andrew Mowles and former class champ Justin Watt.

The Super 1650 class sees Darryl Smith vying for class honours with Adams, Pritchard, Melville and company, while Murray England will be will be unleashing his new Sportsman buggy against local aces, Braszell and Ballantyne.

In Performance 2WD, the V8 trucks of Loader, Byrne and Bohlin will entertain the crowds as they fly over the red dunes and whoops en route to Finke and back.

The 2011 Tattersall's Finke Desert Race prologue commences on Saturday June 11th, with the cars blasting away from the start line at 7.30am on Sunday.

Visit the Carsales Network again for updates on this year's event.

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