“It was very dusty for the first 100kms”

Orange City Life recently caught up with Stephen Robinson, one of Orange’s endurance dirt bike riders who raced during the 2021 Finke Desert Race, talking about their efforts from the famous track from Alice Springs to Aputula (Finke).

After setting reasonable starting times during the prologue track, an 8-kilometer loop establishes the starting order for the riders on race day, as there are 650 riders competing in the race, therefore, not all can start at the same time. Five riders were allocated to start at a time to break up major congestion.

“After beginning the race, it was very dusty for the first 100kms, after the dust settled you could ride more competitively and fortunately, I made it to the other end,” Stephen describes.

This year’s Finke saw the greatest number of injuries occurring when compared to previous years. It’s theorised the higher incidents of juries were caused due to the track being smoother than usual, allowing racers to go faster.

This smoothness has developed due to last year’s Finke race being canceled because of COVID-19, which as a result the track had more time to recover and naturally flatten out. About 27 people were hospitalised this year Stephen explains.

For our Orange racers, they were able to cross the finish line at Aputula (Finke) uninjured during the first day of the race.

Zach Madden who rode in the 251cc & Above Two-Stroke Class placed 4th. James Wolters and Hayden Tom who both rode in the 251cc & Above Four Stroke Class, saw James placing 43rd and Hayden 64th. For Stephen who rode in the Masters 35-39 years, Class placed 28th.

Unfortunately, due to the death of a spectator involved in a vehicle accident, the race was canceled early morning on day two.

Resulting in racers who made it to Aputula had to be escorted by authorities back to Alice Springs. This meant many racers couldn’t officially finish the track due to the tragedy.

The group of Orange riders certainly haven’t quite ticked the Finke Desert Race off their list just yet. There are early plans to return for Finke 2022 with hopes of completing the track.

“I think we will have another go at Finke next year, it will be nice to race the full event. It’s a real shame regarding what happened during the fatal accident,” Stephen said.

Like many motorsports, particularly off-road racing, the risk of serious injury and death is associated with the nature of the sport, this is the unfortunate reality.

Orange dirt bike riders return from Finke Desert Race