Finke Desert Race 2024 competitors prepare for Australia's toughest off-road contest

Fearless competitors will be testing their limits in what's widely considered Australia's most extreme off-road race.

Transcript

00:00 The smell of diesel is in the air and the Fink Desert Race Prologue is well and truly

00:07 roaring to life.

00:09 Now this will see more than 460 competitors tearing their way around an 8.3km prologue

00:16 track.

00:17 This will be a race against time as they work to determine their starting positions for

00:21 day one of the race tomorrow.

00:24 Now anything can happen out there on the track.

00:27 Mechanical failures can throw a spanner in the works and people can also take a tumble

00:31 on this extremely rough course.

00:34 We spoke to some of the rev heads this morning about how they're feeling about today's prologue

00:38 and the two days of racing they have ahead of them.

00:41 Here's what they had to say.

00:42 This is our sixth time here at Fink so the prologue track has changed a little bit as

00:48 we noticed when we went around on Thursday and had a look.

00:51 So yeah, we've got more to it.

00:54 It's a lot of fun.

00:55 It's probably the most fun you can have in a car I think so that's what brings out the

00:59 competitors but yes it's very rough and I think that's the hardest part.

01:05 Anything can happen in the Fink Desert Race this weekend.

01:09 It's an extremely treacherous and unpredictable track.

01:12 What we do know is that defending champion and nine time king of the desert Toby Price

01:17 won't be taking part in the car section this year.

01:21 He's trying his luck over in the US so that certainly opens up a victory on four wheels

01:26 for someone else.

01:28 Meanwhile in the bike section Alice Springs legend David Walsh is gunning for his fifth

01:33 straight victory on two wheels.

01:36 He's aiming to match the record set by Fink legend Randall Gregory but there are others

01:41 who are hot on his heels including Callum Norton who came second in last year's Fink

01:46 Desert Race on the bikes.

01:48 First of all we'll have to see what happens today in the prologue.

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