THE FINKE DESERT HAS A NEW KING 

After finishing on the podium six times prior, Beau Robinson and Shane Hutt have finally got the Finke monkey off their backs in an historic victory.

It was a long time coming, but the West Aussie pair were crowned the 2024 Finke Desert Race champions after an epic two day battle, prevailing in the overall stakes by a margin of just over five minutes.

With a total time of 3 hours, 28 minutes and 44.776 seconds, the Extreme 2WD pairing overcame Queensland pair Billy Geddes and Corey Cooper of the same classification to take the class and the ultimate King of the Desert honours in their MASON GEN 2 SPEC TT 7000 cc Trophy Truck.

With the top two spots filled by the Trophy Trucks, it came down to a battle of the Pro Buggy’s for the last podium spot and the class win. It fell the way of Victorian duo James Cook and Mitch Aucote who came within six minutes of the second place getter, and over four minutes ahead of their nearest class and overall rivals.

And in the bikes, it was local hero David Walsh on his KTM 500 EXC-F to add his name to the long list of victors since its beginning in 1976.

Beau Robinson and Shane Hutt with the 2024 Finke spoils.

In recent times the race has been dominated by Toby Price – arguably Australia’s greatest ever off-road racer – with the last three falling his way.

But his absence opened the door to a new hero in Alice Springs, in one of the world’s most remote and rugged off-road races.

With 10 classes of four-wheel action and the traditional Finke bikes category, there was no shortage of action and stories to emerge from this year’s running, the 36th time since the addition of the four wheelers.

FROM THE WINNING TRUCK

After holding the lead after Day 1 by just over one minute from the eventual runners up, the 223 km finale saw the #3 victors take Day 2 by over three minutes.

“It feels really good, we’ve come close a lot of times,” Robinson said post-race.

“We were certainly not counting our chickens through the run back. When we got about 10km out from Alice Springs, I was thinking, ‘we might just do this’.”

Alongside with his long time navigator, the pair were in a position to play it safe on the run home, with Robinson fully aware of the unexpected dangers that are hiding on the rough desert tracks.

“We conserved massively. I’ve never driven that slow in my life,” he continued.

“We wanted to make sure we finished. We were really keeping a check on ourselves, tried to keep it in one piece and just really looked after her (the car).

“I’ve been coming up here a long time and you don’t realise it but you learn a lot of little things you know. The race comes to you – you used to think you had to chase it. We knew where to push and where to back down – and that’s how I got here today.”

When asked how they’d be celebrating, his response carried with it the whiff of an early morning affair, in the crisp air of an Alice Springs sunrise.

“We’re turning it on, we’re turning it on and this time, it’s a celebratory one.”

FROM ALICE TO APUTULA AND BACK

Starting off with the 8.3 km Prologue, Robinson took the lead from the get go to claim the first starting spot for Day 1, finishing 2.3 seconds clear of Pro Buggy pair Carl Haby and Chloe Roehr.

In the race to the first checkpoint in Aputula, a 223km leg, Robinson laid waste to his stellar 2023 time, coming in the leader with a time of 1 hour and 41 minutes and 8.68 seconds with Geddes in hot pursuit in second place.

WA’s Brent Smoothy of the EXTREME 4WD class held third at the day’s end, three minutes behind Geddes, whilst the eventual outright podium Pro Buggy held fourth over Danny Brown, with all five pairings never having been crowned champions. The day wasn’t without its problems for the third placed Cook however, having rolled the buggy three times through a dry river bed and losing GPS.

Extreme 2WD pairing overcame Queensland pair Billy Geddes and Corey Cooper.

in the bikes, Walsh held a three minute lead over Callum Norton with a time of 1:47:36.812 with a speed average of 122.6km/h, And though it was only a three entry class, the 4WD Production had an intriguing battle with Supercars Legend Craig Lowndes piloting a Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 6200 CC with Dale Moscatt as co-driver, up against their chief rival of a Ford Ranger, steered by American off-road hall of famer Brad Lovell, alongside his son Byam Lovell. Impressively, Lowndes had a three minute jump!

The race back to Alice Springs saw Brett Comiskey take over the wheel in the second placed 2WD truck, but would end up fifth in the Day 2 standings, still enough for the #434 truck to claim outright second.

In the Day 2 outright, Michael Zacka had a great run to second behind Robinson in the #51 Pro Buggy, which was enough to narrowly claim second in class and outright fourth.

In the SXS class, Jeff McNiven stormed home by over 13 minutes in outright 20th, but a 15 minute penalty hangs over his head for an illegal pre-run of the course, with the honours then owing to Greg Campbell and his daughter Tori.

Whilst 35km in, Lowndes’ Silverado lost his front suspension to end the Ford v Chev battle, with Lovell going back-to-back in the Raptor, whilst Lowndes said he was “beaten by the desert”.

With the Pro Buggy’s filling seventh through seventh, Eighth outright went to Prolite Buggy class winners Mel and Liam Brandle, ahead of ninth place getters Andrew Brown/Danny Hardman as Extreme 4WD class winners.

Paul Tinga and Daniel Kelsey were fastest in the Sportslite class in 15th outright, while Timothy Wier and Mark Nietschke took the Super 1650 class honours in 29th.

Michael Shipton was fastest of the Performance 2WD competitors in 35th outright, and John White/Jack Brigs secured the SXS Sport honours, making it there and back in just over six hours.

And despite losing out on Day 2 to Norton and Korey Mcmahon, Walsh did enough to take the bikes in a 47 second thriller.

VOLUNTEER HONOURS

An important part of the Finke furniture, long-time race volunteers Julie and Lance Thomsen were awarded the highly valued Finke Hero award. The husband and wife couple have occupied the Finke checkpoint at the halfway point for the last 15 years.

After drivers sign on at the Alice end, Julie records times as exhausted competitors arrive at Finke and then the following day flags off the competitors from Finke as they re-start back to Alice Springs.

Whilst Lance is the first face that competitors see on arrival in Finke to ensure their well being, and does plenty of pre-race prep work, driving the water truck to Finke that sprays down the track to ensure the best condition.

Whilst Julie said she was “actually lost for words,” Lance described his attachment owing to “the community spirit. Everyone is here to help and makes it nice to come down.”

FORD VS CHEV

Amongst the big heavy hitting categories, the 4WD Production class saw the Raptor and Silverado face off, with the Lovell driven Chevrolet taking the honours in an overall time of 5:58:23.501s.

With Craig Lowndes making his first Finke and a rare off-road appearance, the manufacture battle within the greater war was viewed with interest, with Lowndes initially getting the better of the famed Lovell.

“First of all I’d like to congratulate the Lovells and the Ford team on their class win today,” Lowndes said.

“The Silverado was tough all weekend, from taking out prologue and line honours to Day 1, but unfortunately we were beaten by the desert today.”

Coming back over after last year’s class Raptor victory, Lovell was relieved of the win.

“Coming over here from the US is a big deal, there’s a lot of pressure on us,” Lovell said.

“We’ve got the best team around us, engineers, mechanics, everybody. A lot of pressure and it feels great to come out on top. The Raptor had blistering pace through the whoops for a stock vehicle.

“I’m glad our formula worked out to be faster than Chevy, but I tried not to be worried about them and their pace, because it is just a distraction.”

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