Alice Springs, in the heart of Australia, is a typical desert frontier town. Set in the middle of nowhere, with surrounds of red cliffs and sand, its winters are dry with clear blue skies that go on forever. Mild days turn into cool nights. Sunsets are spectacular. Rain at this time of year is sparse. The Finke Desert Race is run in these ideal conditions. Taking in some of the roughest terrain in outback Australia, the 284-mile course starts and finishes in Alice with the mid-point (and overnight servicing stop) 142 miles south at the Aboriginal settlement of Finke, now known to its 200 inhabitants as Aputula.
Conditions were much the same in the days leading up to the event itself, set down for a three-day weekend in June (June 9-11). If competitors arrived in time, there were three days of official reconnaissance allowed using the nominated entry vehicle. Many took up the opportunity. An isolated overnight shower two days before the Prologue (qualifying) served to settle the dust they had raised. Although the race weekend is three days in its entirety, there's plenty of fun and festivities in the lead-up. On the Thursday night, the field adjourns to a local hotel for the Calcutta. This is a sweepstakes arrangement where all the competitors are 'auctioned' off. The proceeds of this betting ring go into a prize pool to be divided among the winners. "It's just an excuse for a gigantic piss-up [drinking session]," says multiple class winner, Bruce Garland, who campaigns an Isuzu Trooper. "Actually if you can survive this and still drive, you deserve a championship because it's one of those parties that goes all night until the last person falls over!" The Friday is reserved for recovery (from the night before) and scrutineering - all entrants are checked for compliance with the rules governing their class, and their safety equipment. This year 106 'cars' and 265 motorcycles entered the event. Cars are divided into nine classes according to type of vehicle and engine capacity and include several types of buggies, Bajas, 2WD cars and pick-ups, and 4WD vehicles such as the Trooper; bikes are divided into 10 classes and include quads and sidecars ('outfits'). All had a run over the 3.7-mile Prologue course to determine their starting order for the next day. The weather was fine and dry and the Prologue course was described as excellent.
There was even more at stake for the cars. Once the Prologue was finalised, there would be a Top 10 shootout of the 10 fastest vehicles. Not only was starting order a motivation to race fast and clean, but also a $3000 prize purse. The Class One buggies (1601-6000cc) proved to be fast, as expected. Pole position went to Terry Rose/Colin Cuell, while three-times Finke winner Mark Burrows and Michael Shannon would start third. Fellows and Pinto would start 10th while Garland and long-time navigator Harry Suzuki made history - the first time a 4WD vehicle scored a Top 10 result amongst the buggy field. It was a sign of things to come.
Day One of the race dawned fine. Although the weather bureau was predicting some showers, there was little evidence to suggest it would happen. The track was rated fast and everyone was expecting a good day's racing. Spectators had camped out along the track from Alice through to Finke, fully set up with tents, coolers full of food and beer, deck chairs, hats and sunglasses. A party atmosphere prevailed. The cars would leave first, the top 10 out individually at one-minute intervals, then two by two at 30-second intervals. Several hours later it would be the turn of the bikes - the Top 10 out at two per minute, followed by eight per minute. Last year's Finke champion, Stephen Greenfield, was one of the first casualties of the event. The clutch failed on his Honda just 43 miles from the finish line. He was leading on corrected time, having caught the pair in front after starting third, and had a replacement waiting at the overnight stop. "I pulled up at a fuel stop and some spectators gave me a hand to try to repair it but it was no-go. There was no way I could get to Finke to get the replacement and get back in the running, so once I realised that, they gave me a beer and I sat back and watched everyone else go through." Despite the conditions being mainly fine for the trip south to Finke, Greenfield was not alone in not finishing Day One. Pole-man, Mark Espie broke down just 112 miles from the finish line. However, 16 bikes and one car did not even start the event, thanks to mechanical problems or minor injuries suffered during the Prologue.
Greenfield's run south had been dry, but some of the slower qualifiers were not so lucky, caught by the predicted showers that later turned into an overnight deluge, dumping the region's monthly rainfall quota in a single evening. "Everyone and everything was just swamped," says Garland. "People just weren't prepared for it. There were wet tents and wet sleeping bags everywhere. We have a marquee that we put over the car while we're working on it, so we pushed the car out in the rain and heaps of people joined us under there and we all drank lots of rum to keep warm." After a miserable night, the morning of Day Two was not much better. While the rain had eased at Finke, the storm activity was moving north - along the route back to the finish line at Alice Springs. The cars headed off, driving up a track that was a very different prospect to that of the previous days. The road itself is graded into the desert, therefore sitting several inches below the general landscape - it now looked more like a river, sheets of water lying on the rocky surface. In several places there were stretches where the water was one or two feet deep for 300 yards or so. The result was carnage - buggies getting bogged or sliding off in all directions. "Because we were at the front of the field we got the water, not the mud, but that was bad enough," says David Fellows. "The engine was misfiring because of the weather on the way back and then we aquaplaned off the track and hit a tree and some branches fell on us. " Co-driver Tony Pinto hopped out to pull the branches off as Fellows reversed away from the tree and back onto the track. They finally crossed the finish line at Alice Springs, amazed to be there, let alone first home. "We were pretty tired, but it was a good feeling to know we'd won. Then Bruce [Garland] came in. We had no idea how close he was - he was a long way behind us in the starting order from Finke. In some ways it was a real surprise to see him come in behind us, but then, given the conditions, it was ideal for a 4WD. " Not so, says Garland, who despite a career which has seen him tackle the Paris-Dakar and events in the US, Dubai and Asia, found the conditions immensely trying. Like the others who've attempted the Finke on several occasions, Garland has never experienced it under circumstances like this year. "It was just perfect on the way down and then diabolical on the way back. We nearly went off so many times. At one point we were sliding sideways for about 100 yards on two wheels. We were so far over that we were bracing ourselves for the rollover. We couldn't believe that we would pull out of it okay - and we couldn't see a thing because there was mud all over the windows. " Fellows and Garland settled back with a well-earned beer while the rest of the field struggled in. Buggies, two-wheel-drive vehicles of every description, and the bikes, had been caught up in not only the rain, but also the mud porridge stirred up by the weather and the front-runners. Some buggy crews had been sitting in water throughout their battle north and had to be treated for hypothermia when they crossed the finish line. Others, not so fortunate to make it that far, had to wait for recovery crews to rescue them from their misery. Among the casualties of Day Two, three-time Finke champion Mark Burrows. Several classes had no finishers at all. In the end of it all, when the times were tallied, it was the bike rider with the most appropriate surname who won the 2001 Finke Desert Race, after battling through the downpour that decimated the field. Michael Vroom, 29, laid claim to the title of King of the Desert after riding through conditions which seasoned competitors describe as the worst in the 26 years the event has been running. The title came on Vroom's eighth attempt at the classic. His previous best was third in 1997. He beat Mark Sladek and Brad Williscroft to take the outright crown. His times for the two days bear witness to the very different conditions he had to battle to take the victory: Day One - 1h.56m.06s; Day Two - 2h.14m.57s. "I raced within my own limits and didn't do anything silly," says Vroom. "I had a comfortable lead for the start of Day Two which, given the conditions, meant I could deal with that without having too much pressure from other riders. There's been a lot of hard work on the way so this win feels pretty good. " Outright honours in the 'car' division were taken by David Fellows and Tony Pinto - victory on Fellows' eighth attempt at the event after he took first as a navigator in 1992. Second place went to multiple class winners and three-time Australian Safari champions Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki in their Trooper. The pair had powered through from 18th at the overnight stop. Eric Schmid and Mike King (Class One buggy), who had started 43rd, came from 10th position at the end of Day One to finish third. Naturally the rain had left disappointment as well as broken machinery behind it, but most were philosophical. "While I'm sorry that I didn't get to defend my title, I was quite happy not to be out there on the bike on Day Two," says Stephen Greenfield. "The weather was terrible and the mud would have destroyed the bike - plenty of others were. They're definitely the worst conditions I've seen during the Finke and I've done every event since 1986." David Fellows agrees. "I would hate to do another one like it. While it's good to have the challenge, to rise to it and beat it, that sort of weather just destroys everything and that takes the fun out of it." Event secretary Gerry Renehan, herself a 10-year veteran of the event, says the heavy weather played into the hands of the 4WD competitors such as Garland and multiple Australian offroad racing champion, Les Siviour (Nissan Patrol), who finished eleventh, co-driven by daughter Bobbie-Lee. All but one of the nine 4X4 vehicles entered finished. "Normally the top 10 in the car division would be just buggies but they couldn't cope with the mud. It was like porridge. We've seen the track like this at other times of the year but the race itself has never been such a challenge." A total of 149 entries were officially listed as DNF. The Finke Desert Race is one of the biggest annual sporting and social events in Alice Springs and recognised as being both the richest and roughest off-road race in the Southern Hemisphere. Cars have only been allowed to enter since 1989. The event has the official backing of the Northern Territory government. Finke lies 261 miles south-east of Alice (via the 'real' bitumen and dirt road), on the side of the original historic Ghan train line. The line, named in honour of the Afghan cameleers who pioneered the north-south trail 150 years ago, was opened in the late 1920s. The line, which still operates, has now been moved further west but the settlement - which originally served surrounding stations and later became a Christian mission - remains. The Finke River, which competitors cross near the township, is believed to be the world's oldest watercourse with some sections around 350 million years old. Although it does not run for most of the year, it is studded with deep, natural wells. Finke - both settlement and river - is named in honour of an early Australian property developer who financed several expeditions into this arid country.
OUTRIGHT RESULTS
CLASSES
Class One - 251cc + two stroke
Class Two - 401cc + four stroke Class Three - 201-250cc two stroke Class Four - up to 200cc two stroke Class Five - 251-400cc four stroke Class Six - 0-250cc four stroke Class Seven - Masters 35-45years as at June 1, 2001 Class Eight - Veterans 45 years and over as at June 1, 2001 Class Nine - quads Class 10 - outfits Cars
Class One - buggies, 1601-6000cc
Class Two - buggies, 1301-1600cc Class Three - buggies, up to 1300cc Class 4C - 2WD Baja Modified, 4001-6000cc Class 4B - 2WD Baja Modified, 2001-4000cc Class 4A - 2WD Baja Modified, up to 2000cc Class Five - 2WD Enduro up to 6000cc Class 7 & 8 - 4WD up to 6000cc Class Nine - single-seat buggies up to 6000cc |
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