Finke Desert Race:
the greats and a rider that
can win almost anything.
As the riders made it to
the Aputula (Finke) Com-
munity, Price completed
the 230km with a sub-two-
hour ride, his KTM 500
EXC-F took a time of 1 hour 57 minutes and 45.6 seconds.
Four and a quarter minutes late came local favourite, Da-
vid Walsh aboard a similar bike. Ivan Long was forced out
with mechanical failure.
A similar fate befell Alice Springs local, Luke Hayes
who in the spirit of this sort of event handed over his front
wheel to fellow competitor, Lachy Summers, allowing him
to finish the days race.
Amazingly Price’s effort was made more significant by
the fact that he had earlier finished second in the car class
before jumping into a light aircraft and flying back to the
start for the bike race.
“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous lining up af-
ter 24 months from the bike category,” exclaimed the 2016
Dakar winner.
“We had a pretty damn good run, clean fast and really
just hit my marks … this crazy race can throw anything
and everything at you.”
Day 2 saw Price forced out of the four wheeled race with
mechanical problems but not deterred he set about break-
ing the bike record as the father and son duo, Rentsch’s
took the win for a second year in a row in the cars.
Price raced back to Alice Springs with a similar time
set on the previous day, his Red Bull KTM over 10 minutes
ahead of Walsh. It was a ride worthy of any champion,
something not lost on Price.
Brett Hemmings / Red Bull
“2010 was a surprise and who would have thought we’d
be here celebrating number six today,” Price said.
“We’re pumped to have got another win… David made
it pretty hard for us and we definitely had to push on the
way home because from where David came from yester-
day, I thought he was definitely going to push today,” he
continued.
Price in fact tried to make things hard for himself by
having an ‘off’ at the 100km mark. He suffered a few slight
injuries, including a sore neck.
“We’re here, we’re happy and I haven’t got a bad time, so
I can’t complain,” Price smiled.
Price’s result sees him take his sixth King of the Desert
title and cements him as one of the greatest of all time.
2018 Tatts Finke Desert Race: Bikes Outright Top 10 Fin-
ishers:
1. Toby Price (#295 KTM 500 EXC-F)
2. David Walsh (#299 KTM 500 EXC-F)
3. Jack Simpson (#296 KTM 500 EXC-F )
4. Kent Collins (#4 KTM 500 EXC-F)
5. Mark Grove (#9 HONDA CRF250R)
6. Angus Gelly (#9 KTM 500 EXC-F)
7. Caleb Auricht (#499 HONDA CRF250R)
8. Lachlan Summers (#11 KTM 500 EXC-F)
9. Jerakye Andrews (#494 YAMAHA YZ250F)
10. Nathan Trigg (#6 SHERCO 450SEF)
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