Dirt Nation with Bryan Chang
This thing is a beast. It’s unlike any other race in Australia or New Zealand. Faster than anything this side of the ditch. Dustier too.
And now, a Kiwi driver has taken a podium finish in this mad desert sprint race for the first time.
Not only that, but it was Boston Morgan-Horan’s first ever Finke.
The Finke is a punishing two-way sprint that runs out of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory. Held over two days, it goes from ‘Alice’ to Aputula, a small remote settlement that was originally called Finke after a German explorer and surveyor.
Aputula is the farthest populated place from the sea in mainland Australia.
Covering about 229km each way, the Finke Desert Race travels through many rural properties on its way, crossing the Finke River just north of Aputula. The race started in 1976 as a "there and back" challenge for a group of local motorbike riders.
It follows sections of what was the Old Ghan Railway service track adjacent to the railway line and snakes through typical outback terrain of red dirt, sand, spinifex, mulga and desert oaks.
The track is divided into five sections:
- Start/Finish Line to Deep Well (61 km)
- Deep Well to Rodinga (31 km)
- Rodinga to Bundooma (43 km)
- Bundooma to Mount Squires (45 km)
- Mount Squires to Finke (49 km)
This is deep outback racing in thick red bulldust. It’s high-speed, high-risk competition, it’s the second round of the Aussie offroad racing championship. And this year, it had a couple of quick Kiwi entries: Paul Hackett and Boston Morgan-Horan.
Boston drove a Geiser Brothers V8 Trophy Truck. He was fourth into Finke, then put in a charge on day two to get on the podium.
Paul Hackett was not so lucky. Mechanical issues on day one were followed by a fifth-gear crash on day two that put him out of the race. His Crabb Racing Chev-engined Racer Engineering race car was heavily damaged, but Paul was okay.
He has raced offroad since the 1980s, when he ran the family’s Jimco class one car in the Kiwi Extreme Series. Paul owns a mighty quick Toyota class 8 truck in New Zealand.
Richard Crabb has raced Hackett’s Toyota truck here a couple of times; the agreement being a swap drive with the Crabb Racing car in Aussie.
The only other international was Colorado Springs-based Brad Lovell in a stock-class Ranger Raptor.
The Finke is one of the biggest sporting events held in the NT. They do it in style. In addition to the two days of racing, there’s a separate qualifying sprint and a street parade in downtown Alice. Over three days, around 12,000 people camp out in the ‘bush’, beside the racetrack, sleeping under the stars in tents and swags.
