Toby Price dominates Finke again

KTM Australia’s desert racing team powered to a stunning 1-2 finish in the 2015 Tatts Finke Desert Race on June 7-8, with defending champion Toby Price leading home teammate Tye Simmonds, the pair riding 500EXCs. Yamaha’s Josh Green was third.

Price led the whole way—a 480km return trip from Alice to Finke—and was the only rider to go under two minutes for both legs of the journey as he retained his Finke title. He stopped the clock at three hours, 52 minutes and 54 seconds (3.52:54), over six-and-a-half minutes ahead of Simmonds (3.59:29). Green completed the whooped-out course in 4.04:15 on his YZ450F.

Alice Springs local David Walsh, who was second after day one, failed to finish when he blew an engine 110km from the finish.

2015 FINKE DESERT RACE RESULTS

Price's average speed on his day one blitzreig was 125km/h, and it was 123.6km/h over the whole journey. And the victory was all the more meritorious because the New South Welshman, who finished third on debut in the Dakar Rally in January and currently leads the Australian Off-Road Championships, was carrying a foot injury he sustained during pre-running. It was also his fourth Finke victory.

“It definitely wasn’t an easy one on this trip, that’s for sure, but to get that monkey off my back and win back-to-back is an amazing feeling," said Price. "It was a hard slog and I can’t thank the crew here enough, it’s been an awesome effort by everybody. My theory was that if I could get a good run down and pull some gaps, hopefully my way home would be a little bit easier for me, so yesterday I just bit my lip and hung on and went for it.

"I don’t know whether my foot is cracked or whether there is some ligament damage, but I just know it’s very painful, it’s hard to stand on it, and I had some very messy moments down through the track. I didn’t get on the track at all during the week, I tried to ride a little bit on Thursday but was in a tonne of pain so I knew it was gonna be tough, but when that green light comes on, the adrenaline kicks in and we want to win Finke.

"A lot of guys have put too much time and effort in for me just to pull out, and now at the end of the day I’m sitting on top and I’m pretty damn stoked that I kept pushing and went through all that.”

Jacob Smith (Honda) and Jack Dooley-McDonnell saw out the top five.

Meanwhile, after taking a convincing victory in 2014, Polaris had to give best to the Can-Am Maverick of Toby Whateley/Simon Herrmann in the side-by-side class. The Can-Am completed the route in 5.57:06, beating the Polaris machines of Brent Perrett/Arlene Perrett and multiple Australian rally champions Cody Crocker/Greg Foletta in the process.

2015 Finke Desert Race results
1 Toby Price, KTM
2 Tye Simmonds, KTM
3 Josh Green, Yamaha
4 Jacob Smith, Honda
5 Jack Dooley- McDonnell, KTM
6 Ivan Long, KTM
7 Beau Ralston, Yamaha
8 Lachlan Summers, KTM
9 Sam Davie, Honda
10 Ryan Cossens, Honda