AUSTRALIA’S famous Finke Desert Race will have a Swan Hill flavour this weekend.
Local rider Luke Shadbolt is making his way up through the outback to the iconic motorcycle endurance event for the second time.
A decade after finishing 34th in his category, Shadbolt is hopeful that 10 years of experience and better access to resources will help him improve his first result.
But his hopes are tempered by a realistic understanding of the challenging nature of riding through Australia’s outback.
“I’m aiming to do better than I did last time but just to finish is a good achievement,” he told The Guardian yesterday.
“My goal is to beat my last position but any finish is a good achievement and anything inside the top 50 is great.”
Shadbolt, a born and bred Swan Hill local who has been riding since the age of 10, will be aboard his 450cc KTM 500 and, while the category he has entered is “probably more competitive now”, he felt he was ready for the challenge.
“I’m in the 450cc, riding a KTM 500 which have been winning the endure events around the country,” he said.
The Finke Desert Race starts with an 8km prologue on Saturday to sort out grid positions for the main race, which runs the following day and next Monday.
Shadbolt said he would have some valuable assistance over the course of the 460km desert race.
“I’ve got a few mates that are flying up and I’ve got another mate in Alice Springs who is helping organise fuel stops for me,” Shadbolt said.
Organisation of the fuel stops will be important, with about five or six likely to be needed over the two-day event.
“Most bikes can only get around the 80km mark [to a tank of fuel], so you have a heap of fuel stops within 20 or 30km and the hardest thing is trying to pinpoint your stop when you’re doing a hundred miles an hour,” Shadbolt said.
The Finke Desert Race runs from Alice Springs to Finke where riders will camp overnight Sunday before the return leg to Alice next Monday.
