So the prologue has run and the gauntlet has definitely been thrown down for the first leg of the epic Finke Desert Race tomorrow morning.
As expected in the tight, twisty prologue track, the buggies dominated again this year, taking the top three spots at a shade over five minutes.
Jack Rhodes continued last year’s form, taking second in prologue, three seconds behind his South Australian teammate David Fellows, who took honours in a 5:09, more than 17 seconds off last year’s quickest qualifying pace.
Brad Gallard’s updated Trophy Truck, after doing well in testing and practice, decided that the start line of prologue was as good a time as any to have a hissy fit.
Brad still managed a solid eighth place overall, despite losing power and generally having a pretty sick truck. As in actually sick. Not fully sick. Although you’d probably argue the toss on that one.
Brad is feverishly working to chase down the problem and get his truck back to 100 per cent by tomorrow morning, when he starts the 226-kilometre desert blast from a good position.
Taking out third and fourth in the Extreme 2WD class (21st and 22nd overall) were the one-two punch of Greg Gartner and Billy Geddes. On the prologue track, their lumbering trucks just couldn’t match the pace of the nimble buggies.
Throwing their giant V8 trucks around in qualifying is akin to entering the QEII in a speedboat race, but out on the free-flowing race route, they’ll claw their way up the ladder. Way up.
Doyen of off-road racing Bruce Garland is running right in the middle of the Extreme 4WD class in his recently repaired Isuzu D-Max. A batch of rubbish fuel took him out of the 2013 Dakar race, but he said that if the sky opens up over Alice Springs, the wet track would favour his 4WD grip and super-sticky Toyo rubber.
Fifteenth off the grid tomorrow is the pro buggy of Gerald Reid, who’ll be aching to open up his six-litre V8. He’s coming off the back of an outright third place last year, and will be playing the long game over the weekend.
According to race regulars, more than 50 per cent of contestants don’t make it all the way to Finke on the first day. If Reid can reproduce the mindset and pace of last Finke, he’ll still be up the leader board.
So there you have it – the first tasty morsel of Finke action to whet your appetite. After the prologue results, have your winning picks changed? Who do you think has what it takes to get to Finke first this year?
