I
F YOU hung around after
the fast cars finished at
the Finke Desert Race,
you might have seen our
friends from across the hall
atWheelsmagazine finish
the gruelling race in a near-
stock Mazda BT-50. This was
the same car we used in our
ute test in the January 2016
issue. Since then, part-time
4X4 Australiacontributor
Toby Hagon has been driving
it around.
Race preparation was
limited to the essentials, as
the Mazda team wanted to
keep the car as standard as
possible and prove that it
could conquer Australia’stoughest two-day off-road
race. Toyo tyres, race seats
and harnesses, a rollcage,
shocks and brake pads were
the only changes.
Finishing the two-day,
452km event with the car in
one piece – and within the
allotted maximum time of
four hours and 15 minutes
each day – seemed a lofty
goal. So the fact Hagon and
co-driver Bernie Webb not
only made the finish line but
crossed it in second place in
the Production Class, in a
time of 7:55.32, seems little
short of a miracle.
How tough was it?
Well, some old hands withmore than a dozen years’
experience were claiming this
year’s course was the gnarliest
they’d seen. Out of 127 trucks
and buggies entered, just 64
finished. And out of those
127 entries, only the Mazda
was driven to the starting
line with a rego sticker on
the window – the rest were
trucked in.
Finishing was no walk
in the park, though, with
the shocks melting and
failing on day one, and the
BT-50 crawling over the line
with the distance-to-empty
reading just “4km”. Toby just
managed to extract himself
from the rollcage – a sightthat looked not unlike a baby
elephant passing through
the eye of a needle – before
requiring medical assistance.
It was more than 10 minutes
before he could even attempt
to walk.
“I’m not kidding when I
say I can’t believe that thing
made it; there were some big
hits. The ball joint has hit the
inside of the wheel arch and
the chassis has hit the turbo
protector and put a ding in it,
and even the metal toolbox
in the back has dents in it
from where the tools hit the
lid. Just incredible,” a hugely
grinning Hagon said at the
finish line.4cast
NEWS AND VIEWS
BT-50 CONQUERS FINKE
STREET-REGISTERED BT-50 TACKLES THE FINKE DESERT RACE.
12 http://www.4x4australia.com.auIt’s a miracle the near-
standard BT-50 fi nished the
brutal Finke Desert Race with
Hagon behind the wheel!