What Tradies Want — August-September 2017

26 WHAT TRADIES WANT.

Jaws Racing Extreme 2WD Trophy Truck of
Alice Springs locals Steven Sanderson and
Tahlia O’Cass.
Like Travis Robinson, the 2016 Finke
Ironman and Dakar champ Toby Price was
another who was left stranded trackside on
Monday’s return leg. Mechanical problems
halted the Dakar winner’s assault on the
desert and the potential shootout with Trophy
Truck BFGoodrich classmate Beau Robinson
in the closing stages of the race.

Near miss
Yamaha YXZ1000Rs, the side-by-side
WTW roosted around for its cover story last
issue, dominated the naturally aspirated
Superlite A class, with BFGoodrich’s Dan
McKenzie and Garth Hannaford narrowly
missing out on third place in the UTV class.
After repairing a rear control arm in Finke
overnight, McKenzie muscled the YXZ
through the last three kilometres to the finish
line with steering problems.
Travis Robinson continues to lead the
BFGoodrich CAMS Australian Off Road
Championship, ahead of Matthew Martin
and Chris Browning (provisional). The third
and final round of the BFGoodrich CAMS
AORC now heads to Rainbow in western
Victoria for the Rainbow Enduro on the first
weekend in August.

Bikes
In the bikes the win went to a Yamaha for the
first time since 1986.
Active8 Yamalube Yamaha’s Daymon Stokie

did the punishing distance in four hours and

11 minutes after posting the second-best

time in the prologue and getting a great start

position for the trek down to Finke on day one.

Despite carrying a hand injury from a

previous endurance event, the Alice Springs

local gritted his teeth and manned up in the

country’s toughest race to finish the first

day in second place, five minutes behind

leader David Walsh.

With a night’s rest and a quick going

over of the bike, Stokie was back on

the throttle for the return run and out to

close down Walsh. But just as the riders

neared the first checkpoint of the return

leg, Walsh was stranded trackside and

Stokie inherited the lead.

But with a hand swelling by the minute

and still over 90 minutes of racing left, the

eventual winner was far from settled.

The dry conditions made the going

challenging but Stokie stuck to his guns and

continued to ride at speed with his grip on

the bike weakening as the event wore on. His

rivals started to close in, but the Northern

Territory native was determined and charged

to the finish line.

He stopped the clock at 4 hours and

11 minutes to take a narrow three-minute

victory over Ivan Long in second and

Luke Hayes in third, with just 30 seconds

separating the minor placings.

26 WHAT TRADIES WANT.

Jack Rhodes and Dave Pullino debuted

their new #Aus1 Rhodes Racing Jimco to

round out the all-BFGoodrich podium.

Stokie’s teammate Josh Green

DNFed on the first day.

GOING THE RAT AT FINKE