Source: Supplied.

Dakar Rally champion Toby Price has claimed a fifth Tatts Finke Desert Race Victory in the Northern Terriory over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend on board his Red Bull KTM 500 EXC.

The 480-kilometre, two-day return journey from Alice Springs to Finke saw Price equal the record for the highest number of Finke victories, winning his fifth title in a stunning KTM trifecta.

Price’s was the first of three spectacular runs, as he, second-placed teammate Tye Simmonds and David Walsh, all slashed significant amounts of their fastest times down to Finke and back, reaffirming the team’s status as ‘Kings of the Desert’.

Price became the first rider ever to drop below the 3h50m mark when he stopped the timer in 3h46m55s, with Simmonds the only other rider to do so at 3h49m42s – slashing almost 10 minutes of his rookie run of 2015.

Walsh’s 3h52m11s would have won him the race last year, but the front men were all on a different plane this time around, Price literally so – flying the course twice as he successfully executed the Finke ‘Ironman’ feat of competing in both car and motorcycle divisions of the same event.

In typical fashion the man who won the Dakar Rally at only his second attempt in 2015 made it an outrageous success, winning the Trophy Trucks division and finishing as the second car overall.

“It’s a bit of a surreal feeling to have tied the record out here for the most wins,” Price said. “I’m pumped and just glad the whole program we put together went to plan. We podiumed in the truck and then won the bike leg. It’s been an amazing weekend.

“The poor old truck copped a beating this week, we flipped it on Friday when a part broke, but the boys fixed it and got it going again, and we’re pumped. A lot of people doubted what we were doing, so I’m just glad that we came away with good results.

“I had a point to prove. I wanted to race the car and there was a bit of a fire burning in my belly to get the job done on the bike. That was the best repayment that we could do for everybody that has jumped on board the truck project, and everybody that helped with the bike. I’m not scared of failure, I like to put myself out there on the edge, and set myself challenges.

“Sometimes it doesn’t happen, you can’t succeed all the time, but I didn’t want to let anybody down here, so I just held that thing on the stop all the way down to prove I was capable of doing the car and then doing faster times than I ever have on the bike.”

The Finke was coloured a distinct shade of KTM orange this year, with four of the top six finishers and 10 of the top 20 KTM-mounted, while five of the eight motorcycle classes were won by KTM riders.

Alice Springs local Luke Hayes powered his KTM 500 EXC into sixth outright, while South Australian Nathan Trigg also cracked the top 10 outright on his way to winning the 251cc and Above 2T class aboard his KTM 300, leading home similarly-mounted Billy Barry and Benjamin Russell.

Former motocrosser Jack Simpson, who currently leads the AORC E1 category, added another off-road achievement to his tally when he won the Up To 250cc 4T class aboard his KTM 250 SX-F, landing in Alice Springs in a brilliant 11th outright on debut.

Victorian Cody Ryan powered his KTM 250 SX to victory in the Up To 250cc 2T class ahead of another KTM, that of Dalton Byrne. KTM Australia’s own national brand manager Tam Paul showed he’s no suit-and-tie executive, winning the Veterans 45 Years And Over class on a KTM 450 EXC, ahead of KTM 350 EXC–mounted Jamie Harrison.