I spent all of last week living out of a camera bag for the sake of capturing two extremes of dirt bikes: desert racing and motocross! I love it, but the whole airport routine shits me.

Anyhow, the journey started in the centre of Australia where I hooked up with the Motorex KTM Off-Road team in Alice Springs. My purpose of being there was to film a behind the scenes insight into how the boys prepare their bikes and bodies for the annual Finke Desert Race (June long weekend, next month).

Given every member of the team lives outside of the Northern Territory, flying into the centre of Australia to pre-run the track has been an instrumental part of the KTM team’s domination of this race since 2009.

The boys fly into Alice for one week at a time, twice a year before the actual race. This allows them to stay in tune with the ever-changing track conditions, as well as dial their vision into the speed, strengthen their legs and lower back for the whoops and evolve their suspension settings to maximise their chances of staying on two wheels. No point beating around the bush – what these boys do is extremely dangerous!

Toby Price skimming the whoops at over 120kph on his desert-spec KTM 450SX-F. Image: Adam Riemann.

As this was the second pre-running session for the year, some major upsets for the team had taken place since the first test session in March. The biggest being the fact reigning Finke champion Ben Grabham is now unable to race this year following a horrific crash at the Cond 750 Rally.

It’s one thing the KTM team’s most dominating rider is now sidelined, but the boys also missed not having him there for pre-running. “It’s really not the same without Grabbo here, his professional approach and enthusiasm really lifts the team when we’re out testing, not to mention his input and experience with preparing the bikes,” team manager Brad Williscroft digresses.

The second issue was that reigning AORC number one and Finke rookie Chris Hollis has decided to stand down from the Finke campaign following his first pre-run session with the boys. Down to two riders, Toby Price and Brad Williscroft, the team has given desert veteran Matt Fish the opportunity to ride Hollis’ bike as the third member of the KTM team.

“I’m loving the bike! It’s without a doubt the best package I’ve had to ride the Finke track,” he said. “I’ve got more confidence in the 450 SX-F in the rough stuff. It’s a little rougher on your body across the square-edge bumps at high speed, but it can handle the whoops so much better – especially if you get out of shape – than the 530 EXC I raced last year.”

Tracking the boys by 4WD along the service road was a real eye-opener too. To be sitting in a Nissan Patrol doing 130-140km/h and watching Toby Price accelerate away from you down the track is something you have to see to believe.

Keeping up the KTM team at Finke requires fast vehicles and experienced drivers. Halfway refuel. Image: Adam Riemann.

The sound of his 450 SX-F under full-load, checking out into the desert in top gear is both haunting and exhilarating. Good luck to anyone who has to try and beat Toby. It’s one thing he has speed and skill on a bike like few before him, but he is now the product of over 10 years of experience and development that started when Brad Williscroft showed up to race Finke on a KTM.

With several Outright podiums, DNFs from injury and bike failure, team manager Williscroft has endured about every possible scenario the Finke track can dish up. He brings this knowledge to his team every year but ironically, at 42 years of age, is still a chance of the Finke podium himself. It’s a big call I know, but wait till you see some of the footage I captured, which I’ll release prior to the race. The boys are insane!

From Alice I made a quick trip over to Perth to shoot the MX Nationals for MotoOnline. I won’t go into too much detail as you can read all about it on Gobert’s race wrap, but I will say how impressed I was by the level the MX boys are operating at these days.

To come from the sands of Finke to the sands of Wanneroo MX track, it was cool to see a few similarities between the two spectrums of our sport. It doesn’t matter where on earth you are or what discipline you ride, there’s one common factor – sand riding is a bitch!

To see the top motocross boys getting out of shape and having all their strength and momentum sapped out of them in the deep whoops of Wanneroo, was a clear indication they’d had minimal set-up and conditioning time for such a brutal track. To even hear Lawson Bopping and Dan McCoy say it was the most f#$ked up track they’d ever ridden further clarified it.

Jay Marmont (1) is to motocross what Ben Grabham is to desert racing – pushing his body beyond the limits to win! Image: Adam Riemann.

It also made me curious to see how Toby Price may have faired if he’d breezed in fresh from a week of Finke testing on a bike completely set up for whoops, square-edges and high speed. It also got me wondering which of these top MX boys could be competitive at Finke.

At a glance, it’s obvious Josh Coppins could run top-five at Finke. His speed and style in the sand is picture perfect and the way he flows on a bike would really conserve his energy during the 240km sprint each way down the track. Adam Monea was impressive too in the Lites. Watching him stay on the pegs and consistently hit the whoops during the 15 lapper showed he’s got the strength to stay in control of the bike when the going gets really tough.

Bopping, Waters, Styke and Boyd would no doubt have what it takes once conditioned to the speed, but there’s one rider who really stood out as a potential Finke champion, and that’s Jay Marmont. To see Jay take a moto win over Coppins was impressive for someone who was harbouring a knee injury, but to watch him take so many hits to the body while seated and tapped on his KX-F before crashing out and near passing out is truly the stuff of a desert warrior.

Finke is one of those races that only rewards the best of the best, those who have the heart to push beyond the pain barrier. I’ve seen it in Ben Grabham time and time again, but watching Jay ride Wanneroo on the weekend was the first time I’ve seen it in on a motocross track.