Saturday 12th June; Prologue Finke Desert Race 2021. Alice Springs

Sign-in for bikes 10.30am

Prologue is where all the competitors have an opportunity to race around the track in small cohorts to establish their start time for the race tomorrow. This determines how much dust you will eat for the start of the race. Unless you are in pole position you will still ingest a lot of red dust!

Our plan was to arrive by 9am and coordinate arrival with Rich (team rider) and Wal (support and brother). Other team members, Chris and Graeme, set up chairs at the track and Linda joined us in the car park. We moseyed up to the track and located Chris and Graeme, and Rich and Wal and all watched some of the cars and buggies race around the prologue track and kick up squads of dust despite a recent sprinkle of rain.

Cousin Joan's friends Julie and Kevin were already at the track but we couldn’t see them. Apparently they were further around on the other side of the fence. Joan and Andrew were there late after a sleep in but we didn’t see them either. They all headed down the access road after prologue to camp by the track with their friends from Kalgoorlie. This  is pretty much the last opportunity to get down onto the track to spectate the weekend's race as it is closed during the race. (by the time we left the track, the queue to drive down the access road was backed up into Alice Springs and was at a standstill)

We thought Roy should be kitted up for riders briefing at 11.15am so we headed back to the car for that. Briefing was late, waiting for the cars to finish-we could hear but not see the prologue, including Toby Price's trophy truck. 

Toby Price's trophy truck

Toby Price, spending time with every fan

Eventually briefing was done and we had Roy’s prologue start time at 12.52. Once fully kitted up we headed up to the start with Rich and Wal. 

M8's racing team 2021. Graeme, Linda, Fiona and rider Roy.

The 2 riders did some practice starts then went up to start positions. Wal and I went up to the stand by the track to get photos. Start time was very late but eventually Roy came through, I got some photos and headed straight back to the car to help him pack up and head back to the cabin to prepare for race day tomorrow.

Practice start

Ahead of the pack in prologue

Great time on prologue at 6’54”.

Chris and Graeme came round to the cabin and Chris helped with cooking the bolognaise sauce for Finke camp. We kept onion and garlic separate so that Linda could share the food. Put it all in the car fridge ready to head out tomorrow/Saturday.