Alice Springs’ Daymon Stokie was crowned the 2017 King of the Desert when he won this year’s 452km Finke Desert Race by four minutes on his Yamaha WR500F.
Just 30 seconds separated the final podium placegetters, South Australian Ivan Long (Husqvarna) narrowly beating NT’s Luke Hayes (KTM).
The 2017 Sunraysia Rally was this year’s answer to the Oz Safari, a four-day, 16-stage course raced over 2200km near northwest Victoria’s Mildura region. Rally specialist Rod Faggotter (Yamaha) claimed a dominant win ahead of Toby Hederics (KTM), the son of Safari legend John Hederics, and Nik Forsyth (KTM).
Condobolin local Jake Haddrill (Honda) claimed the 2017 Yellow Mountain Cross Country from Scott Saul (Honda) and Zac Thornton (Husqvarna) and, after a string of runner-up finishes in the gruelling 2017 Kamfari event in the Northern Territory, local rider Chris Warwick (Sherco) finally added a winner’s trophy to his cabinet.
Daymon Stokie has won the Gascoyne Dash despite riding over 200ks with a broken hand.