This race seems to come around so quickly every year, from January when we are talking about getting quads ready for the Condo 750 and Thumbpump 300 all of a sudden its Finke time again. This is the 6th time I've made the trip to Alice Springs for Australia's biggest desert race to support Paul "Smitty" Smith and the last 3 times he has managed to finish on the podium (and twice on the top step) so there are high hopes for this years campaign with Smitty now on a Honda TRX700XX.

The drive it's self has become much more comfortable now in Paul's new Chevy Silverado 2500 and this year as we only have the one quad it was decided to not tow the race trailer up and jsut go with the quad on the back of the truck and a rooftop camper (to stay in at Finke) so space was a bit tight but thankfully I was able to get some gear in Rob Van Vliets motorhome.

It has been an eventfull couple of days since we got here on Tuesday arvo though. Part of our development program with the big 700XX was to build up a motor for Finke but in the process there have been some drama's with some of the parts, firstly the new cam shaft had an issue with its de-compressor guide pin, making it hard to start the engine, before we left so off to see a welder to get the pin hard welded with Cro-Moly. So with the cam back in it was off for some test riding. Smitty put in a couple of laps at our Alice Springs testing track then out for some gearing tests, then on his 2nd run (after some changes to the ignition settings) Smitty felt that the engine was going to seize so he shut it down. After a drive down the road to get him and head back to the Desert Palms Resort where we are staying I then got the task of tearing down an engine out side out room. The new high comp piston was looking pretty sad and had left a bit of material on the cylinder walls but after a quick hone the cylinder looked to be OK, by this timw though it was getting dark so it was time to call it a night and head off to the anual quad riders dinner at the Alice Springs Golf Club.

Up again and while most of the crew headed out for a round of golf, the stock piston went back in (along with the stock cam) and the big girl was back in business. Now with no more time to test ride the 700 was stickered up ready (Number 927, not Smitty usual number for Finke as it was taken by Chloe Beer) to go to Scrutineering which is where I am sitting now, finally with some time to get on the net and type this up........

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