Two local racers made the dust fly when they competed in the Finke Desert Race in Alice Springs recently.


Jack and Amy Mildwaters competed and finally completed the 2024 race, which is one of Australia’s largest desert/off road races.


Vehicles taking part in the event are similar to the ones raced in the Pines Enduro held in the South East.


The racers competing in Finke started their journey in Alice Springs and raced to the small indigenous community of Aputula, commonly known as Finke.


The race is around 224km each way with the track following the old Ghan railway line.


This year there were around 120 car entries with upwards of 60 racers who actually finished the race.


Many vehicles often do not finish for a variety of reasons like engine failure or parts falling off.


This year was the Mildwaters’ sixth Finke race with them finally getting over the hump and completing the full race.


It was not all smooth sailing for them as they barely made it into Finke on day one due to the rear suspension giving up on them.


But after a bit of work on the car they were able to fix it up for the journey back which ended up being a much better drive for them than the journey to Finke.


Amy Mildwaters said it was a thrilled for them to finally complete the tough race.


“It was the fact that we just kept persevering and chasing that elusive finish and in the end we basically just feel that relief over any other emotion,” she said.


“We have got an awesome crew that kept coming back for six years and kept supporting us and so it felt good to claim that finish for them as well because they believed in us for so long.”


The Mildwaters will soon travel to the United States where they have another one of their drivers competing in the North Cal Stampede in Northern California and they will be competing in the Vegas to Reno race.


Once back on home soil they will travel to Queensland and compete in the Don River Dash.