In 1976, a club of motorcyclists from Alice Springs decided to do a round trip to Finke. Currently known as Aputula, Finke is a remote indigenous settlement that was far enough from their home base while offering interesting trails for riding, plus a bar to relax before heading back. The “There and Back Enduro” would be won by Geoff Curtis on his Yamaha DT250B.

A lot has changed since then. For one, the DT250B was certainly a fine piece of machinery but it’s quite different from David Walsh’s Honda CRF450R. Curtis and most of those in ’76 didn’t exactly think their little race would become Australia’s premier off-road event either.

“Who would have thought 50 years? Out of all of us here, there’s probably only one person that thought it was going to be 50 years and that’s Peter Gunner, who was the original brainwave of the event,” Curtis remarked at the Finke Desert Race’s Legends Dinner. While the dinner is held annually for all overall winners, 2026 was doubly special as it’s on the race’s 50th anniversary.

Of course, the race has come a long way from 1976. Curtis recalled the early Finkes did a Le Mans start in which everyone had to wait for Gunner to fire a shotgun—a questionable call, given the airport half a kilometer away—before sprinting to their bikes. Curtis went on to win again in 1978 and 1980. Cars were then introduced in 1988, with John Fidler winning among the field of 12 in a Corvette buggy.

As they say, the rest is history. Finke is now the most prestigious off-road race in Australia and draws plenty of interest domestically and globally.

With 2026 marking 50 years of Finke, only seemed fitting that Walsh would use it to etch his name in history. A rousing run earned him his record-tying sixth Bikes victory, tying him with Toby Price for the most on two wheels.

After notching his fifth win a row in 2024, he decided to retire and become a consultant for KTM and cousin Liam for the 2025 race. Things changed when Honda decided to revive its factory team, which dominated Finke with 19 wins between 1988 and 2008 but hadn’t won since 2013 before closing in 2018. With the support of Peter Kittle Motor Company (whose namesake owner did the 1976 There and Back), Honda convinced Walsh to come out of retirement for the golden anniversary; defending champion Corey Hammond and Brodie Waters also joined the stable.

Even with a year away from the Alice Springs–Apatula course, Walsh didn’t take long to get reacclimated. He finished second overall behind Hammond in the Prologue by just five seconds, then won Day 1 by six minutes over an armada of KTMs. Waters was third for the day, while Hammond suffered a flat and broken chain that relegated him to 33rd.

The Walshes finished 1–2 on the way back to Alice Springs, with David ahead of Liam by three seconds. Hall settled for second overall, sandwiched between them with six minutes back of David.

“It’s been a crazy weekend, and I am just really happy to get home in one piece and get to see my beautiful family,” Walsh stated. “The result is a testament to all the work that has gone in behind the scenes. It’s an incredible bike and everything about it has been wicked.

“To my wife and kids, thank you. I know you probably thought I was done and, honestly, I thought I was, but this team, this vision, it was too good not to be a part of it.

“The question now is: what’s next? I might even race later this year. For now, I am going to enjoy this with friends, family and the team.”

While Walsh ponders resuming his career after his victory, Travis Robinson is content with wrapping his up. After he and his brother Beau locked out the Cars top two in 2025, they were keen on doing the same in 2026—of course, Beau wanted to be the one in front this time.

Alas for the 2024 winner, things unraveled quickly. Travis beat Beau by seven seconds in the Prologue, then the latter struggled with tire and steering problems on Day 1 whereas Trav easily won by 9:23 over Boston Morgan-Horan. Although Morgan-Horan returned the favor on Day 2, he was only five seconds ahead of Travis.

With his second straight win secured, Travis was happy to ride off into the sunset. Had he decided to continue, he could’ve gotten a shot at a three-peat like what Price pulled off from 2021 to 2023, David Fellows in 2008–2010, or Mark Burrows between 1998 and 2000. That’s just not in his interest, however.

“To have the two wins, ourselves as a team, it’s done. The championships are done,” he explained. “I’m not going to beat Fellows’ record or try to win three in a row or four or whatever he won. I’m not going to do that. It’s not in my mantra. I’ve accomplished it, and I’m going to move on to other things—family and businesses and stuff like that and support Beau.”

Price came back to Finke after spending two years in Baja. Ironically, he had said in December that he wanted to run the 2026 Finke due to the anniversary but couldn’t since it clashed with the Baja 500. The opportunity eventually arose under rather unfortunate circumstances as he was on a self-imposed exile from SCORE following his disqualification from the San Felipe 250, while Glenn Brinkman wanted a substitute after he got hurt.

Alas, his race fell apart on the very first day because of a gearbox failure.

Supercars legend Craig Lowndes won Class 7 for Production 4WD cars in his return to Finke after retiring in 2024. His Silverado ZR2 was the only entry in the class to reach the finish as Geoff Pickering and Hank Parker both bowed out.

“Finke is one of the toughest races in the country, so to get to the finish and take the class win says a lot about the capability of the Silverado ZR2 and the effort that went into the program behind the scenes,” Lowndes commented.

Behind Morgan-Horan and Brad Gallard, Robbie Maddison and Jake Williams finished third in Extreme 2WD. An X Games and motocross star, Maddison was running Finke for the first time as part of a project by Chris Hemsworth to produce several films and series about the race.

The first leg was marred by the death of Matthew Bielefeld. Racing a KTM 500 EXC, Bielefeld finished 85th overall and 32nd in Class 2 for the Prologue but crashed the next day. Northern Territory Police performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but he died on the scene. The other riders held a minute of silence before continuing.

Class winners

Bikes

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Total Time
Class 1 (251cc and Above, 2-Stroke)	57	15	Liam Dinnage	5:20:33.908
Class 2 (451cc and Above, 4-Stroke)	2	2	Campbell Hall	3:55:35.051
Class 3 (Up to 250cc, 2-Stroke)	33	398	Jayden O’Connor	4:56:09.791
Class 4 (Up to 250cc, 4-Stroke)	11	21	Jesse Ryan	4:21:04.509
Class 5 (251cc–450cc, 4-Stroke)	1	X94	David Walsh	3:49:27.938
Class 6 (Masters, 35–44 Years)	7	M96	Ivan Long	4:12:19.442
Class 7 (Seniors, 45–54 Years)	25	799	Brett Rae	4:43:27.921
Class 8 (Veterans, 55 Years and Over)	92	866	William Willis	5:43:38.906
Class 9 (Women)	52	999	Madison Healey	5:16:04.443

Cars

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Total Time
Class 0 (Pro Buggy)	4	51	Michael Zacka	Dylan Blake	3:45:41.364
Class 1 (Prolite Buggy)	11	122	Ben Falk	Johnny O’Connor	4:04:08.272
Class 2 (Super 1650 Buggy)	37	235	Clay Agnew	Jamie Lightfoot Abbey Mowles	4:51:16.989
Class 4 (Extreme 2WD)	2	489	Boston Morgan-Horan	Will Haddock	3:32:23.821
Class 5 (Performance 2WD)	35	585	Michael Shipton	Paul Chorlton	4:48:22.528
Class 6 (SXS Pro)	12	601	Glen Ackroyd	Michael Price	4:07:43.314
Class 6 (SXS Sport)	82	6634	John White	Jack Briggs	6:15:41.117
Class 7 (Production 4WD)	91	715	Craig Lowndes	Dale Moscatt	6:54:21.792
Class 8 (Extreme 4WD)	1	1	Travis Robinson	Paul Currie	3:23:06.389
Class 10 (Sportslite)	25	1009	Patrick Geraghty		4:33:01.261

Featured image credit: Honda Racing Australia