Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Finke Desert Race Vice President Kelsey Branford says this year's race was particularly special with an Alice local taking out the bike category crown

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Finke Desert Race Vice President Kelsey Branford says this year's race was particularly special with an Alice local taking out the bike category crown · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As we know.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, the twenty twenty two Fink Desert Race took
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: place over the weekend, with Toby Price taking home back
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: to back crowns in the car category and of course
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  Speaker 2: Alice Springs writer David Walsh taking King of the Desert
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  Speaker 2: in the bike category. And joining me is race vice
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  Speaker 2: president Kelsey Branford. Good morning to you, Kelsey.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, firstly, do we know yet whether David Walsh's wife
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: has had her baby? She's ready to go with she?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I haven't heard, but yes they were. I
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  Speaker 1: believe they were in the hospital last night, so oh possibly.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. I loved you know, hearing him do the post
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  Speaker 2: race interview and somebody saying, hey, are you going to
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  Speaker 2: celebrate and he was like, well, I think I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to be having a baby.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. He didn't make it to presentation that
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  Speaker 1: last night. You for a bit at the start, but
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  Speaker 1: then left a little bit early. So I'm sure we're
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  Speaker 1: all be eagerly awaiting the news on that one.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Now, how did it all go over the weekend?
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  Speaker 1: Really really good. We had a really really successful weekend
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  Speaker 1: and you know, to be incident free with spectators and
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  Speaker 1: race vehicles as in you know, and what happened last
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  Speaker 1: year was just really really great. We had so many spectators,
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  Speaker 1: you know, who really got on board the safety message
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  Speaker 1: of staying well back from the track, and we had
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  Speaker 1: huge reports from bike riders and car drivers just at
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  Speaker 1: how well everyone was behaving out there and just how
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  Speaker 1: safe they felt racing. So it was like ten out
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  Speaker 1: of ten to spectators in terms of the track. We
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  Speaker 1: had a few incidents of spectators who probably weren't doing
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  Speaker 1: the right thing when it comes to taking their recreational
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  Speaker 1: you know, quad bikes and motorbikes out, but we'll sort
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  Speaker 1: of concentrate and see how we can do better on
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  Speaker 1: messaging for that. But all in all, a really big,
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  Speaker 1: good and successful race. We're really happy.
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  Speaker 2: And do you have any idea exactly, you know, how
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  Speaker 2: those numbers are looking in terms of how many people attended.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think it's it's sort of anecdotal when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to camping because we can't measure that easily,
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  Speaker 1: but it's got to be one of the biggest years
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  Speaker 1: we've had for people camping down the track. They would
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  Speaker 1: have had to have been in excessive fourteen thousand people
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  Speaker 1: down there and then at the start finish line we
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  Speaker 1: sort of averaged those numbers of it's scrutineering night at
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  Speaker 1: seven thousand, eight thousand people, and then throughout the weekend,
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  Speaker 1: you know, four to five thousand would cycle through the
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  Speaker 1: start finish line. So we're pretty confident in knowing that
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  Speaker 1: event attendance for both the start finish line and down
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  Speaker 1: the track would have been around twenty thousand people. So
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  Speaker 1: we're really really really happy with that.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, that's phenomenal. I mean, how does it compare to
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  Speaker 2: other years.
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  Speaker 1: I think the numbers at the start finish line compare well. Yep.
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  Speaker 1: I really think those numbers down the track we saw
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  Speaker 1: a lot more people, and to have a lot more
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  Speaker 1: people down there spectating and to not have and to
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  Speaker 1: have them all being so great around going back from
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  Speaker 1: the tracks, it's just it's really really pleasing.
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  Speaker 2: It is so great, and it's you know, it's so
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  Speaker 2: great when you think of what the event does on
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  Speaker 2: a national scale as well, and in terms of that visitation,
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  Speaker 2: but also in terms of you know, people seeing Central
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  Speaker 2: Australia right across the nation and indeed around the world.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we had a visiting race director. It was
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  Speaker 1: his first time at think that was something we initiated
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  Speaker 1: this year and he had he's a supercars and circuit
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  Speaker 1: racing race director and it was really interesting sitting with
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  Speaker 1: him last night. You know, first of an he's ever
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  Speaker 1: done for things, and he said, this is harder than
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: that's it. It was like awesome. You see what we
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  Speaker 1: do every year and it's completely by volunteers. So we're
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  Speaker 1: really really proud of everyone.
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  Speaker 2: Oh how amazing really when you think of it like that,
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  Speaker 2: you know that volunteers are able to put this on
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  Speaker 2: and what it does you know for Central Australia is phenomenal.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, so we're really really tough. We're really happy.
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  Speaker 2: Now. Obviously we did just talk about David Walsh, but
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  Speaker 2: how how you know, how wonderful was it really as
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  Speaker 2: a local, a local man for him to you know,
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  Speaker 2: to take home the crown again in that bike's division.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, it was amazing and to have we had some
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  Speaker 1: really good competition this year. You know, he had Jacob
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  Speaker 1: Smith not far behind, and then Jack Sinson after that
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  Speaker 1: and they just kept coming. So you know, in the
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  Speaker 1: past we've seen big gaps. The leader finishes and then
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  Speaker 1: you know there's five to eight minute wait for the
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  Speaker 1: next one, but this year it was all you know,
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  Speaker 1: around two, one, two, three minutes. They were right right
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  Speaker 1: on each other the whole entire way, so everyone's got
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  Speaker 1: to see some really good racing. We had the local
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  Speaker 1: win in the bike, which is always being an Alice
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  Speaker 1: sing Springborne and Bred. It's always what you want to
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  Speaker 1: see and then to have in the cars, particularly Aaron
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  Speaker 1: James on the podium, he's never podium before. He came
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  Speaker 1: second in his single theater and Brent, yeah, Brent Martin
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  Speaker 1: back on the podium in a pro light which is
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  Speaker 1: the style of buggy that's a bit smaller to Aaron
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  Speaker 1: pro buggy and Toby's trophy trucks. To have three different
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  Speaker 1: types of vehicles come first, second and third is really
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  Speaker 1: really good for the sport as well. So it was, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it was a really good weekend.
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  Speaker 2: How cool. And Toby Price does seem to be a
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  Speaker 2: real fan favorite, doesn't.
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  Speaker 1: He he is. There's no escaping in Toby Price's popularity.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, he had his Navigator in there, Jason Duncan
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  Speaker 1: from the States and the whole you know, Red Bull crew.
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  Speaker 1: So it just adds that level of professionality to the event.
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  Speaker 1: So we're really really happy with that.
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  Speaker 2: And Kelsey, what's the process now? You know, I would
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  Speaker 2: imagine that you know that there is quite a bit
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  Speaker 2: of sort of you know, packing away and all that
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  Speaker 2: kind of thing, but you know, going through a bit
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: of a debrief and then sort of getting organized for
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  Speaker 2: next year.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it. We go through. We do a lot
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  Speaker 1: of race resulting now and reporting, so we report back
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  Speaker 1: to our governing bodies about how it went, you know,
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  Speaker 1: what works, what could be done better, and then start
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  Speaker 1: on twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 2: You know, how tough is it when you mentioned earlier,
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  Speaker 2: you know a lot of that organization is done by volunteers.
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  Speaker 2: How many of you are there, and you know how
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  Speaker 2: tough is it to sort of have everybody giving up
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  Speaker 2: their time to put on this event each year.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it is tough because you know, everyone's probably
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  Speaker 1: experiencing difficulties in getting volunteers, especially after the whole COVID
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  Speaker 1: thing in the last couple of years. So we have
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  Speaker 1: a committee of eight people who organize the event, and
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  Speaker 1: then we have a paid administrator who does the day
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  Speaker 1: to days in the office, and then we have about
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  Speaker 1: three hundred volunteers and Without them, we just we just
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  Speaker 1: couldn't do what this race does. So we're extremely lucky
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  Speaker 1: that we had the majority of them come back this year.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, it is. We do tell everyone if you
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  Speaker 1: want to have some fun for a weekend and you
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  Speaker 1: want to start planning you think next year, and you
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  Speaker 1: want to get involved, just reach out because we'll take
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  Speaker 1: you know, heaps of volunteers, as many as we can
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  Speaker 1: have without and we just couldn't run it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh good on you guys. How wonderful and what a
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  Speaker 2: wonderful event the thing is. So yeah, starting to get
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  Speaker 2: organized in for next year pretty well straight away.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, two week's break and I forget it for next year.
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  Speaker 2: Oh good on you guys. Well, Kelsey, it is lovely
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  Speaker 2: to speak with you this morning. We really appreciate your time,
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  Speaker 2: no doubt, you've all been so incredibly busy you probably
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  Speaker 2: need to catch up on some sleep, so I really
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  Speaker 2: appreciate you having a chat with me this morning.
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  Speaker 1: No problem, role Thanks Katie, Thank you,