{"id":720935,"date":"2026-06-07T11:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T11:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/720935\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T11:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T11:53:14","slug":"finke-desert-race-motorbike-rider-dies-on-first-day-of-outback-competition-from-alice-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/720935\/","title":{"rendered":"Finke Desert Race motorbike rider dies on first day of outback competition from Alice Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A motorbike rider has died in the Central Australian outback after a crash at the Finke Desert Race.<\/p>\n

The competitor, whose name has yet to be released, died while racing along the off-road track from Alice Springs to Aputula\/Finke.<\/p>\n

NT Police said emergency services were called to the scene at 12:40pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Both drivers and motorbike riders can compete in the off-road race. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

Police rendered CPR until St John Ambulance paramedics arrived and commenced treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“However, despite their best efforts, the rider tragically passed away at the scene,” the NT Police statement said.<\/p>\n

“Police have declared a crime scene and major crash investigators have taken carriage of the incident.<\/p>\n

“The circumstances surrounding the crash are under active investigation and a report will be prepared for the coroner.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Finke Desert Race attracts thousands of spectators and competitors to Central Australia each year. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

A separate spokesperson said the Finke Desert Race committee “mourns the loss of a rider during race day one” and was “deeply saddened by this loss”.<\/p>\n

“A competitor died at the scene along the first half of the route from Alice Springs to Aputula\/Finke,” the committee said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“We ask all to respect the privacy of the family, friends and those who have been impacted by this incident.”<\/p>\n

Organisers said they were “providing ongoing support at both ends of the route” and thanked emergency services for their efforts.<\/p>\n

Event expected to continue<\/p>\n

Marking its 50th anniversary this year<\/a>, the 460-kilometre race to Aputula\/Finke and back is among the Northern Territory’s biggest annual sporting events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is one of the most famous off-road races in the world, recently capturing the attention of Hollywood’s film industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today’s fatality comes just five years after the death of a Finke Desert Race spectator at the 2021 event, which led to a lawsuit<\/a> and raised serious safety concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The race kicked off in Alice Springs on Sunday. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

Canberra retiree Nigel Harris died when a truck competing in that year’s event veered off the track and into a group standing 35 kilometres from the finish line.<\/p>\n

A number of competitors have also died over the event’s 50-year history, with the most recent fatality occurring in 2008 when Queensland motorbike rider David Schmidt<\/a> died after colliding with a tree during the race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Desert racers unscathed after wild 160km\/h crash caught on camera<\/a><\/p>\n

A trophy truck driver and his navigator say they are “surprisingly well” after a serious crash in the outback.<\/p>\n

There was a close call at the 2025 event too, when a trophy truck became airborne while travelling at 160km\/h<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the vehicle crashing and rolling along the track several times last year, the driver and navigator walked away with only minor bruising.<\/p>\n

Race organisers have told the ABC day two of this year’s competition will go ahead as planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A motorbike rider has died in the Central Australian outback after a crash at the Finke Desert Race.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[349458,64,63,42840,349457,349449,349451,204153,10470,346792,349455,349453,349452,349456,349448,1098,72186,349454,349450,85],"class_list":["post-720935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-apatula","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-car-crash","tag-competitor-dead","tag-competitor-dies","tag-competitor-killed","tag-fatal-accident","tag-fatal-crash","tag-finke","tag-finke-2026","tag-finke-accident","tag-finke-crash","tag-finke-fatality","tag-finke-race","tag-nt","tag-outback-race","tag-race-accident","tag-racer-killed","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}