Jacob Smith is one step closer to claiming his first elusive King of the Desert crown after recording the quickest time during Method Race Wheels Prologue Day at the 2023 Tatts Finke Desert Race.
Smith – who has a best finish of second at the Tatts Finke Desert Race – has claimed first place in the starting order for Race Day 1 for a second year in a row with his time of 4 minutes and 50.4 seconds.
Despite being slower than his Prologue time of 2022 (by 6 seconds), the Finke veteran gapped the field by over 5 seconds around the 8.3 kilometre Prologue track.
Smith also has received the Outright Prologue winner prize thanks to Methods Race Wheels.
Callum Norton will start Race Day 1 from second, ahead of Korey Mcmahon who rounded out the top three.
Hometown hero and three-time King of the Desert David Walsh and Ivan Long will start tomorrow’s 226 kilometre journey to Aputula (Finke) from fourth and fifth respectively.
The 2023 Tatts Finke Desert Race will begin when the lights go out for leg one of the Bike category race tomorrow at 12.00pm (ACST). The first bike is due to arrive in Aputula (Finke) at approximately 1.40pm.
The 2023 King of the Desert for the Bike category will be crowned when the field completes its return journey from Finke (Aputula) to Alice Springs on Monday. The first bike is due to arrive at the Alice Springs Start/Finish line at 1.45pm.
Full results from the Method Race Wheels Bike Prologue can be viewed here.
