Price mulling over another Finke ‘Iron Man’ bid

Toby Price is considering attempting the ‘Iron Man’ Car-Bike double at next year’s Tatts Finke Desert Race after winning on four wheels for the second time in a row.

Price is now an eight-time King of the Desert after converting a healthy overnight lead into a record race time in his Mitsubishi Triton Trophy Truck.

In each of his last two, victorious Cars campaigns, he has not entered the Bikes division, although last year he was coming off breaking a collarbone in the Dakar Rally.

It was a similar story in 2019, when the KTM rider aggravated a pre-existing wrist fracture in his famous, second Dakar triumph, although his bid for a maiden Cars victory at Finke was brought undone by a mechanical failure at that time.

In 2018, however, Price did have a crack at both titles in the one year, winning on his KTM but also suffering a mechanical failure when a podium in a truck looked on the cards.

He had done even better in his only other Iron Man campaign, with victory in the Bikes and a runner-up finish in the Cars in 2016.

“I don’t know yet,” said the 34-year-old at the Alice Springs finish line of the prospect of a third such attack on Finke.

“I’ll [let it] sink in tonight a little bit and take that all in, and for sure, that double thing’s definitely something that’s eating at me a little bit.

“We know we’ve got the equipment in the truck – we’re starting to get that all dialled and everything now, and John Vance and all the guys at TSCO [trophy truck builder] have done a great job there – so I think it’s kind of nearly time to see if we can saddle back up on a bike and try and see if we can make it work.”

Price is not the first person to have contested both divisions, a task which requires one to fly back to the start of each leg to follow up the drive along the 226km track with the ride.

For now, however, he can bask in the glory of another King of the Desert title.

“We’re stoked and it was a good run back,” said Price.

“We didn’t push, we didn’t do anything crazy, I just can’t thank my crew enough for all their efforts.

“We had a really good run yesterday, and the hardest part is that you don’t know what’s going on behind you.

“You push really hard, and the boys have done a great job with the truck… everything has turned out really good.”