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The Alice Springs local made the trek from his hometown to Aputula twice today, first on four wheels and then on two.
His first run was in the navigator’s seat alongside Brent Smoothy in their Trophy Truck, the duo working their way for third by the overnight stop, four minutes behind leader Beau Robinson.
Walsh then flew back to Alice Springs to begin his campaign for a fifth-straight King of the Desert crown on two wheels.
He was able to run down prologue pacesetters Liam Walsh and Callum Norton before the first checkpoint before storming to an overnight lead of almost three minutes from Norton.
“That first 70 kilometres – I don’t know what it is – seems to be my favourite part, I seem to be extremely fast there every year,” said Walsh.
“Once I caught them it was a big relief and I was able to put it in a bit of auto-pilot and get [to Aputula] quick and smooth.
“It was actually my plan [to start in the second row], I didn’t want to lead from the front. It’s so hard because you don’t know where anyone is, so it makes it more difficult to track where you are and if you need to push or if you don’t, so I actually prefer starting from behind.”
Prologue winner Liam Walsh, cousin of David, is out of the race after crashing near the 72-kilometre mark.
Tomorrow, Walsh will once again complete the leg twice – and should Smoothy overcome Robinson and Billy Geddes in Cars, and Walsh convert his overnight lead to victory in Bikes, he would become the first competitor to win both classes at the same event.
Toby Price famously made several ‘Ironman’ attempts, although never quite pulled off the double.
He did, however, do it as a driver/rider, not a navigator/rider.
Robinson will lead the Cars away from Aputula at 7:15am ACST tomorrow while Walsh is first bike away at 12pm ACST.
