In a spectacular performance at the 2014 Tatts Finke Desert
Race, Polaris secured the Top 5 places in the side x side class to
stamp its dominance all over Australia's most challenging and
iconic off-road racing event.
The Finke Desert Race is an off road, multi terrain two-day race
for bikes, cars, buggies and quads through desert country from
Alice Springs to the small Aputula (Finke) community. The race is
held each year on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June. Finke
is one of the biggest annual sporting events in the Northern
Territory and has the reputation of being one of the most difficult
off-road courses in one of the most remote places in the world.
Starting the event with 12 Polaris RZR's out of the total side x
side field of 16, it was a fierce battle for podium positions
between the Polaris racers as the final result came down to the
wire.
In the end, it was Phil Swindale and his co-pilot Matt Costello
from Eagle Powersports who upstaged their more fancied rivals to
take home desert glory in their Polaris RZR XP 1000.
It was a consistent effort from the Swindale/Costello team who
had clearly taken a lot of learnings from their 2013 effort to come
back harder and stronger in posting times of 03:01:04 on Day 1 and
02:52:34 on Day 2. As it turned out, two second places equaled
first place for the Tamworth duo who were rock solid in finishing
second on each day, which was enough to secure them the 2014 side x
side crown.
Impressively, their time also allowed them to finish 30th
overall in the car/buggy class in a grueling event where almost 40
entrants failed to finish.
Gunning for a record-breaking third straight Finke Desert Race
side x side title, Adrian Jackson and his co-pilot Chris Meloury
steered their RZR XP 900 with aplomb but fell an agonising seven
minutes short of glory. In other years, times of 03:00:02 and
03:00:33 would have been enough to secure victory, however this
year it was not the case and Jackson/Meloury had to settle for
second place on the back of 2012 and 2013 victories.
Closing out the podium places and finishing 34th overall was
Aaron Phillis and Brett Morgan from Chapmans Off-Road in their RZR
XP 1000 with an overall time of 06:12:10, 12 minutes behind
Jackson/Meloury. They beat out fourth placed Barry Moule and Aaron
Ward of Team Churchill in their RZR XP 900, and Jason Neate and
Christopher Johnstone from Mongrel Dog in their four-seater RZR 900
XP4.
The highly-fancied Polaris Racing team of Cody Crocker and Greg
Foletta recovered from 13th place after day one to finish the event
7th overall. After experiencing some difficulties on day one which
cost them not only the lead but 50 minutes of time, Crocker and
Foletta dug deep to finish day one in the unforgiving time of
03:50:50. However, day two was a new day and Crocker/Foletta came
out and blitzed the field with a time of 02:48:42, winning the trip
back to Alice Springs by almost four minutes and showing just what
Polaris Racing team and the RZR XP 1000 is capable of.
"We always knew we had the fastest vehicle on the track, however
desert racing is a tough sport and we had some slight issues on day
one which cost us valuable time," said Crocker, himself a four-time
Asia Pacific Rally Champion with Subaru and three-time Australian
Rally Championship side x side champion with Polaris.
"This was our first time racing Finke and it was a great
learning experience. Our time on day two shows what we, and our
RZR, are capable of and we'll be a lot stronger for this experience
come the 2015 event.
"We're pleased that we were able to come home so strongly and
post the best time of the whole event in the side x side class in
our trip from Finke to Alice Springs on Monday."
Polaris is a recognized leader in the powersports industry with
annual sales exceeding $3 billion. Polaris designs, engineers,
manufactures and markets innovative, high quality off-road vehicles
(ORVs), including all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and the Polaris
RANGER ® side-by-side vehicles, snowmobiles, motorcycles
and on-road electric/hybrid powered vehicles.
Polaris is among the global sales leaders for both snowmobiles
and off-road vehicles and has established a presence in the
heavyweight cruiser and touring motorcycle market with the Victory
and Indian motorcycle brands. Additionally, Polaris continues to
invest in the global on-road small electric/hybrid vehicle industry
with Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) and Goupil Industrie SA, and
internally developed vehicles. Polaris enhances the riding
experience with a complete line of Pure Polaris apparel,
accessories and parts, available at Polaris dealerships.
Polaris Industries Inc. trades on the New York Stock Exchange
under the symbol "PII", and the Company is included in the S&P
Mid-Cap 400 stock price index.
For more information or to book a test ride with your local
dealer, please visit www.polarisindustries.com.au
Media Contact:
Robert Rosengarten
robert.rosengarten@polaris.com