Wes Miller Interview: 2011 Tattersalls Finke Desert ATV Race
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The trip was about 22 hours. I left Monday night and got there Wednesday afternoon with the time change. I had sent my mechanic, Rich Morel a few days ahead of me to start prepping the quad. I chose to race a Honda 700xx just like I ride in Baja. It's known for it's incredible reliability and I set it up very similar to our Baja winning quad. I was a little concerned when I got there and the quad was still in pieces. A bunch of the parts had apparently been caught up in customs and hadn't even arrived at the shop yet. Desert Edge Motorcycles is the local Honda dealer in Alice Springs and they really took us under their wings and gave us full access to their shop. I really can't thank them enough.

Upon arriving in Australia, the Honda TRX700XX ATV still had to be finished	Wes Miller & his Finke Desert Race Mechanic, Rich Morel

The first day, we did what we could and then headed to the hotel to crash out. It is a 15 1/2 hour time difference, so I knew it was going to take some getting used to. I fell asleep fine, but woke up wide awake at 3 am. Thursday, we worked on the quad and the parts didn't show up until late afternoon. We went to work with Rich dialing in the quad and me mounting the 12 tires and wheels. At about 8 pm we thought we were close to being finished. I went to put the tires on the quad only to find out that all of the rear wheels were the wrong bolt pattern. Luckily, Hiper's are modular and the front centers worked for the rear. But this meant that I had to break down the wheels I just mounted, pull the centers from my spare fronts, and remount them. We didn't leave the shop until after 10 pm to grab a late dinner and crash out.

Again I woke up at 4 am wide awake. Friday morning we grabbed the 700xx from the shop and piled into a ute, an Australian pick up, to head out to pre-run and break it in. This would be my first time riding on Aussie soil. I got to ride the first 180 km (111 miles). I quickly realized that it was going to be a whooped out sand race with some fast sections mixed in.

After I rode, we loaded back up and headed to the shop. We had just enough time to clean the quad and head to scrutineering. Scrutineering is there version of a tech inspection. They were very thorough. They went through all of my riding gear and the quad. Saturday was the prologue. We raced around a 5 mile course for times that would seed us for the start the next day. We were only given 1 sighting lap and then it was time to qualify. The course was like a really long, fast, smooth motocross track. They sent us out 2 quads at a time. I went out and laid down what I thought was a pretty fast lap. I beat the quad I was up against by about 30 seconds and caught the quads that had started a row ahead of me. I was stunned when I saw the times posted and that I qualified 8th. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that may be I had got myself into more than I had anticipated.