By Callum Ludwig
Yarra Ranges resident Daniel Sanders has taken on the biggest desert race in Australia in style, making his return to the sport one to remember.
Mr Sanders claimed victory in the Hattah Desert Race on Sunday 3 July after a weekend’s worth of racing in the desert by the Victorian border to New South Wales.
Mr Sanders said it was really good to come back with a win.
“Having just recently come back from the injury in the Dakar this year and had a lot of operations and a lot of time off the bike, my first goal was to get back fit and healthy for this race,” he said.
“It was a pretty big challenge, I probably had five weeks back on the bike and made it happen, it’s definitely a good feeling to win the race for the second time after six months off the bike, to win that event straight off the couch pretty much is a big accomplishment and took a lot of hard work.”
Mr Sanders ended up with a fractured elbow and a bone block put in after multiple shoulder dislocations following a big crash seven days into the 2022 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. He was sitting in the third position before the accident.
Mr Sanders said he felt well set up after claiming first in the prologue and then a Top 10 shootout, which determines riders starting position in the race.
“There are 404 drivers that qualify for the race and so I got to start in pole position, which was really cool to start off the race on the nice fresh sand track,” he said.
“The best thing about being first is you get the advantage of it being smooth compared to you later on, and it’s a really flat track early on. Your max speed is about 168 kilometres an hour with an average of about 68 for the total time, so it’s a pretty fast-flowing race through the trees and desert there.”
The Hattah Desert Race is an eight-lap race that goes for about four hours at a total of about 296 kilometres. It is often called the ‘four hours of hell’ and is widely regarded as the most challenging off-road race in Australia.
Mr Sanders said it is probably the toughest race in Australia for fitness and strength.
“With each lap, the track gets harder and harder to race because it gets rougher as there are more bikes and more traffic, with deeper holes and more warps in the surface, it becomes very technical in deep sandy conditions,” he said.
“When you begin passing the slower riders it’s also a challenge because we lapped 30 or maybe 40 positions, so we have to try and pass a lot of the riders twice for the whole race.”
Mr Sanders finished the race two minutes and almost 32 seconds ahead of his nearest rival Husqvarna Motorcycles’ Todd Waters to secure the victory for his sponsor GasGas.
Mr Sanders said the body was definitely sore after the race, but has eyes for the future now.
“I knew I had to save as much energy as I could for the last hour to finish strong but the elbow was really sore after the surgeries and it was only like seven weeks ago I got the pins and wires taken out,” he said.
“It was pretty recent and is pretty fragile, but I want to get my elbow and shoulders strong again, and back to 100% strength. The next race I will do will be in Morocco (Rallye du Maroc 2022) from the end of September to the start of October. It’ll be my first race since Dakar and I hope to win it, and then begin preparing for the Dakar next year.”
