TEAM WATERS RACING 2023 DESERT RACING WRAP

Описание: As the 2023 Desert Racing Season for Team Waters Racing draws to a close, it has been a jam-packed season for Mildura’s Brodie Waters, racing across the country at the Finke Desert Race, Hattah Desert Race, Don River Dash, and the Kalgoorlie Desert Race.

While it wasn’t all smooth sailing with a mixed bag of fortunes taking place in the final two events, this season proved the Waters name was a fierce Top 10 contender in the Desert racing discipline.

The Tatts Finke Desert Race was the first event of the season and AMX Supported rider Brodie Waters took to the gruelling 450-kilometre round trek from Alice Springs to Finke and back. Brodie took an impressive 8th place finish against a line-up of the strongest desert racers in the country.

The Hattah Desert Race was next off the ranks and while the proximity between Finke and Hattah saw Brodie unable to put in many hours of preparation for this event, this was the 31-year-olds strongest result of the season. Confidence was high after a solid prologue result finishing inside the Top 10, Brodie was then able to continue that momentum to finish the official Hattah Desert Race in 7th place – his best result from Hattah to date.

As the season hit the halfway mark, Brodie had some unfinished business at the Don River Dash, after a mechanical failure last year took away his podium hopes. All throughout pre-running, he proved once again he had the pace to take his first desert race win. Unfortunately, disaster struck once again for the Team Waters Racing rider in the gruelling sand track while he was again in podium contention. Lap 2 saw Brodie forced to retire from the race after his gearbox had let go, resulting in yet another DNF at the Don River Dash 300 and podium hopes stripped away.

This event also saw Nick Waters back on the saddle after a lengthy recovery period following a serious crash at Finke last year. While a podium finish was also on the cards for Nick after a strong Day 1 finish result in 4th, disaster struck yet again for the boys after Nick was involved in another hefty crash on Lap 1 that further forced him out of the race.

The final event of the season saw Team Waters Racing operate once again as a one rider team with Nick having to recover from his DRD crash, it was all eyes on Brodie once again who’s goal was to finish the year out strong.

With 2024 plans already in the works, Brodie made the decision to switch from the KTM EXC-F 500 to the Honda CRF450R for this event. With limited time on the Honda, Brodie had built his confidence up quickly on the new bike with multiple days pre-running under his belt.

However, it once again wasn’t the result the Victorian rider had worked hard for with his weekend again ending prematurely. A heavy crash in the closing kilometres of the prologue track saw Brodie end his weekend in hospital, leaving him with several injuries including four broken vertebrae and a broken sternum.

While the season didn’t end the way he or the team had intended, spirits are as high as ever for the Team Waters Racing crew and works are already in place to ensure the 2024 desert racing season is the best and strongest season yet!