GRABBO’S VIP RACE EXPERIENCE GETS ON THE GAS AT HATTAH DESERT RACE , AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST DESERT RACE!
Grabbo’s VIP Race Experience is well underway for 2024, featuring at the Hattah Desert Race, the third desert race on Grabbo’s VIP event calendar this year. The Hattah track is located in north-west Victoria, near the sandy river banks of the Murray River, surrounded by bushland and provides desert racing unlike nowhere else in Australia.
Legendary Ben ‘Grabbo’ Grabham raced in Hattah for the very first time - wait for it - in 2005 and has won this race twice. Renowned for its dusty and sandy-river track conditions, this race has earned its reputation as being tougher than Finke. Why did Grabbo decide to put this race on the VIP Race Experience calendar?
‘It’s a very unique race, it’s the only race starting how it starts. It’s brutal and hard work but the start is so much fun. It’s like riding in the beach to begin with, and then you ride into the track. That’s when it gets tougher and rougher and you find out quickly whose done their training.’ says Grabbo.
Unfortunately, due a hand injury Grabbo wasn’t able to line up on the team, so coaching-mode was turned on with four VIP customers signing up. The team including VIP’s first ever junior racer, Billy Ryan who continued on his performance streak from Jamalka 360 back in March with an impressive outright result of 28th in his junior class.
Other racers included Marty Convey, racing in all five of Grabbo’s VIP Experiences this year and desert-racing enthusiasts, brothers from the west, Geoff and Lars Carlton all racing on the GASGAS EC500F with impressive outright results within the top 100.
All reports is this track is extremely difficult and this year was no exception. Grabbo's expertise in bike set-up once again helped the VIP customers achieve success. ‘The Hattah track is mostly bottomless sand and there are alot more corners than Finke, so our bikes require quite a different set-up. We switch over to a more aggressive Maxxis MX SI front/rear tyre and our WP Suspension tuned by JVR is adjusted to make the bike turn alot sharper which also makes racing feel more comfortable. It’s a long four hours of racing.’
‘There were over sixty riders who DNF the race showing how hard it is on rider and machine, there are so many little things we do to avoid this. The track was a dusty sand-fest this year but our Twin Air sand/beach racing air filters gave us peace of mind that dust and sand wasn’t going to stop our bikes.’
Our VIP Racers came from all over, showing the appeal of the VIP Race set-up.
Want to GET ON THE GAS with Grabbo’s VIP Race team?
Upcoming VIP desert races:
- Don River Dash 6 - 8 September, 2024
- Kalgoorlie Desert Race 24-27 October, 2024
- Jamalka 360 March, 2025
- Bookings are also open for Finke Desert Race 2025.