EP#60 - Campbell Hall 2026 Finke Campaign Wrap

We got the chance to sit down with 2026 Finke runner-up Campbell Hall and ask him how he does it! As a privateer, he does a stellar job keeping up with the factory teams with bigger budgets. This is Campbell's story from the 2026 Finke Desert Race.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the ADB Linkest, where we've got little things doing with your AD leaders. The run-up for this year's 2026 tax thing desert race. Pretty much as soon as he got off the bike, we were fortunately uh camped just two uh spots up from where Campbell and his whole group of supporters and family were camped. So when we headed back into our camper after watching everyone come across the finish line and getting a chance to chat with some of the other winners, um we sat down with him and stuck the dictaphone under his nose and got a chance to talk to him about his race, how he puts his program together, and how everything went for 2026. Now, we do have to apologize because the audio is a little bit average. We didn't have all our podcasting gear with us at the time. It was kind of last minute we saw him and we jumped on the opportunity. So please bear with us uh for the quality of the audio. But the story's pretty cool. You'll get to learn a little bit more about Campbell Hall, how he runs his program, and how on earth he's kind of come out of nowhere to finish second twice. Two years in a row now in the Tats Think Desert Race. So this is Campbell Hall's 2026 Tats Think story. But before we get into listening to Campbell, I do want to thank our sponsors. Uh that is Dunlop, and Dunlop sponsor this show with the 8082 timer. It's a multi-directional timer, so you can actually flick it around and get different traction depending on the terrain, whether it's soft or hard on one side of the knob. So it's pretty cool. And I'd like to thank our other sponsors, Sherko. Sherco sponsors the show with their fast finance deals. You can get finance on a Sherko 300 two-stroke for under 4%, which is pretty good. So go check them out and uh he's have a pretty neat two-stroke. Anyway, without further ado, here is Campbell, and our chance is to sit down and talk to him and ask him how his 2026 campaign unfolded. Alright, Campbell Hall, Alice 2026, uh think. Alright, mate. Um, we want to know every all the detail. Um let's just start with your team. How does how does your team work? You've got a you've got a truck that you bought.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Uh bikes that you guys buy your bikes. Yeah, we buy our bikes. So talk us through how the team works from like just to get here.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Um, well, we're only a privateer team, self-funded, not really getting much support from factory KDM or anything. Um we're just doing it, you know, by little local businesses behind us. And um, you know, I wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for dad and mum. They're a big part of what I do. They put a lot a lot of effort into it, as well as myself. And um, you know, we're only new. We're I'd love to get bigger with the team. We've got the truck, we've got the setup. Probably one day get a couple more faster riders on the team, and if we get more support, hopefully that'd be good. But um cool, okay. So what's the official team name? HTR. Yeah. Racing. So that stands for Horse Transport Repairs Racing, which is dad's truck repairs business. Yep. It was just simple. Got a cool logo of Chat GPT, and it looks pretty sick, so we've we've ran with it now. Yeah. And yeah, we literally just did all this like end of last year. Like we brought the truck off Smith Brothers and uh like Todd and Jake, and um, yeah, we just like you know, saw we're just doing it behind the scenes, yeah, keeping low, and um, yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Uh how big's a truck, how many people could use it? Like, if you were to say maybe put more people on the team because Brock was with you this year.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah, Brock's with us this year, he's done good this year, he's done awesome. I don't know, you could like we've got beds and stuff in there, like it's more of just there's a little workshop bench and all that type of stuff in there. You know, maybe like one day you could have like three riders or something, maybe. Whether it's a 250, 450, 500, or just five, just like three 500 riders or whatever. But uh, I reckon one day that's what I'd like to have. Cool. Pretty cool. For desert racing exclusively, just desert racing, that's where it's at. Desert racing's where it's at.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Uh okay, cool. Um talks through like how's it with bikes? You guys have to buy your bikes, who does your suspension, like any other random little sponsors?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah, so we buy our bikes, we get very little off KDM Australia. Hopefully, you know, get another second back back myself up. So hopefully they give me a little bit more, which would be awesome because we're sort of needing it.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Um get it we get them through Double City Motorcycles, Dubbo um KDM dealer, and yeah, like Alex and Dave. They do the most they can for both of us. Um and yeah, help help me out really like they have for years now, like ever since I was on 50s. So we bought a lot of bikes for them. But um, so those guys, and then I've got GDR suspension. So I've only been running him since I ever come up to Fink three years ago, and to be honest, I wouldn't run anyone else. His his knowledge and experience down that track's just you know, you can't really, you can't pay for that. He's just he's you know, it's like however many years it is, you know, he knows how to set up a bike really well. And I think that's probably the most important thing with racing doing this race is having a well set up bike. You don't have to have the fastest bike, but well set up bike because you know you've got to be safe down there as well. Like we're going fast. You wanna be able to trust your equipment because when it goes south, it goes south. Yeah. But um, that's yeah, GDR, massive shout out to Greenie. He's uh he's the king, he's the man. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Uh okay, let's talk the race then. Uh prologue fifth fourth. Yeah, prologue fifth. I was fifth, yeah. Uh happy with prologue, is that kind of where you wanted to be? Did you mess up anywhere in prologue that you felt like, oh, I should have fixed that corner, that corner, that corner?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

I did yeah, I definitely left a lot of time out there. Like, I don't know if I would have been Hemos time, but I definitely think I probably could have had probably five, you know, five or six seconds of left out there, just with making a couple of little mistakes, just um a couple of corners, hit a couple edges, it sort of slowed me up a little bit, but you know, I'm s I was still happy to be under that five minutes. Like when I got back, I thought I was gonna be like, you know, 5'10 or something. I thought I blew and I was like, this is you know not good. But after seeing my time, my position, I was sitting fourth at the time, then obviously Dobby just went and done Dobby things and went P2, so you know a bit shot. Yeah, it was I was happy with where I was, it was a good spot. And obviously, starting with Levi, he he ended up getting the jump on me, but then I ended up getting him straight away before we left the stadium.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Day one.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Okay, so talk us through that.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Started next to Levi.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Uh have you ever who'd you start against next year?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

I started next to Jack Colbert, and I ended up getting the jump on him last year. Okay. And then I didn't see him since whilst racing, but um obviously starting with Levi, I started with him. I've known Levi forever, he's pretty aggressive. He is, and I knew he was going to be aggressive in that stadium, which he was. Showed the wheel a few times and ended up getting around me. But then um once we got to the whoops, like I feel like my whoop speed's quite quick, and it it does show, and I end up getting through the whoops just before we left the stadium, and then I didn't see him again, and then um did that, sort of cruised. Well didn't cruise, I was racing, but just try to not, you know, yeah, have any moments, sort of get to that 20, sort of because the first 20 is not the best part of the track, it's edgy, you know, it's yeah, it's shown. You don't like it in another one. I don't I don't like it, it's dusty, and even like the 30 seconds apart, I wasn't a big fan of that because I was still getting dust off Brody, which I didn't know it was Brody at the time until I caught him. Like I caught him at the off-road club, and um caught him there, got around him, and I didn't to be honest, I felt like I was gone that slow, just struggling to see, which I wasn't the only one, everyone had that same drama. But um, sort of got around him, charged to deep well, then ended up getting to the fuel stop, and then the boys said I was like a minute behind first, but then at the same time I'd I'd never passed Ray Cole, I'd never seen him. Yeah, so I he had an early crash I'd heard, which is like I thought like far out. He's gone he's just gone. I'm like way off the paste. But then I see it anyway. I fueled up, got back on, got real mad arm pump actually to deep well. I usually don't suffer for arm pump, but I So closer to Deep Well, about 60k? Yeah, around that 60k mark, I just pumped up and um that was. I just think, you know. Probably I'd pass Brody and then I didn't know what was going on behind me either. Like I didn't know Luke had had his crash, and then I didn't know that, like, you know, those Stevens brothers were battling as well. I didn't know where Levi was if he was right behind me. I just sort of tried to do my own race, which I feel like it's the best thing you can do out there. You start focusing on other people with yeah, it just doesn't go well. But then yeah, I ended up getting to the fuel stop, and um they said yeah, I was a minute or something behind, or whatever it was, and then they yeah, sort of said I was in third, and I sort of probably cruised a little bit too much, like had a few moments sort of going to Rudinga. I just the sections there was pretty powdery this year, like all and even around the Black Gate area, like there's just silt holes and a lot of square edges. I just didn't want to get flats because I was getting that many flats pre-running. I really didn't want to get any in the race. Which um, yeah, no, so we yeah, we got sort of cruised through there. I I lost a lot of time through there, just probably rode a little bit too um, a little bit too smooth. Like had a couple mistakes and slowed down a little bit, but so what are we talking?

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Sixth gear, still 135, 5 gear.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah, still moving, but yeah, like it still was enough to get me into second, but yeah, I still probably lost a bit too much time. Yep, same thing, riding by myself as well. So I didn't know I knew the boys were in front, but then you don't you can't see the dust, so you don't know how far they are. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

But then I uh So who was in front of you?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Corey Hemon and David. And same thing, I didn't know who was in first, yeah. Yeah, I didn't get told that at the fuel, so I wasn't really too sure who was leading, what was going on, and then yeah, I sort of cruised into the well, I was racing. So I got got into the 160 fuel stop, and they said I was a minute and a half off Corey, and they said he'd have dramas, and I was like, okay, surely I can charge and try and get him. So I pushed, I feel like I pushed pretty hard into Fink and then obviously past Hamo just after the Fink River, pushing his bike, which I'll give it to him. That's that's a great effort. Like a lot of people would have just gave up and not um just left their bike there and quit. He's definitely not a quitter, so that's good to see see that part of him. But um yeah, then got into Fink and um P2, which is good, which still are six minutes off Dobby, which I wasn't pissed about, like I you know, he's the king for a reason. He's bloody he is phenomenal at what he does down that track. But I was yeah, you know, I still had a few minutes beyond in front of Cody and Liam behind me, so I sort of had a bit of breathing room, and then um that was that was day one, really.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

So you do you reckon there were sections on day one where you could have potentially picked up another 10 seconds here, 20 seconds there, and been within say two minutes of Walshing if you had of if it's easier to know where you are, what your time is?

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Um, yeah, I definitely think so. Like it's it's just experience too. Like, he's just got that experience. He's done that many years, he knows where to push, he knows how fast he has to go to win this race. He's won six of them now. Like, yes, I probably rode a little bit too conservative in spots, but same thing, like you have a couple of moments and it does slow you down because at the end of the day, I'm always a big believer like I'd still rather finish than end up on my brains in hospital. Like, you know, being on the podiums, like not everything, like you know, you still gotta finish, but yeah, like definitely I definitely think I left a lot of time out there, but the track was gnarly, it was gnarly. Like there was holes in spots that weren't there in pre-running and edges.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

And so when you say holes, what how big? What are we talking about? Like describe what sort of stuff you saw.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

I don't know, like friggin' I wouldn't say like bike eating holes, but like knee deep, weights holes, like just silt holes, just bull dust on the powder. Yeah, and you like coming through, and then next minute you're like getting kicked, and yeah, you know, you're hanging off a deer life. So, did you have any moments on the way down there where you were like all yeah, no, I had one and that was that was after the first fuel stop. So, what K's? How many K's until us what happened? Um, probably around that 78k, if you know the track. Like there's like this stupid tabletop jump thing goes left, and I sort of did my normal line and jumped on the other side. It's same thing, jumped in this silt hole and just bucked me, bloody. Yeah, I it slowed me up a lot because I was like far out, could have ended myself there. It's a panic rev get. Oh yeah, no. Whoever was watching, they would have heard my bike. It was definitely it was on the stopper, that's for sure. But yeah, no, that was day one.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

So and and and when you passed Corey, where was he? What was he doing? He was pushing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

He was pushing his bike. I feel real bad for him to be honest. He was pushing his bike, he did cheer me on. But at the same time, like I know we're not allowed to, but I'd you thought it was one of like hook a toe rope and just tow him in, eh? How far was he? He was probably like oh no, it might have been like a K, you know, a K to the finish line. Yeah. But he still had all those like little rocky risers to push up, which I wouldn't want to push a bike over them. Yeah, especially in that sand, but he um he did.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

And and what about those rocky sections, boulders and shit? Like, were they more exposed this year? Did you hit more boulders? Did you get, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, no, I'm glad I wasn't I'm glad I got around Brody early because I I definitely would have not wanted to be in dust um going down because like you know, it showed though there was a lot of crashes this year, which you know you never don't want to happen. But um it's you don't want to be in the dust anywhere, but especially in those silty sections, the rocky stuff, because they come out of nowhere. You can't see them in the bull dust. Like that that stuff just comes out of nowhere, and the next minute your bike's like out 90, yeah, and you're just hanging on them. But um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Okay, cool. So that's day one. So uh get a good night's sleep.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Yeah, I had a good night's sleep, we um had a bit of potato bake and uh spag bowl and a couple bits of steak. We just uh cooked a feast and um just had sat around a campfire, had an ice bath, it was way too cold, and um yeah, had a real good sleep. Yeah, the ice bath help though, freezing. The ice wasn't melting, it was freezing. But yeah, anyway. Sleep in the swag in the truck. Yeah, I had the swag. Yeah, that's what your dad said. Dad and the girls, my sister was in the truck, but I was in the swag, and it was love my swag, it's comfy as I love it, it's good. Always have a good sleep in the swag. But then um, yeah, did that, recovered. I felt I wasn't really that sort think, like you know, we do enough pre-running up and backs and all that, and you usually sort of get pretty good. But I I felt good after yesterday, like day one, and um sort of had the ice bath, recovered a little bit, nice hot shower, and um just had a good sleep, woke up in the morning, knew what I had to knew what I had to do. Because you're in a good spot, like a real good spot. You're second. Yeah, I to be honest, the nerves don't get to me. They didn't get you, yeah. Yeah, no, they don't I don't let them get to me. Like, I just stayed calm. Like it's it's what you gotta do. Just stay calm and hang out. How?

SPEAKER_02 15:21

What headspace? What are you just telling yourself? It's just a race over here.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Just tell yourself to focus and you know, don't get caught up in everyone else's shit. Like, just it's just what I do, just keep quiet, fly under the radar, just you know, do your thing. That's yeah, it plays off, it pays off for me anyway. One thing is I know I've got a well-set up bike that I can trust, like you know, it always helps. So just yeah, same thing. Told myself to focus, and just tell myself it's just another pre-run day. That's you know, just go out there and pre-run, cruise, hit all your lines that you freaking spent hours learning and over you know weeks and that down here, and um it paid off, I guess. Like, you know, definitely paid off.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Uh okay, so going home, all the boys, including yourself, when I spoke to you earlier today, said the track was fucking brutal. Pretty fingered it was. Yeah, worst one, even Walsh he's done so X amount of them. He was just like, That's you know, that was the worst he's seen it. Well, why? And and like when you say worst, what are we talking? Like, like square edges, bull dust can't see, deeper whoops, and then does it fuck your back, your body, your hands?

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Like, well, this is obviously only my third year up here, and obviously they grayed it quite a few years back, so it's been getting rougher each year. I'm up here, and I feel like I always excel in the rough. Like, I'm a bit bigger, dude, so I can sort of just get into it a bit more, but um, yeah, it was just I think it was just the edges. It probably wasn't as bad coming home. I didn't find it anywhere near as bad coming home. Like the whoops were definitely very sharp and pointy in some spots, like the sand was soft, there was a bit of moisture coming up through in some. Which was very bizarre. Like those those, you know, trophy trucks and buggies just tear it off. Oh, yeah. They make a mess of the track, really. Yeah, but um, yeah, just the just the bull dust, like it's probably the driest thing I've done now. And just the bull dust sections and just holes out of nowhere. You really had to be you couldn't relax. Like, as soon as you relax, same thing, you your bike's out sideways, and you probably end up on your head, so you just had to stay focused the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

But then, I don't know, like I definitely preferred coming back home. Just I felt good. Sort of I don't know, I felt a bit tight, sort of getting to the first fuel stop. Just um, same thing, you get in that daze where you're riding by yourself. You don't know, you know, it's still you know, it's quite a few K's, you're riding by yourself until you get any information until you get to the fuel stop. So you you know, you just gotta keep riding and keep pushing because you don't know if you're gaining or you you know you got blokes coming up from behind you, because anything can happen, you know, you just lay it over or something, they're gonna be on you. Yeah, and I definitely knew Liam and Cody were gonna be on the charts, which um same thing when I got to that 160 fuel stop, I felt good, but I definitely didn't think I was catching anyone, like Dobby, for instance. Got to the fuel stop, they said I'd pulled 30 seconds on him or something. Yeah, I was like, oh far right. And they said um Cody and like uh Liam were like four minutes behind me, so I was like, okay, yeah, I've got a bit of breathing room there, and I was just like, okay, fuck it. Let's just see if I can prove a little bit of a point and just run, see if I can catch Dobby or I'm not like I knew I wasn't gonna catch him, catch him, but see if I can make a bit of time off on him and just show that I belong up the front. And um, I think I yeah, I pulled a bit of time in on him and then sort of I've definitely slowed up when I got to Blackgate. That's sort of you know, just that silty stuff. Slowed up. I knew I had a good lead in front of Liam. I knew he was charging as well, but at the same time I knew I could sort of manage it, and then um did that. Didn't didn't have any moments coming home. I felt good the whole way until I got to the last 20 and then went off the track. Oh, did you yeah, I'd have to like 10k what happened? Just come into a sort of whoops. If you know there's like these whoops, whoever's gonna listen to this, like they're like super cross whoops. Yep, pretty much crossed up in them, and then it goes to like a little creek, and then I went straight and just it's just I had to tell myself to focus, but that bit of the track, yeah. I don't like that bit of the track. It's just bull dusty, edges everywhere, come out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

And so nothing kicked you sideways and threw you out there.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

You kind of I felt like I honestly felt solid all the way to the 20k. Like, even like when I got to my last fuel stop, the boys said, you know, I was doing good. I pulled in a little bit of Tom and Dobby, and then you know, the boys were charging behind me, but I still had a lot of room on them, and then um just same thing, road money race all the way back through, felt good, all the way to the off-road club. Felt yeah, I felt good through there, and then same thing, that bit of the track was just absolutely fingered. It was it wasn't that fun, really. I was just like, Don't meet, don't do anything dumb, just get home. But then, same thing, you do that, and you you don't know how hard Liam's going behind you. Yeah, like you don't know if he's just being an absolute idiot and just pushing way too hard, and you know, you can sneak up on you, like you still gotta stay on top of it. But then, same thing. Got to the 20, managed to get to the 20 without any dramas, and then cruised into Alice finish, and um, yeah, just I took it very easy. Once I got once I sort of went through the off-road club, I dropped the pace quite a lot, just didn't want to do anything dumb. Like, you're you're 40k's out, yeah. You all you need to do is end your race there, like you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

And by that stage, you kind of know okay, Walsh's also in past this spot, he knows he's just got to cruise to get it home. There's no point, like you're not gonna catch him in the last 40ks. Okay, so that's that's kind of the mentality, you kind of get a good idea from there.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

I think honestly, my mentality today was okay, see see what I could do, see if I could catch Dovi. Like, I knew I wasn't gonna catch up to him, but see if I could pull in a bit of time, which I did for a little bit, which I you know had some fast sections, but then um obviously he pulled it back on me, but yeah, he was probably cruising as well. I don't know, he's he's another breed, like he was he probably was cruising, but to still get to the finish line and go, I was like a few seconds off him, and same as Liam, he pushed hard, so he was two seconds faster than me as well. So it was good to see us three, you know, the top three were on that sort of different level coming home, which it does, it means that I've stepped it up as well, and it means you know, like I've backed it up again. I've got number two again, so I do belong up here. Yeah, and um you know it's good to prove it again.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Two years in a row now. Last year wasn't just a fluke, like a lot of people were probably saying, like, there was a lot of privateers up there last year, and um it's good to you know, it's good to have the privateers battling with those factory boys. Like it it even the first day, like when I passed Brody, you know, at the Off-road club, it it's just a you just tick a box because it's like hey, I've just passed the factory guy. Yeah, you know, I don't get a lot given to me, you know, and they get a lot of free stuff. Yep. And they're on a factory team, they had the big scanner truck there, you know, the big Honda truck and the semi, and you know, it's good to it's good to prove a little bit of a point to them that you know that's you can't you don't you don't need all that to win as well. Like you can win just with a small setup, yeah, and just the small people around you that help you out most because it and it it proved last year with Hamo, like you know, he had a small group of people around him and it paid off for him, he got the win.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

So yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the unique thing about Fink, right? Is that like it's not like any other race series or anything like AEC or ProMX or anything, you you can come out the Fink with a good team behind you, like your own privateer team and enough practice. It's more about how well do you know the track and how well prepared you are. Yeah. Um okay, so you can kind of roll into Fink and um obviously just stoked to get back in one piece you finished. Your body's how was the body? Uh the body you like for people out there that are listening to this and are reading this, you're fit, you're strong, your physique kind of suits think, you thick.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah, I may not look the fittest, but I can tell you right now my bike fitness is actually quite good. Like coming home, there was no moments like where I felt unfit, you know, you just start getting dizzy in the head or something. Like I felt strong the whole way, I wasn't sore until like now I'm a little bit stiff, which is you know, you gotta have that. Yeah, but no matter how much pre-running you do and how good you feel pre-running, the race always hits different, it does. Like you always get way more sore, and it's just you know, like same thing. Like I had I'd never pumped up the whole time I was pre-running until a race. Yeah, just it just gets to you a little bit, and that's probably is the nerves coming in a little bit, but you know, I've managed to deal with it and it's fine now.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Would you do anything differently if you could do your time again from start from the moment you left for prologue right through to when you rolled in a thing?

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Um, I don't know. I definitely think if I had the same thing, I'd I need to try and find a better set of lens to run because everyone was struggling with lenses. But what were you running?

SPEAKER_02 24:07

What were you running?

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Oh, I run like this, it's like a purple lens, and it works, it was working great. So last year I was running light sensitive and that was working good, but still wasn't perfect. Yeah. And then I found this purple lens which Conspiracy supplied to me, and they were really good when I pre-run, and they're awesome coming home, but I think it's just you know, when we're heading, we never pre-run at 12 o'clock. Yeah, because obviously that's the turnaround time you stop and then you have to come back at 12 30. So you know, you never we never ride that way at that time ever. So it's the sun's in a different spot, just you can't see the whoops because the sun's pointing on them, and you just you're literally going by feel, really. Like it's sketchy out. Yeah, I think you know, yeah. Maybe if if we went earlier in the day, like if us bikes went when the buggies did, I actually think you know, I probably yeah, it might have been different for Dobby and that they might have gone faster again, but I think I could run their pace and um with better vision, yeah. With better vision, but it's just one of those things, it's so hard. Like, you know, I'm still happy with where I've ended up, like coming second behind David's, you know, it's pretty sick, like really two years in a row, backed it up. And I've I haven't gone down, I haven't gone up, but I've stayed the same. It's behind David, which he's he's the man out here.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Yeah, well, we said this earlier, it's almost like going up because it's David Walsh, that's the only one that beat you. I mean, you know, uh Corey obviously had the issue with his chain this year, and so it would have been cool to see you guys coming home battling as well. Uh, but um, you know, I I spoke to Walsh earlier today as well, after, and he said this is definitely his last year. Yeah, he did say that to me. So if that's the case, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

I mean it's you'll be able to do that. I sort of wish he stayed retired to be honest. I probably should have got my first ring at 20, but correct. No, we'll just have to come back next year. Yeah, back it up.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Let's talk about the next year. Come back. Obviously, kind of same team setup. Whatever happens happens.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, hopefully more support. Like that'd be great. Like, so if KDM, if you're listening, we want more support. We're going big next year. Yeah, cool. But um, that's if they listen.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Yeah, because you could you run the black bike.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

I run the black bike, so I've ran orange bikes for years, and even last year I ran like the the 25 motocross look, like it looked genuine as. But I was like, you know, this year, you know, I'm just I want to run a black bike. I've always liked black bikes anyway. And like my sister did the graphics, she's got her own little graphics business now. She did them, and um, I reckon the bike turned out pretty good. It's black, but yeah, KDM might not like it, but until they give me free bikes, I'll run orange plastics and whatever they want, really.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Yeah, definitely. Um okay, let's talk end of this year stuff with Baja. We're going to Baja. Obviously, coming back next year if you think we're going to Baja end of this year.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah, well, I'll go to Hatter first. I'll do Hatter. Sorry, Hatter, yes. Well, I'll go to Hatter. And Hatter's a race I really want to do good at. I've never done as good there, even like up in juniors. I've got so many seconds and thirds there, but I've never actually won a Hatter.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

And um, it's a race I want to do really good at, which I will push hard and train hard for that when I get back to reality. And um, I'll do Hatter. Human Haran, whether I do um Don River, maybe not. It doesn't interest me that much. I went there last year and I didn't love it, but then I would I want to come up and do the 12 hour, which the 12 hours gotta be more of practice for Baja because obviously they do a little bit of night riding. And I've same thing, like when I was talking to Dirtblock Burrito, Jeremy, like he asked me that the other day. I've never done any night riding, so if you know if I get put in the night at Baja, like I want to go over there with as much experience as possible in every different terrain. Yeah, and that's that's what I mean. Like we're winging, we're all whinging about the the silt holes out in the think track, but like far out, Baja's gonna be full of that stuff. So we've got fridges hiding in them. Yeah, I don't think you know, like finks are very fast race, like we're hitting those silt holes fast enough. I don't like the same thing, I don't know what Baja's gonna be like. I actually don't know you know how much faster we're gonna be going. It looks a lot slower, but same thing, like you know, it might be totally different when we get there. So I just need to go into that race as prepared as possible with our team and um hopefully all go over there and do pretty well. Like, I would I'd love to go over there and have a solid team and you know, yes, we're probably not gonna win because SLR and Hero have got that much experience up there, but I think you know, I'd love to, you know, if we're in a chance to get a podium, I'd you know, I would love to do that. Yeah, but you know, we also gotta have the right team around us, which we do. We've Stu from 627 Race, and he's um he's put all this together with um Ben Stevens as well. So it's a great opportunity. Like I was never gonna say no to it because it's you know, I never thought I'd have the opportunity this early in my career. Sort of, you know, maybe like five years down the track, I thought I was gonna get arsed, but yeah, you thought you can't just say no to that.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, Aussie contingent over there. You like you said, there it's funny, there's a couple of Aussie teams going over there, which is gonna be awesome. So uh alright, Ripper, I think that's that's all we need.