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Speaker 1: Now we know thousands flocked to Central Australia over the

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Speaker 1: long weekend for the iconic Fink Desert Race, two brothers

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Speaker 1: taking first and second place on the podium in the

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Speaker 1: cars category, with young gun Corey Hammond riding into the

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Speaker 1: history books claiming his first King of the Desert crow.

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Speaker 1: For the bikes now joining me, crown, i should say,

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Speaker 1: for the bikes joining me on the line to tell

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Speaker 1: us a bit more about how the event twinned. It

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Speaker 1: is the Fink Vice president, Kelsey Bradford. Good morning, Kelsey,

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Speaker 1: Hey Katie, how are you? You're really good? How did

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Speaker 1: it all go over the weekend?

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Speaker 2: It was a really good weekend. We had a really

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Speaker 2: successful weekend and we crowned two new winners. So we're

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Speaker 2: pretty stoked about that as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, talk us through the results, he.

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Speaker 2: One, yeah, yeah. So in the cars, as you just mentioned,

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Speaker 2: we had Travis Robinson and Paul Curry long term races

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Speaker 2: that have been here for many, many years, decades and

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Speaker 2: to see Trav finally get that top step it's pretty great.

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Speaker 2: He's come on the podium before but never quite got there.

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Speaker 2: And to do it the year after his brother Bo

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Speaker 2: and for Bow, his brother Roy Robinson and his navigator

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Speaker 2: Shane Hut To be second with him was fantastic. And

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Speaker 2: then in third place for the cars, we have a

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Speaker 2: newbie and he's quite young. I understand he's seventeen or

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Speaker 2: eighteen years old, just started racing and he's come in third.

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Speaker 2: He's Boston Morgan Horan and his navigator. They've come from

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Speaker 2: New Zealand, so it's pretty cool to see him do

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Speaker 2: his first think and finish up there on the podium.

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Speaker 2: And then obviously in the bikes we had Corey Hammond

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Speaker 2: who'd been knocking on the podium for a while. He's

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Speaker 2: come forth a couple of times and to see him

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Speaker 2: take that win out and followed by Campbell Hall who's

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Speaker 2: a good friend of him and he's nineteen years old,

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Speaker 2: so we'll be seeing a lot from him in the future.

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Speaker 2: And then third place Brodie Waters who miraculously rode in.

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Speaker 2: He had a big, big, big crash about twenty kilometers out,

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Speaker 2: came in and had a bruised eye, and later on

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Speaker 2: we found out in the night he got back on

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Speaker 2: and continued and come third and he had as I

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Speaker 2: think he's got fractures in his neck and all sorts

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Speaker 2: of things. So yeah, it was definitely running on adrenaline,

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Speaker 2: but it was nothing short of amazing, so incredible.

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Speaker 1: And there's a women's category as well, isn't there?

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Speaker 2: There is? And Maddie Healy has gone back to back

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Speaker 2: with that Queen of the Desert. Its unofficial title is

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Speaker 2: that she's amazing. She's such a strong rider. I think

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Speaker 2: she finished fifty one overall, and yeah, she's a joy

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Speaker 2: to watch, a joy to have and it was really

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Speaker 2: really great to see her do it again.

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Speaker 1: How cool. Now I'd seen her interviewed and she was

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Speaker 1: saying that some of the weather that's been experienced in

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Speaker 1: Central Australia over recent months or whatever had had caused

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Speaker 1: the track to be a little bit sort of bumpier

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Speaker 1: I think than what it's maybe been in preview.

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Speaker 2: She is, Yeah, yeah it did. It did help a

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Speaker 2: little bit with the dust, which is always a trade off,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, I think it made the sound that little

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Speaker 2: bit heavier and a little bit more chopped up. But

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Speaker 2: it seems to go okay. And I neglected to mention

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Speaker 2: that Hannah Bentley, who was Hayden Bentley, a former winner,

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Speaker 2: his daughter. I think she's twenty four. She's finished an

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Speaker 2: eleventh spot and came third in the Extreme two will

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Speaker 2: drive class, which is the same class as both, so

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Speaker 2: she both finished first and she finished third, and that

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Speaker 2: she's now leading the Extreme two will drive class for

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Speaker 2: the Australian off Road Championship on points so long, it

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Speaker 2: was a big weekend for the women. It was just

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Speaker 2: fantastic to see and we can't wait to find out

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Speaker 2: more around what she does for the rest of the year.

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Speaker 1: And I'm loving Look, I'm loving hearing as well about

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Speaker 1: the family ties. You know, not only with the first

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Speaker 1: and second with the boys or with the men, but

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Speaker 1: also there with Hannah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly and Hayden. We had a bit of a

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Speaker 2: laugh because Hayden came ninth overall and finished I think

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Speaker 2: it was second in the trucks of his class, so

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Speaker 2: he finished behind Travis Robinson in class. And yeah, to

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Speaker 2: have Hannah two steps behind him and getting a podium

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Speaker 2: place in her class, it was really really great to see.

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Speaker 1: How awesome now Kelsey tell me, like for those out

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Speaker 1: there listening who've never been to the think, just how

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Speaker 1: fast do these vehicles get up to?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look you can get the bikes can get

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Speaker 2: anywhere up to one hundred and eighty one hundred and

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Speaker 2: ninety kilometers an hour, which seems insane when you think

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Speaker 2: that's just on two wheels, and then the cars anywhere

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Speaker 2: from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and forty

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Speaker 2: kilometers an hour. And I don't know if you've seen,

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Speaker 2: but it's gone a little bit viral that we had

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Speaker 2: Mick Maga and his co driver Bernie Web they had

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Speaker 2: a big, big role eight rolls over and the safety

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Speaker 2: measures we've put in place, it really shows why everyone

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Speaker 2: walked away. There was you know, in a cage. It's

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Speaker 2: a bit easier, but their devices work, their car was strong.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, that was a big, big, big one.

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Speaker 1: So phenomenal. If you haven't seen it on the socials,

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Speaker 1: I think you've probably just got to do a Google

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Speaker 1: search and you'll be able to find it and go

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Speaker 1: hold pretty crazy it is. And it just goes to

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Speaker 1: show you, you know, what kind of event this is,

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Speaker 1: and it is such a it's such a wonderful event.

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Speaker 1: It's such a spectacle as well, you know for those

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Speaker 1: camping out along you know, along the place, and it's

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Speaker 1: such a huge draw card. I mean, as you've just

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Speaker 1: gone through there as well, people from you know, across

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Speaker 1: like all over the world.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well it was quite interesting because we had Toby

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Speaker 2: Price was racing over in the Baha five hundred, which

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Speaker 2: is a massive race over in Mexico, but it's very American.

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Speaker 2: It's a lot of American races there. It's off road

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Speaker 2: racing and think sometimes gets compared to Baja. They it

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Speaker 2: was quite interesting to hear that we had one race

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Speaker 2: of Brad Lovel from the States. He won his class.

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Speaker 2: He was saying, Toby and all that are over in

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Speaker 2: their pits in Baja watching the fink live stream of

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Speaker 2: what's going over here. And then we had people here

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Speaker 2: watching Toby racing in Baja and their live feet. So

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Speaker 2: it was quite funny. But yeah, we're known internationally now.

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Speaker 2: We had a competitor. He's an Englishman from Dubai who's

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Speaker 2: raced all over the world. He said this is the

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Speaker 2: best event he's ever been to. He said, the town,

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Speaker 2: the feel, the whole event, the camping, the desert, just

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Speaker 2: everything about it is something he's never experienced ever before

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Speaker 2: and wants to bring a whole bunch of people over.

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Speaker 2: So if you've never been, you just go once and

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Speaker 2: you'll be hooked and yeah, you won't think twice.

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Speaker 1: How awesome. Now tell me what kind of numbers did

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Speaker 1: you have in terms of attendance? Do you know?

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Speaker 2: We're we're still figuring that one out, but it seemed

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Speaker 2: to be quite a good race. We still estimate that

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Speaker 2: we had around twelve to thirteen thousand people down the track,

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Speaker 2: and then we had probably or over ten thousand people

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Speaker 2: across the weekend coming over into the start finish line,

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Speaker 2: so we're still really strong in spectator numbers. In the bikes,

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Speaker 2: we had seventy more bikes than last year, which is

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Speaker 2: really really good to see. And then in the cars

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Speaker 2: we were slightly down, but the cars stay quite consistent

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Speaker 2: in how many are racing. And we're obviously getting ready

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Speaker 2: for next year today, so we can only imagine a

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Speaker 2: full crop of bumper field for next year.

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Speaker 1: Doesn't stop, doesn't stop.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't Oh goodness.

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Speaker 1: If we want planning for next year anything different, well.

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Speaker 2: That's what we have to start doing. Just we did

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Speaker 2: just announce so last night to anyone who was interested

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Speaker 2: in racing, that you can fill out an EOI today

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Speaker 2: at midday just to gauge how many people really want

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Speaker 2: to race, so that we can try to make have

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Speaker 2: as many people as we can racing, but I would

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Speaker 2: really suggest that if you want to come next year,

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Speaker 2: you might need to start booking accommodation. Now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon it's going to be busy. There is

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Speaker 1: no doubt about that. So I mean, Kelsey on a hole.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel as though things went really well over

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Speaker 1: the course of the weekend. It sounds like they did.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I do, I really do. It was a year

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Speaker 2: of first It was a year that we still had,

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Speaker 2: you know, really good numbers and it was a nice

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Speaker 2: way that the bikes got to There was a lot

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Speaker 2: of first timers that got to have a race, and yeah,

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Speaker 2: it just felt like a really good atmosphere. Everyone was

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Speaker 2: helping each other out, all that kind of stuff that

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Speaker 2: usually happens. It's just a really good vibe this year.

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Speaker 1: It's great. Good on you guys, A big congratulations and

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Speaker 1: I think that you know, when it comes to events

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Speaker 1: in Central Australia, there is nothing like the Fink when

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Speaker 1: it comes to events right around the world, really, there

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Speaker 1: is nothing like the Fink. So a big congratulations to

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Speaker 1: you guys and to all of the winners, and no

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Speaker 1: doubt next year for the fiftieth. It's going to go off.

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Speaker 2: It's going to go off, and I have to say

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Speaker 2: a huge thank you to everyone from Central Australia, everyone

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Speaker 2: from Apatula. Like this race belongs to the towns themselves

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Speaker 2: and everyone that supports it, so we can't say thanks

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Speaker 2: enough to everyone.

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Speaker 1: Oh good on you, Kelsey. Lovely to talk to you

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Speaker 1: this morning. Hope you guys get a day off at

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Speaker 1: some point to recover.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're literally packing up now, but thank you so much, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Oh lovely to have you on the show. Thanks Kelsey,