South Coast man takes on Australia's most famous desert race

Candelo's Matt Lavis doesn't need to imagine, as he's just returned from the famous Finke Desert Race near Alice Springs with a third-place finish in his class.

Mr Lavis, originally from Moruya but now living in the Bega Valley with his wife Carly and their young son Chase, completed his third Finke Desert Race last month after previously competing in 2009 on a bike, and 2019 in a buggy.

The 38-year-old said the Finke Desert Race was the epitome of desert racing in Australia.

"I've raced it on a bike and in a buggy before," he said. "I used to race motorbikes around the country, but with age comes a cage.

"I own a business, and I've got a little boy now, so there's a bit more responsibility. That's why we go around in a buggy now."

Lavis said his trip to Alice Springs was a family affair, as both his wife and son hit the road with him.

"We've got a trailer that we've modified into a bit of a living space," he said. "We tow it out, it takes about four or five days to get there.

"We did 7000km by the time we got back, but it was awesome. We camped out on the side of the road each night on the way out, it's just a good way to live I think.

"When you get there, you'll leave from Alice Springs and drive down 235km to this remote little Aboriginal community.

"You stay there for the night to fix everything, give your buggy a service, then you race back home the next day on the same track.

"We were lucky that Bega Tyrepower was a sponsor this year, they helped out with the tyres for the race buggy, and Hays Welding and Fabrications helps us out as well.

"We've had no sponsors the other times, and it can be expensive to do the race."

Lavis finished third in his class after a second-placed finish in the prologue. The prologue is a qualifying race held before the main race to figure out seeding.

The finish is more remarkable considering the buggy broke down partway through day one of the race.

"We had a breakdown at the 190-kilometre mark," Lavis said. "We had to get ourselves going with ratchet straps and tyre levers.

"We snapped a rare trailing arm, so we put tyre levers up the inside and latched it to the chassis with ratchet straps.

"There's a major failure rate, only about 40 per cent of the buggies will finish the race, so to be able to finish third while having a breakdown as big as we did, is fantastic."

Lavis said he became interested in buggy racing when a mate of his bought a Yamaha YXZ1000.

"About five years, ago my mate Paul went out and bought a buggy," he said.

"I had a drive of it and thought I'd better have one too.

"He'd always talked about racing, but never did it. You can't just buy a buggy, you've really got to build it. You've got to put on a safety cage, install other safety gear, move radiators around, it's just about redesigning the entire buggy to make sure it's strong enough to handle the abuse of racing."