The ninth edition of the Kalgoorlie Desert race was held last weekend - 24th to 16th October 2025.

The Kalgoorlie desert race is held over three days , Friday consists of a 10 kilometre prologue .

Then 360 kilometres of high speed desert racing spread out over Saturday and Sunday.

This is our fourth year of taking our VIP Experience race bikes all the way across the country for this must do race.

Lining up for this year’s event we had six riders on our Desert spec GasGas EC500F Broc Grabham , Seeton Battle, Andrew Sprigg , Daniel Kent , Nick Oakley , Clint Clarke . Billy Ryan on a GasGas EX250F and Ben Grabham on a GasGas EX350F.

Only a few weeks ago Kalgoorlie and surrounding areas received a record day of rain leading us to think we were in for some damp conditions, this definitely was not the case as from the very first lap there was red dust everywhere.

Ben Grabham words “The Kalgoorlie track is easily one of my favourite desert tracks as it has a little bit of everything, 175 kph straights , Finke woops, hard pack corners, sandy corners, a few hills , the odd top gear ski jump and everything in between.”

As this race also runs in conjunction with cars it’s for ever changing and gets rougher each lap , making it very demanding on both riders and machines. Once again we had a very good and mixed group of riders ranging from a previous Don River Dash champion to Billy Ryan lining up for his first senior desert race.

Once the dust had settled and the checkers had waved our GasGas fleet had completed another year of desert racing without a single mechanical failure, proving just how reliable the GasGas bikes are and also the products we choose to run.

It’s been twelve months since Grabbo had lined up for a Desert race in Australia, sporting the #1 plate for a 3rd time for 2025.

After injury in April 2025, a chopper flight to Sydney Royal Hospital and a few days in ICU. Injuries sustained included a fracture to his back, multiple broken ribs and ending up having to get 1m of intestine removed due to the impact of the crash.

Ben Grabham says - “Leading into the race i knew i was still not where I was strength and fitness wise when I won the race last year on a EC500F so I opted for a lighter and slightly smaller EX350F . Now that the race is over I am so glad that I made that decision because the 350 was so much fun and very gentle on my body while still being fast enough to Holeshot 450s. It was also cool to put the 350 on the outright podium in third and show what they are capable of in basically stock trim. My results aside I get the biggest kick out of seeing all of our customers crossing the finish line with a smile on their faces, Nick telling me he just got his best KDR result, Daniel telling me he would have cartwheeled if it wasn’t for our suspension setup is very cool.
Overall im very happy with our last Desert race of 2025 and look forward to going back to the workshop to dust everything off and start getting ready for 2026.”