The Glenmore Pony Express and Hill Climb left such an impression on Toby Price that the Australian motor-racing superstar wants to race in a future staging.
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The off-road racing champion, a two-time bikes-class winner of the world-famous Dakar Rally, was a special guest at both days of the Grassmere competition on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28.
The 36-year-old said he was "stoked" to be at the event which attracted hundreds of competitors and many spectators.
"I can't thank Glenmore Pony Express guys enough and the whole team and crew here for bringing us down..." he said on Sunday morning.
This year's event included senior prologue on Saturday morning followed by the challenging hill climb that afternoon.
The main four-hour endurance race around a 15-kilometre track was held on Sunday and won by professional off-road rider and event ambassador Andy Wilksch in a mighty time of three hours, 49 minutes and 23 seconds.
Juniors contested two separate endurance race on both days while there was also a vintage and adventure bike one-hour endurance race on Saturday.
Price felt like he was missing out while watching from the sidelines.
"I'll have to plan to come back next year and be on some two wheels here and do some racing," he said.
"The club's been unreal, everyone here's super friendly and really taken good care of myself and everybody else.
"The track's unreal as you can see behind me, the juniors are out there running around now doing their two-hour moto and it's cool to see the ground and what's here. It's definitely one that's on the list now to come back and do."
Price, a nine-time winner of the Northern Territory's iconic Finke Desert Race, was also impressed by the talent on display across junior and senior races.
"It's good to see the juniors out riding and definitely some of the boys at the front are moving along pretty good," he said.
"And then Andy who was here yesterday basically wiped the field of everybody so super talented (field) and a lot of kids coming through that are looking strong.
"I think Australia's in good hands with some juniors coming through and guys that can probably start to look to take on the world."
Wilksch had helped prepare the track the past two editions but had never contested the event due to prior commitments.
"Knowing how much work goes into this event and the whole Warrnambool community that gets behind it, I knew it was going to be a good weekend," he said.
"To be a part of it, racing it's amazing, I'm having a ball."
Matt Hughes
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
